Food courts and fast food: the big winners in Christmas shopping
October 29, 2025
Shopping bags pile up, queues lengthen and customers look for the quickest possible break before setting off again on a shopping marathon. For the fast food and in particular food courtsDecember is a strategic time of year.
With a budget already eaten up by gifts, consumers don't want to waste time or spend more than they have to. Express formulas and takeaway products are becoming the most popular options.
Railway stations, shopping streets, Christmas markets or cinemas... the crowds are everywhere. But it's the shopping malls that concentrate most of the traffic. If your plant is located there, you're a double winner, but you're also doubly hard-pressed, as your teams have to keep up with an intense rhythm.
Shopping malls: the king of holiday locations
Visit food courts and fast food have established themselves en masse in shopping centers, and rightly so. Their presence responds to a simple logic: to concentrate in one place a varied offer that attracts visitors all year round. But in December, this asset takes on a special dimension, as shopping center traffic explodes.
Every year, in the run-up to Christmas, ticket sales soar: they number in the millions every day. In 2023, Saturday December 23 reached 7.77 million visits to shopping centers. In 2024, Monday December 23 attracted 7.37 million.
Such an influx directly benefits the catering trade. Customers, already on site to do their shopping, choose the simplest solution: eat quickly and leave straight away.
Diversity also plays a key role. Families with different tastes can easily find what they want, as can groups of friends or colleagues. Where a traditional restaurant imposes a single type of cuisine, the food court allows everyone to find their own compromise.
In December, the balance of power clearly shifted in favor of speed. Visit fast food, coffee shops and takeaway concepts dominate these spaces, as they perfectly match the urgency of the moment.
For a manager, being located in a shopping center during the holiday season means benefiting from an already massive traffic flow. The challenge is to transform this massive flow into sales, with seamless service and well-calibrated offers.
Catering: 3 best practices to maximize the Christmas rush
01. Define a clear customer path
A poorly thought-out route costs sales. Customers need to know right away where to go.
Put on terminals at entry helps distribute orders and avoid crowds at the counter. QR codes at the table allow customers to direct installation and order now.
And if you haven't already, December is a good time to take a look at the Click & Collect and the Click & Delivery. These solutions enable us to capture a share of orders upstream, and avoid saturation on site.
Contrary to popular belief, they're not just for city centers: in a shopping mall, they also smooth the flow and help you absorb demand.
Want to find out more? See our resource ➜ Digital solutions: 7 ways to make your restaurant more competitive
02. Anticipating waiting areas
Waiting is, and always will be, enemy No. 1 in catering. And the bottleneck always appears at the same point: order, payment or withdrawal. The key is to anticipate.
To absorb it, you need to spread the load intelligently:
➜ To order: multiply the possible inputs (order terminals, tabletop QR codes, pre-ordering). Distributing orders properly gives your teams more room to maneuver.
➜ Payment: offer payment from kiosks or via QR Code at the table. You avoid the checkout and you save several minutes per customer.
➜ Withdrawal: prevent customers from huddling in front of the counter, not knowing when it's their turn. Use push or SMS notifications to let you know when your order is ready. It makes the space more fluid, avoids shouting out numbers and makes the experience more pleasant for everyone.
"You can also display an estimated waiting time on the order terminals. Customers are more willing to wait when they know how long it will take. And for small orders like coffee or dessert, create an express pick-up point. This frees up the long queue and allows more people to be served."Our pro tip
Want to find out more? See our resource ➜ How can you reduce waiting times and improve the customer experience?
03. Communicating before, during (and after!)
In December, customers' minds are elsewhere. Between shopping, gift-giving and commuting, they're not necessarily thinking about you. It's up to you to find them.
➜ Before December : anticipate your communications. Schedule SMS or e-mail with personalized offers adapted to your customers (family formulas, children's menus, snack breaks...). This upstream work means you're ready for the rush, with your campaigns already set. And your customers will have already planned a stopover at your place between two stores, rather than improvising on the spot.
➜ During December: rely on automation. Push notifications to let you know when an order is ready, SMS campaigns triggered automatically according to the time of day or day of the week, flash promotions when a window is quiet... the more your actions are automated, the more your teams can focus on service.
➜ After the visit : Has your customer just left? Not so fast! Ask his opinion via SMS or e-mail. It's the perfect time to gather feedback, adjust your processes and, above all, maintain the link to encourage them to come back after the holidays.
Looking for inspiration? It's all in our complete guide ➜ Preparing for Christmas in the restaurant business: 5 tips to boost your sales
Ready to make the most of the end-of-year rush?
December is a demanding time, but also a real opportunity for food courts and fast food.
Speed, practicality and organization make the difference between experiencing the flow and benefiting from it.
At Obypay, we help over 1,500 restaurateurs to streamline their customer journeys, boost sales and stay in control, even on the busiest of days.
Would you like to prepare for the festive season with peace of mind? Contact us, we'll do it together.
