Scots favour a curry at Christmas, but festive breakfast delivery is climbing up the ranks

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New data from local easy-order takeaway app Scoffable shows Scots’ festive food preferences

NEW research published today by Scoffable shows that, when it comes to a Christmas Day takeaway, Scots prefer Indian food over other cuisines.

Analysis of Scoffable order data gathered across Scotland in the last five years shows customers ordering takeaway on Christmas Day overwhelmingly choose their local Indian restaurant or takeaway over Chinese food, pizza, kebabs, or any other option open over the festive period.

On 25 December 2021, 50% of takeaways ordered online with Scoffable were Indian cuisine.

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But the popularity of Indian food on Christmas Day is declining slightly, having reached a peak of 68% of online orders with Scoffable in 2018.

Daniel Jones, Co-founder of Scoffable explains:

There was a swing for Christmas Day 2018 which saw our customers shift away from ordering Chinese to Indian takeaway food. Since then, orders of Chinese cuisine on Christmas Day have started to build again, but we’ve seen more orders for breakfast, chicken and kebab delivery as well. Treating yourself to a Christmas morning breakfast, delivered to your door, is definitely on the rise.

The number of Scots ordering takeaway of any kind for Christmas is also on the rise, at least for Scoffable. Michael Brown, Co-founder of Scoffable:

We’ve seen orders on Christmas Day grow steadily in recent years, and we’ve almost doubled orders received between 2017 and 2021. We’re expecting that number to rise again this year because business is growing for us all the time.

Scoffable data also shows that those opting for food to be delivered on Christmas Day are ordering later than the traditional afternoon spread. Daniel Jones says:

We consistently see two peaks in order times on 25December. The first is between 4.00pm and 6.00pm, then orders dip again, before another spike between 8.00pm and 9.00pm. Coming home from visiting family, finishing a work shift, getting hungry after an early lunch or kicking off a quiet night in by yourself are all drivers for our customers, who are hungry and looking for a quick and easy treat.

By Boxing Day, Scots have moved onto Chinese cuisine, with 36% of Scoffable orders coming from Chinese takeaways. This has been consistent since 2017, but there has been a sizeable shift from Indian takeaway to chip shops in that time too: 19% of Boxing Day orders are now from chip shops, up from just 1% in 2017. Correspondingly, orders for Indian food delivery are down from 51% in 2017 to 29% in 2021. Michael Brown:

For our customers, it’s all about convenience and local choice, and it’s no longer a choice between being able to order Indian or Chinese food online but having to walk or drive to the chip shop. Now you can pick from a range of cuisines, pay securely online, and have it delivered to your door.

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