There’s all sorts of talk about the potential of virtual brands and ghost kitchens, but what do customers think? Does it make a difference to them? And, have they even heard of these sorts of things? I decided to do a survey to find out. The survey was conducted in September 2021 and had a total of 198 responses from U.S. adults 18 years and older.

Let’s start off with the last question. Have they even heard of these sorts of things? Well, yes and no. They had certainly heard of the major delivery companies. To put that in perspective, 88.9 percent had heard of DoorDash, 87.9 percent had heard of UberEats, and 82.9 percent had heard of GrubHub.

But, when it came to virtual brands and ghost kitchens, awareness was quite low. Only 4.5 percent of respondents had heard of virtual brands. About 22 percent of respondents had heard of ghost kitchens. Given the proliferation of ghost kitchens during the pandemic, this isn’t particularly surprising.

Back to the question on whether it makes a difference to them—this is where it starts to get interesting. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of five scenarios that varied previous experience with the restaurant (yes or no), the presence of an actual restaurant (yes or no) and if the restaurant company made the food themselves (yes or no).

After people read the scenario, they were asked how likely they would be to order from that restaurant. Interestingly, there was no significant difference. People didn’t really seem to care about previous experience with the restaurant, the presence of an actual restaurant and where food production was done.

Respondents were also asked a series of questions about various things that they might be concerned about when ordering delivery, particularly from a virtual restaurant. Variables included (one) Prefer food prepared at the restaurant itself, (two) Liked having a personal connection with the restaurant, (three) All that matters is that the food is good, (four) I’d be worried about the quality of the food, (five) I’d be concerned about the accuracy of my order, (six) I’d be worried about hygiene, (seven) it makes no difference to me where my order is made and (eight) I’d feel uncomfortable trying things I hadn’t tried before.

The most important factor was “all that matters is that the food is good.” Think about it—people didn’t care that much about a connection with the restaurant, weren’t concerned about the quality of the food and didn’t feel uncomfortable ordering something that they hadn’t tried before. And, people didn’t particularly care where their food was made.

The results were extremely thought-provoking. If customers really don’t care where their food is made, what implications does this have for the restaurant industry? Do customers still want to dine in? Do they still have a favorite restaurant? The answer is probably yes, but based on my research, customers are quite open to other options.

There’s been a lot of talk about whether ghost kitchens and virtual brands are just short-term phenomena that will fade away once we’re finally through the pandemic. The results of this study seem to indicate that this may not be true.

Variables included (one) Prefer food prepared at the restaurant itself, (two) Liked having a personal connection with the restaurant, (three) All that matters is that the food is good, (four) I’d be worried about the quality of the food, (five) I’d be concerned about the accuracy of my order, (six) I’d be worried about hygiene, (seven) it makes no difference to me where my order is made and (eight) I’d feel uncomfortable trying things I hadn’t tried before.

Sherri Kimes is an Emeritus Professor at Hotel School at Cornell and specializes in revenue management. She is passionate about helping restaurants increase profitability. She can be reached at sherrikimes.com.