The Convenience Economy 2026: What Americans Will Pay to Skip the Trip (and When They Won't) [Data Study]

As the adage goes, time is money, and if the convenience economy tells us anything, Americans will pay to get their time back.

Between takeout, grocery delivery, and everyday errand apps, 97% of Americans have used a convenience service in the last month, and more than half say their convenience spending has increased in the last 5 years. The psychology behind these decisions, however, can be inconsistent, leading our researchers to ask the question, "What drives convenience spending, and where do Americans draw the line?"

To understand what Americans are buying, how they're making shopping decisions, and how they feel about it afterward, our research team at FinanceBuzz partnered with Bank of America to survey 2,000 U.S. adults. We included questions about their convenience habits, fee tolerance, tipping behavior, and the subscriptions they're quietly renewing to drive it all.

Key findings

• 97% of Americans used at least one convenience service in the last month, and 52% say their spending has increased in the last 5 years.
• Americans value an hour of free time at $87 on average, and 57% of working Americans say it is worth more than what they actually earn per hour.
• Even so, 68% have abandoned a delivery order after seeing the total cost, a figure that climbs to 78% of Gen Z respondents.
• The average person is willing to pay $9.49 in food delivery fees before deciding to pick up the order themselves. When asked what amount would make them switch to pickup, the most common answer was just $5.
• 85% pay for at least one convenience membership, averaging $22 a month, or $264 a year.
• 22% have tipped nothing on a delivery because the meal was expensive or the fees were already high.

How much convenience are Americans actually buying?

To understand what the breadth of convenience spending in the U.S. looks like, we asked our respondents how often they use common convenience services like meal takeout and delivery, grocery pickup and delivery, and errand services.

The short answer is a lot: 97% of respondents said they used at least one convenience service in the last month. Moreover, they said their convenience spending is on the rise: 52% said that compared to 5 years ago, spending has increased.

Specifically, the data shows that every month:

• 85% of Americans get takeout meals
• 63% get food delivered
• 49% order groceries for pickup
• 50% have groceries delivered
• 39% use errand apps or get non-food items delivered from local stores

Generationally, the pattern isn't uniform, but it does show younger Americans are using convenience services at higher rates and prefer some more than others.

Percentage who use convenience services monthly (or more)

	Baby Boomers	Gen X	Millennials	Gen Z	Overall
Pick up takeout	72%	83%	87%	88%	85%
Have food delivered	47%	55%	66%	72%	63%
Order groceries for pickup	35%	42%	55%	53%	49%
Order groceries for delivery	45%	50%	53%	49%	50%
Order non-food items for delivery	28%	34%	42%	45%	39%

For instance, Gen Z orders food for delivery at much higher rates than other generations (72% monthly, compared to 47% of Baby Boomers), and is more likely to order non-food items for delivery.

Food delivery, by the numbers

When asked specifically about meals, 57% of Americans report they get takeout or delivery weekly or more. Broken out, 49% order takeout and 30% order food for delivery at least once a week.

Gen Z was significantly more likely than any other generation to order both takeout and delivery weekly.

Order frequency tells the story even more sharply. On average, Gen Z reported 5.1 takeout meals per month, more than double the Baby Boomers average at 2.5 times per month.

Why are Americans getting delivery and takeout?

Perhaps more interesting than the "how much" is the "why" behind these numbers, which tells a story that drives their spending.

Top reasons for takeout and delivery spending, according to respondents who order takeout or delivery:

• I don't feel like cooking: 63%
• I'm treating myself or my family: 58%
• I don't have time to cook: 38%
• I don't feel like going out: 38%
• I don't have the energy after work: 35%
• There's nothing in the house to make: 31%
• Someone else in my household asked for it: 23%
• I don't have the cooking skills: 8%

Of note, only 8% of them said they don't have the cooking skills, suggesting spending is driven by a time and energy issue, not a competence issue.

