Modern consumers begin losing patience with food delivery roughly around the 29–30 minute mark, especially when restaurants are within a 10‑mile radius of their homes. Many respondents equate that timeframe with the time it would take to prepare a meal at home. Short patience thresholds also apply to dine-in experiences: about 21% of adults refuse to wait more than 10 minutes to be seated, and respondents expect food to arrive within 17 minutes after sitting. Last-mile issues and staffing shortages have increased delivery wait times for some chains. Certain items such as fries and nachos commonly arrive soggy or tepid and are poor candidates for delivery.
A late 2024 study by Talker Research surveyed 2,000 American adults and concluded that "[I]f the restaurant is within a 10-mile radius [from their house], they start to get impatient within just 29 minutes." Perhaps notably, 29 minutes is also the amount of time that respondents said it should take them to prepare a complete meal at home. The stunted patience trend doesn't just apply to delivery, either. According to the study, 21% of U.S. adults are unwilling to wait longer than 10 minutes to be seated at a busy restaurant. Within 17 minutes of sitting down, said respondents, restaurants should have their food on the table, or they begin getting restless.
Lengthy wait times aren't a new issue for the food delivery industry. In 2023, fast-food pizza chains like Domino's and Pizza Hut faced staffing shortages, which led to significantly increased customer wait times for pizza delivery. Still, a less-than-hot pizza is fixable. There are ultimately some foods you should just never get delivered, like fries and nachos (which are liable to be soggy and tepid by the time they actually arrive).
In one Reddit thread, most responses agree that 30 minutes is (or should be) the standard window for food orders to arrive. "For delivery, anything over 30 minutes pushes my limits," writes one of the top comments. "At that point I may as well just go pick it up." Another study by marketing firm Mail Shark echoes
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