SkipTheDishes sees spike in 5pm orders, dessert cravings amid COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted how Canadians are ordering food from SkipTheDishes, as 5pm is now the most popular time to order.

Data collected by the delivery app shows that 5pm is the new rush hour, which makes sense since most people can start to eat dinner right after they finish work because they don’t have to commute home.

The company has seen an increase in dessert orders. It notes that Canadians have ordered 200,000 cakes since the start of the pandemic, and that users in New Brunswick and Quebec are leading the dessert orders.

The most-ordered items in general across the country are chicken sandwiches, burgers and fries. Other top-ordered items include miso soup, fish and chips, pad thai, butter chicken and egg rolls.

SkipTheDishes also notes that it has seen a spike in late afternoon orders between 3-4pm. Interestingly, 9pm used to be among the busiest times to order, but since more Canadians are staying in and having fewer social gatherings, late evening orders have decreased.

The data also shows that weekday orders are significantly more popular. Although Saturday and Sunday orders are still popular, the company is seeing a bump in weekday orders.

Lunch pre-orders have also dropped by almost half since people are working from home, but there has been an increase in customers pre-ordering their dinner.

Further, SkipTheDishes says that the fastest growing segment of new users since the start of the pandemic are over 65 years of age. This is somewhat unsurprising since seniors have been advised to only make essential trips and to stay at home as much as possible, so they have likely taken up delivery apps.

The company recently committed $15 million CAD to help local businesses amid the pandemic through direct rebates and marketing support.