Not Enough Time to Eat Lunch or Dinner?

Allset can change that!

Life-hacking is how Silicon Valley survives, whether it's a new software, device or food –their mantra is to make it simpler and easier. Allset lets you book a table at a restaurant, order your meal and pay for it before you even get to the restaurant’s door, that is if you live in Seattle, San Francisco, Manhattan, Chicago, Brooklyn, Boston or Austin. And it’s not every restaurant. I filtered Upper West Side in Manhattan and found just one restaurant; coincidentally right around the corner from where I live. Macadamia crusted salmon is $28, French Onion Soup $12 and an apple crisp for dessert $12. $52 for lunch before a beverage (which you can’t order on line) tip and tax. Over $75 all in for lunch. 

Allset focuses on lunch for now with plans to expand to dinner and they told Quartz that they have 100,000 users at more than 450 restaurants in those six cities. It’s estimated by the Census Bureau that NYC alone has over 8,000. Allset takes a 12% commission on bookings. Menu prices are the same as what Allset charges. 

You could argue that 15% is a lot to give or that for a busy restaurant it's a small prices to pay to turn a table one or two more times during lunch. 

Question is whether this concept has legs. Of course as the service grows, conceivably more restaurant choices will be added making it more convenient for those office workers to vary their noon ritual. Right Management Associates, a global career management firm, says that only one in five people leave their office for lunch these days and most eat at their desks. Many who do eat out use it as a way to relax and recharge – yes, eliminating the wait for a table is nice, and so is not having to wait for a waiter to come take your order – but in our drive for efficiencies, could Allset actually be adding more stress for us to woof down our foods and turn what could be 'me time' into more stress?    

Office Team, the nation’s leading temp service for office professionals, conducted a survey and found that 48 percent of workers spend 30 minutes or less for lunch and more than 4 out of 10 said they use lunch as a time to socialize with colleagues. 

And remember, you’ll still have to wait for your food to be prepared, which is often the longer wait time anyway.