When you're getting delivery and takeout this often, you'll want to consider how you're paying for those meals and ensure you're getting the most out of every dollar. Look for a credit card that offers elevated rewards for dining. For example, the Bank of America^® Customized Cash Rewards credit card lets you earn 6% cash back for the first year in the category of your choice (3% after that), and dining — which includes dining at restaurants, takeout, and delivery — is one of the categories you can choose. You'll also automatically earn 2% cash back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs. Those reward rates apply to the first $2,500 in combined purchases each quarter in the choice category and at grocery stores and wholesale clubs, then unlimited 1% thereafter.

Grocery convenience, by the numbers

Like food delivery, Americans are also showing high rates of convenience spending for groceries, but for different reasons. More than 1 in 3 American shoppers order groceries for pickup or delivery weekly or more.

Of course, Americans who are getting grocery items delivered still have to cook at home, though trends among younger generations show a preference for ordering ready-made food. Overall, these respondents still report that 68% of their meals are home-cooked.

The structure of their orders also points to a pivot from the norm: when asked whether in-app orders were typically full grocery hauls vs. top-off orders, shoppers were mostly split evenly.

This leads to an interesting question when it comes to the cost that customers are weighing. On one hand, delivery fees, service fees, and markups typically increase the cost of a bundle of groceries compared to shopping in-store. On the other hand, the risk of impulse shopping is minimized when you're not in a store. Overall, 43% of grocery delivery and pickup users said it costs them more, while 34% believe it saves money overall.

Why do people choose delivery or pickup for groceries

When asked why they have someone else shop for groceries for them, motivations are less about a treat and more about buying back time and effort. Top reasons include:

• I don't want to deal with the store (crowds, lines, parking): 56%
• I don't have time to go to the store: 55%
• I don't have the energy after work: 31%
• I buy more impulsively in store: 24%
• I just don't enjoy grocery shopping: 19%
• It's hard for me to carry groceries: 15%
• Someone else in my household asked me to order it: 10%

As anyone who's ordered groceries and had a "replacement request" ping from an in-store shopper knows, there are some drawbacks to letting someone else shop for you. Overall, 77% of those we surveyed said they still prefer doing their own grocery shopping, versus 23% who prefer letting a stranger do it for them. Still, this preference doesn't always outweigh the hassle of going to the store themselves.

What Americans think their time is worth

At its core, every convenience purchase has a similar decision-making process behind it: money versus time. Of course, these decisions (like most with money) are complex and emotional, but we wanted to get a baseline of how Americans value their time.

After omitting outlier responses, Americans value their free time at $87 per hour, with some substantial variance between responses. Overall, the median response was just $40, with the overall average being driven up by more than 5% who valued their free time at more than $500 per hour.

Nationwide, Americans make $37.62 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, meaning they value their free time at more than 2 times their working salary. When asked directly, only 10% of working Americans said their free time is worth less to them than their hourly rate.

How expensive is too expensive for convenience?

What Americans say their time is worth and what they'll actually pay to protect it turn out to be two different numbers. We asked respondents for the tipping point: at what point would you rather pick up an order than pay to have it delivered?

For food delivery, the average respondent said they'd pay $9.49 in delivery fees before deciding to pick up the order themselves. The median was $7, and the most common single answer was just $5.

For groceries, working from a typical $100 basket, shoppers said they'd accept a maximum upcharge of 11.4% to have someone else shop if they pick up the order, and 15.9% to have the order delivered, or roughly $11.40 and $15.90.

Where Americans draw the line

Of course, our respondents had their limits. 68% of respondents have abandoned a delivery order after seeing the total cost with fees included, and the behavior skews sharply younger: 78% of Gen Z and 73% of Millennials, compared to 41% of Baby Boomers.

Distance, meanwhile, has less to do with it than you might assume. 57% of Americans said they've ordered delivery from a restaurant within a mile of their home, rising to 62% among Gen Z. At that range, what's being purchased isn't really transportation. It's the effort of leaving at all, which is consistent with the preference-driven motivations we saw for food delivery.

Do Americans feel guilty about convenience spending?

Convenience spending has an unusual quality: it's easy to start and hard to total. A single order rarely feels like a financial decision, but the sum of them over a month often surprises people. So we asked respondents how they feel about what they spend.

