Grab & go: boost your sales with a ready-to-go offer
19 November 2025
Gone are the spongy triangle sandwiches from the supermarket "for lack of anything better" for lunch break. Today, we eat on the run, but without sacrificing taste.
Grab & go, which could be translated as "grab and go", is a response to this new way of consuming. Ready-made products, grabbed as you go, with no order to place and no queue to wait in.
This format follows the rhythm of short breaks and lunches that don't always fall at 12:30. We eat when we can, not when the restaurant is open.
And it can become a real lever for streamlining your service, capturing hurried regulars and generating off-peak sales.
Grab & go: definition and operation
Grab & go is the sale of ready-to-eat products, accessible directly by the customer, with no need to order or wait at the counter. You prepare in advance, put on the shelf, the customer takes, pays, leaves. No queuing, no compulsory interaction, and above all no wasted time. It's a direct response to faster-paced lifestyles and the desire to eat "in-between".
Grab & go is based on 3 pillars:
➜ Ready-to-eat products: sandwiches, salads, bowls, pastries, drinks, snacks. Anything that holds well, is easy to transport and can be eaten without any particular constraints.
➜ An accessible showcase : showcases, refrigerated bins, displays visible from the entrance. Customers need to have a complete overview of what's on offer.
➜ A quick purchase passage: autonomous payment, QR Code, well-organized classic cash register, or kiosk. The entire run should take less than 5 minutes.
The heart of grab & go is efficiency, for both customers and teams. This allows us to serve more customers during peak hours and capture useful impulse buys: those who wouldn't have waited to order, but are willing to be tempted if it's available immediately.
Grab & go does not replace your main offer, but complements it. It takes up downtime, broadens the customer base and increases sales outside the seated service.
Why grab & go is a hit: behaviours, uses and market dynamics
Grab & go responds to a new way of consuming.
The current customer is looking for 3 things:
➜ go fast
➜ keep control
➜ not having to interact if he doesn't want to
Grab & go is also part of our mobility strategy. We eat while walking, at the office, on a bench, on a train, in the car (it's not ideal, but we see it every day). The foodservice industry is keeping pace with this trend by offering solid, practical products that don't necessarily require cutlery or heaters.
Autonomy is an essential factor in this model. More and more customers prefer to avoid interaction, not for lack of politeness, but to save time or choose without pressure. Grab & go does away with the "I ask, I wait, they call". Buying becomes immediate.
This offer also benefits frequent visitors. When customers pass by every day, they want to go fast. A well-stocked grab & go aisle at visible prices reduces mental effort. It's simple to understand and simple to repeat.
For restaurateurs, grab & go makes it possible to :
➜ better smooth the flow during rush hours
➜ capture "passing" sales
➜ increase additional purchases (drinks, snacks, dessert)
➜ extend sales hours
What types of establishments benefit from offering grab & go?
Coffee shops: serve faster during peak hours
The coffee shops is already close to grab & go. Customers often drop in for a drink + a snack. Adding a few ready-to-go products can increase the basket and enable faster service during the morning or early afternoon rush.
Bakeries and patisseries: simplifying decision-making
Visit bakeries are already working in advance production. Grab & go is a natural fit. The challenge is one of legibility: offering simple formulas (savoury product + drink + sweet) visible from the entrance.
Fast good: an express lane for regulars
The new generation of fast good The "grab & go" concept offers a quality offering, but order-taking is sometimes a little slower. Grab & go can serve as an "express lane" with a dedicated counter for those who already know what they want.
Food courts: absorbing flows without saturating stands
Visit food courts absorb large flows over short periods of time. A corner dedicated to takeaways helps to keep up the pace, especially when all the stands are saturated at the same time.
Hybrid spaces & coworking: ready-to-consume at any time of day
Here, it's all about availability. Customers can buy on the fly, without waiting for a counter to open and without having to travel far to find food. Purchases are made early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and sometimes even in the evening.
"What matters is not the type of establishment, but the traffic flow: if your customers arrive in streams, if some leave because it goes too slowly, if you have complicated rush hours, then grab & go can help you."Our expert advice
What digital solutions can boost your grab & go offer?
The grab & go concept is based on a simple route: see, choose, take, pay, go. Digital technology reinforces this dynamic, without transforming the experience into an order process. Its main purpose is to maintain the link, encourage recurrence and shorten the payment period. Three points that really make a difference.
Reaching grab & go customers even when they're not stopping
Grab & go customers don't linger. They don't read your point-of-sale material, look at your posters or have time to chat at the counter. To talk to them, you have to go through the place they really consult: their phone.
➜ SMS, emails & notifications : they're your best allies for staying in their field of vision. A short, effective message with a formula of the day just as they leave the office, a reminder about a product they like... You become a natural part of their routine, even when their break is between two meetings.
Anchor fast passages in a real routine
Grab & go attracts some very interesting profiles: customers who never stay long, but come back often. Digital helps you to anchor this routine without asking them for more time than they have.
With a loyalty program accessible from their phoneEvery visit counts. They take a coffee, a muesli or a sandwich, and it automatically adds to their loyalty account.
This type of loyalty works well with customers in a hurry. They're not looking for a big payoff, but they do want recognition for their repeat purchases. And when it is, they naturally come back to you, even if other options are on their route.
Accelerate checkout to keep pace with grab & go
Grab & go loses its appeal as soon as a customer has to queue. He's already got his product in hand, wants to get going again and finds himself stuck behind those who are ordering, hesitating or asking a question.
And that's where your multi-channel organization makes all the difference. Offering your customers different ways to order and pay distributes traffic and prevents everyone from converging on the same point.
➜ the Self ordering kiosk captures longer orders
➜ the Click & Collect removes part of the flow at sensitive times
➜ the QR Code payment in just a few seconds
When payment doesn't hold anyone back, grab & go delivers from start to finish. This is what keeps your busy customers coming back for more, even when the room is full.
Want to increase throughput without losing service quality?
Ordering, payment, loyalty: Obypay supports your growth.
Contact our team to find out more about our solutions.
Explore our other resources for optimizing your service and increasing your sales:
➜ Restaurant margins: what strategies will make you profitable in 2026?
➜ Restaurant: 5 mistakes that damage the customer experience (and how to avoid them)
➜ Increasing the average restaurant basket: what really works
