Uber Eats Shared The Most Common Customer Requests During Quarantine, & They're So Extra
With most of the country in quarantine over the past few months due to the coronavirus pandemic, more people have turned to food delivery to enjoy their favorite bites. Uber Eats' 2020 Cravings Report gives a look into just what people have been fancying during quarantine, and how they've been getting through the difficult times with some grub. From the most popular order requests to acts of kindness, here's what went down this year on Uber Eats.
Uber Eats shared its second annual report on Tuesday, July 14. The findings include data from the last 12 months and delivery orders from more than 6,000 cities around the globe. Since the app allows customers to customize dishes, there were plenty of creative requests that reveal what people have been craving.
The report features quarantine trends from the past few months, and it looks like customers haven't been afraid to customize dishes to their exact liking (and they definitely didn't want to run out of sides). Two of the requests that increased the most during quarantine were "extra sauce" and "sauce on the side." There were also plenty of other "extras" requested by diners, with the top five being: extra sauce, extra ranch, extra cheese, extra spicy, and extra honey mustard.
The pickiest eaters, which the company defines as the customers most often adding special instructions to their order, were in Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Nevada, while the least picky eaters, or those who least frequently added special instructions, were in Delaware, Vermont, Wyoming, Utah, and North Dakota.
Special instructions during quarantine also give insight into how some people have been weathering the pandemic at home. One person placed an order with the request, "Look I’m stuck at home and have been quarantined for days and I’m losing it - is it possible to get an extra shot of mocha w this?" Keeping the quarantine sauce trend going, another wrote, "This is just one human reaching out to another human in the middle of a pandemic sayin, please gimme a bit more of that lovely, red delicious, marinara sauce, pretty please?" Another just let it all out, asking for "EXTRA PICKLES AS MANY AS POSSIBLE I REALLY LIKE PICKLES."
There were also grateful souls who shared their appreciation for restaurant workers. One customer wrote, "Yo yo yo, hope y’all are well and healthy. I’m loving this quarantined life. Thanks for being available in a pandemic I’ll be sure to leave a sparkling review! You guys take care and remember don’t breathe on thy neighbor." In an act of kindness, a man in Delaware gave money to restaurants 97 times along with the instructions: “hi there, this is just a donation, simply accept the order accept the tip! Thank you for your hard work, especially during these difficult times. Have a nice day."
Even during quarantine, the weekends were a time for customers to let loose. The most popular delivery requests over the past year on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays were "spicy," "extra sauce," and "extra crispy," respectively.
Finally, the report includes state-specific popular requests, with diners in New York often asking for bites "toasted" (hello, bagels!), and customers in Illinois keeping it simple, most often requesting their orders "plain." You can take a full look at the 2020 Cravings Report on the Uber Eats website. Fair warning, it includes 50 unique delivery requests, so you may want to order a bite — and extra sauce — before you dig in.
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