Overall, Americans don't feel tremendously guilty about their convenience spending. A third (34%) said they feel no guilt at all about their convenience spending, and another 31% said only a little. That leaves 36% who reported feeling moderately guilty or worse, with 14% landing at "quite a bit" or "extremely."

The behavioral questions, though, tell a different story.

Nearly half of Gen Z (45%) said they've felt embarrassed about how much they spent on a delivery order, and more than 1 in 4 (27%) admitted to lying about or downplaying an order to a partner, roommate, or family member. Among Baby Boomers, those figures are 16% and 8%.

That's a notable split, and it suggests the generations getting the most out of these services are also the least comfortable with what they're spending on them. It's worth noting that these gaps track almost exactly with usage rates. Gen Z orders delivery nearly three times as often as Boomers do, and reports roughly three times the embarrassment. Whether that's guilt about the spending itself or simply more opportunities to feel it is hard to separate from the data.

Tipping in the convenience economy

Tipping is the one line on a delivery receipt the customer actually controls, which makes it a useful place to look for how people feel about the rest of the bill.

On average, Americans reported tipping $8.26 on food delivery and $11.17 on grocery delivery, a gap that likely reflects the added labor of shopping an order rather than just transporting one. Most delivery users also scale the tip to the job: 29% said their tip changes significantly between large and small order, and another 55% said it changes slightly, meaning 84% are adjusting in some form.

Tips, however, can also be sacrificed for high fees. 22% of respondents said they've tipped nothing on an order because the meal was already expensive or the fees were already high. By comparison, 76% said they've ever tipped more for a delivery that was harder on the driver, whether that meant bad weather, a long distance, or stairs with no elevator.

The convenience membership economy

On top of per-order spending, subscriptions can also add on to costs. Most convenience services now sell a subscription that waives or reduces the very fees people say they resent, and Americans have signed up in large numbers.

85% of shoppers pay for at least one convenience membership, and 1 in 3 carry a delivery-specific subscription like DashPass, Uber One, Instacart+, or Grubhub+. Amazon Prime dominates the category at 74%, followed by Walmart+ at 31% and DoorDash DashPass at 21%.

Interestingly, this data shows a duality in decision-making: the same respondents who will abandon a cart over a $9.49 delivery charge are carrying an average of $264 in annual convenience subscriptions. This may be a vision issue: people see the immediacy of a charge versus a subscription, which is often just another item on a long list of recurring monthly charges.

Sign-up habits reinforce this: 37% of respondents said they've purchased a membership to save after realizing how much they were paying in extra fees. It's a reasonable decision in the moment, and often a genuinely good deal on a large basket. But it's a recurring cost agreed to under the influence of a one-time discount, which is a different calculation than the one most people think they're making.

Recurring convenience spending is, in one sense, the easiest kind to earn on. It's predictable, it repeats, and it lands in a small number of categories. Returning to our example card, the Bank of America^® Customized Cash Rewards credit card earns 6% for your first year (3% after that) in a category you choose, plus an automatic 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs. Those reward rates apply to the first $2,500 in combined purchases each quarter across both. The category options are dining, online shopping, gas and EV charging stations, travel, drug stores, and home improvement and furnishings.

How can Americans get more value from convenience spending?

None of this data makes a case against convenience: our team loves it, uses it, and acknowledges that the rise in convenience apps have made life a lot easier.

Convenience spending allows Americans to buy back time, and by their own accounting, they think that time is worth buying. What the data does suggest is that most of these decisions are being made reactively, one checkout screen at a time, without much sense of the total. Here are a few ways to get more value from your spending:

• Total the subscriptions once a year. The average American carries $264 annually in convenience memberships, and 37% signed up for at least one after realizing how much they were paying in extra fees. Pull the list and cancel anything unused in the past two months.
• Use your real number, not the average. The median American values an hour of free time at $40, not $87. At $40 an hour, a $7 delivery fee pays for itself if the errand would have taken more than about 10 minutes. Running that math once makes future fee decisions considerably faster.
• Look past the fee line on grocery orders. Shoppers said they'd tolerate up to a 15.9% upcharge for delivery on a $100 basket, but the true cost often includes item markups, service fees, and the tip on top of the delivery charge. It's worth comparing a full order total against a recent in-store receipt at least once.
• Know which orders are the treat. 58% of people who order delivery or takeout say it's a treat, and 38% cite a lack of time. There's nothing wrong with the treat. The issue is when it stops registering as one.
• Put the spending where it earns something. Dining and groceries are permanent categories for most households. If that's true of yours, the card carrying that spending is worth a look.

