[Larrikin]

Are you so awkward that you would rather pay a dollar than talk?

Slowly picking what you want on a website and seeing all your options without having to quiz an employee for a bunch of time on the phone is the convenience. Knowing exactly what you want and saying it aloud is not an inconvenience.

[nicbou]

I'm not the person above, but I don't miss calling to place orders. I miss it even less at the end of a long day, a few beers in, in a country that speaks a third language.

I book through a screen when I can, at my own speed. It's nicer.

[NoZebra120vClip]

Calling in orders was unthinkable most times, unless I knew that the business was accustomed to delivery orders anyway. But usually, there was just no need or reason for me to call in ahead for orders. (I don't own a car, so I certainly wouldn't be picking up, always dining in.)

However, ordering pickup food online is an amazing service now. I picked up this habit quite recently, when I realized that Google Maps makes it super easy. They present your choices between GrubHub, or the restaurant's own website, or other services. So what I do is get on the bus, then when I'm about 20 minutes away, I'll just open up my phone and order ahead. Credit card payments are no problem; I often use PayPal with GrubHub, or Google Pay.

Calling in an order on the bus would be unthinkable, since I would not be reciting my credit card details by voice in a public space. But online ordering makes it a piece of cake.

This Toast fee may be affecting me soon; I recently started patronizing a coffeehouse that uses Toast, and ordering ahead seemed like a really good idea. We'll see.