If you're looking for proof that we live in an on-demand world, look no further than the latest stats on e-commerce food deliveries on Super Bowl Sunday. The big game triggered a sharp spike in online food and beverage orders on Feb. 2—when the Kansas City Chiefs outplayed the San Francisco 49ers—compared with the previous week, a presumably normal Sunday.
One of the biggest impacts was a spike in alcohol delivery starting at 9 a.m. on game day and peaking at 300% of normal levels, according to Onfleet, a San Francisco-based startup that provides logistics management software for last-mile delivery operations. To find out what people ordered before, during, and after the Super Bowl, Onfleet analyzed delivery data from all over the country the day after the big game. You can find its lighthearted analysis along with a graph juxtaposing delivery activity with various game-day events here.
As for online food orders, Onfleet says it found that among Super Bowl viewers at least, "post-game munchies are a thing." The software company saw a surge in restaurant deliveries of nearly 300%—pizza, anyone?— immediately after the game.
One of the more surprising findings was that while Americans didn't hesitate to order food and beverages (and even cannabis) for home delivery, they did not take advantage of grocery delivery that day. Despite the dizzying growth in the e-commerce grocery sector in recent years, grocery delivery volumes never rose above a brief peak of 1.5 times normal traffic. "One theory is that party hosts need time to marinate those famous Thai-chili chicken wings, or turnaround times just haven't gotten fast enough to handle the pressures of game-day hosting," Onfleet said in a release. "Whatever the case, grocery delivery hasn't quite entered the big dance yet."
