I do fintech, and I'm failing to see what is the advantage of just ordering is here: I'm guessing you don't want to to use cash but can you not just swipe a credit card? It's the only step left out of the equation from how a normal transaction occurs, isn't?

The waiting thing is what really gets me, you're still inconvenienced waiting for your order, and there seems to be no added benefit and only seems like a step above gift cards.

I'm still not even sure what lengths and what costs so many people will go to in order to just not place an order over the phone for pick up.

Monetizing agoraphobia, however, and adding a data extraction feature is like the MVP for most of these self-checkout like businesses. I'm personally conflicted but I have accepted that is how the World is going anyway.