Reservations used to be, um… reserved …for special occasions. If you wanted to nosh at that buzzy restaurant with the Michelin star, appointment dining might have been your only option.
But now that more businesses are reopening, you’ll start seeing appointment-driven everything: reservation shopping, reservation hiking, even reservation auto safaris.
And Modern Retail says reservation platforms are expanding their services to help businesses control who gets in when.
Take a number, please
Popular apps like Resy and OpenTable are going beyond seated dining: OpenTable rolled out a free (for businesses and consumers) tool for reserving time slots at grocery stores and farmers’ markets.
Stores at some malls are letting customers join virtual waitlists — a push notification will buzz when it’s time for some mall madness.
No crowd control?
Smile, you’re Internet Famous.
The reservation route is bound to get more crowded, because there’s an easy way for businesses to get lots of attention when we’re taking baby steps out of lockdown. One picture of shoulder-to-shoulder customers is worth a thousand apologies.
