Fewer people are waiting to be seated to dine at their favourite restaurants. Instead, they wait at home for delivery services like Uber Eats and Door Dash to bring them a variety of cooked fare. That doesn’t necessarily mean the eat-in restaurant will become extinct. Spatial economist Siyuan Liu examined how the rise of online food delivery platforms influenced commercial real estate demand.

Her paper, Space and Cyberspace: The Impact of Food Delivery Services on Retail Real Estate, was inspired when subject expertise met a growling stomach.

“I ordered a lot, probably too much, from food delivery platforms. As a Ph.D. student, I really can’t live without them,” Liu explained. “And I’ve always been interested in urban economics and retail real estate. That motivates me to study the interaction between online food delivery platforms and their spatial consequences, or how online and offline interact with each other.” [Read more…]