The Bank of America^® Customized Cash Rewards credit card is built for that kind of decision. Cardholders pick their own bonus category, which earns 6% cash back for the first year (3% after that), and can change it once per calendar month, so the card follows spending as it shifts. Dining covers restaurants, takeout, and delivery. Groceries and wholesale clubs earn an automatic 2% with no selection required, which matters given that more than 1 in 3 Americans order groceries for pickup or delivery weekly. Those reward rates apply to the first $2,500 in combined purchases each quarter in the choice category and at grocery stores and wholesale clubs, then unlimited 1% thereafter.

The online shopping category is worth a look for the subscription problem specifically. It covers recurring bills like cable, internet, and streaming alongside standard retail, so a chunk of the $264 the average American spends on convenience memberships each year can earn at the elevated rate instead of the 1% base. There's no annual fee, and new cardholders can earn a $200 online cash rewards bonus after you make at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening.

Learn more about the Bank of America^® Customized Cash Rewards credit card.

More about the Bank of America^® Customized Cash Rewards credit card

We spend consistently on dining and groceries: choosing a card around where your spending actually happens is what the Bank of America^® Customized Cash Rewards credit card is built for.

How does it fit convenience spending?

It's a no-annual-fee cash back card that lets cardholders pick which category earns their top rate. Dining is one of six choices, alongside online shopping, gas and EV charging, travel, drug stores, and home improvement/furnishings. New cardholders earn 6% cash back in their chosen category for the first year, then 3% after the first-year bonus offer ends.

Grocery spending is handled separately: the card automatically earns 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs (on the first $2,500 in combined choice category/grocery store/wholesale club purchases each quarter) with no category selection required.

Who is it a good fit for?

Households with steady dining and grocery spending, which our data suggests describes most of the country. 85% of Americans pick up takeout monthly or more, and 57% get takeout or delivery every week. That spending is already happening for the majority of people. The open question is whether it's earning anything back.

Can you change categories?

Yes, once per calendar month, through Online Banking or the Mobile Banking app. If a cardholder never selects one, it stays on Gas and EV Charging Stations by default. That flexibility suits a spending pattern that moves with the season, letting you sit on dining through a stretch of heavy ordering and shift to travel or gas when habits change.

How much can you actually earn?

The bonus rates apply to the first $2,500 in combined purchases each quarter across your choice category plus grocery stores and wholesale clubs, with everything beyond that earning unlimited 1%. Applying the full $2,500 to choice category purchases works out to $150 back for the quarter at the first-year rate. The cap is combined, so grocery and wholesale club spending draws from the same $2,500 as the chosen category.

Is there a welcome offer?

New cardholders can earn a $200 online cash rewards bonus after you make at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening.

Learn more about the Bank of America^® Customized Cash Rewards credit card.

Methodology

To compile the data shown above, our research team at FinanceBuzz, in partnership with Bank of America, surveyed 2,000 Americans via the online research platform Prolific in August 2026. Respondents were asked about their use of convenience services, including takeout, food delivery, grocery delivery and pickup, and non-food or errand delivery, along with their fee tolerance, tipping behavior, subscription memberships, and attitudes toward convenience spending.

Several questions used frequency scales. Where this piece cites a combined percentage, such as those who use at least one convenience service monthly or more, it reflects the sum of the relevant response options rather than a single scale point. Questions asking whether a respondent has "ever" done something measure lifetime incidence rather than typical behavior. Dollar-figure averages exclude statistical outliers. The value placed on an hour of free time excludes responses of $2,000 and above; the maximum delivery fee excludes responses above $50. Grocery upcharge tolerance was asked in reference to a typical $100 grocery basket.

For all press inquiries or to speak with one of our experts, please contact the FinanceBuzz research team at press@financebuzz.com.