Fast Foods delivery

If fast food restaurants cannot get customers to come in to buy their food, maybe delivering it to their door will help.

Restaurant traffic growth is expected to remain relatively stagnant for the foreseeable future as millennials are spending less money dining out, even as the marketplace becomes saturated with places to eat. The competition is not just other restaurants but less traditional dining locations, including grocery and convenience stores.

Standing out from the crowd is not easy anymore, which may be why fast food chains (already suffering as consumers switch to healthier eating habits) are now willing to bring their fare to your home.

By any means necessary. Getting hot food delivered to your door is no easy task for fast food chains, even if pizza shops make it look simple. Photo: Tracy Hunter, Flickr

Ding dong! Your restaurant is at the door
Yum! Brands told analysts last week that both its Taco Bell and KFC businesses would test at-home delivery to drive sales. Its Pizza Hut division already operates a delivery business, but pizza delivery is almost a requirement in the industry.

The question then becomes: Can delivery save fast food?

Burger King was one of the earliest chains to experiment with delivery in limited markets, but recently, McDonald's said it would also test the concept, and Starbucks said its customers could have coffee orders brought to them in certain areas. The fast food at-home delivery bandwagon is getting bigger, but it will not solve the industry's problems.

A smorgasbord of risk
Some of the problems the chains will encounter include:

• Using employees to do the driving or partnering with a service?
• Deploying delivery only in densely populated areas
• Liability due to accidents
• Food quality control

Many companies are choosing to partner with services such as Postmates, which calls itself the nation's largest on-demand delivery service. But many similar services are popping up, including Caviar, Peachd, and even ride-sharing app Uber, clamoring to deliver restaurant orders. It might be a growth opportunity for them, but it is really just another cost for the restaurant.