Platform Dependence During COVID-19: Restaurants’ Resilience in the United States

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered one of the most severe shocks in the history of the U.S. restaurant industry. As government restrictions and voluntary avoidance of public spaces sharply reduced in-person dining, revenues plummeted, and closures surged across the sector. Yet even within this crisis, adaptation paths diverged sharply. Restaurants that had access to digital ordering and delivery platforms—such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub—were able to support partial access to consumers and reconfigure operations toward off-premises sales. By contrast, many small independent restaurants without digital infrastructure faced devastating revenue losses and permanent closures. This paper examines how reliance on third-party delivery platforms shaped the resilience of U.S. restaurants during the COVID-19 shock. Using publicly available evidence from federal statistics, industry analyses, and peer-reviewed research, combine descriptive patterns with theoretical insights from microeconomics, platform economics, and dynamic capabilities theory. Argues that platform dependence enabled survival for many firms by substituting for dine-in demand, but imposed longer-run costs through commissions, heightened intra-platform competition, algorithmic visibility constraints, and dependence on powerful intermediaries. This study also discusses policy responses—such as emergency fee caps and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)—and assess their interaction with platform-mediated adaptation. The analysis concludes that digital readiness became indispensable for resilience in food service, yet platform dependence created strategic trade-offs that will shape the industry’s post-pandemic equilibrium.