Accuratehorn, change your name to Inaccuratehorn, cause you are wrong.
The places I get togo from have a hostess or bartender or even special phone order thingee person taking my order and ringing me up when I get there. And this model is in place at a lot of places.
Seriously, you people who are arguing against this are wrong, I don't know what else to tell you.
You are not in any way thinking about or placing yourselves in the shoes of the person you are ranting against. The job is a lot more involved then you think it is, trust those of us who have worked it (or seen it worked) to tell you that.
Also- as mentioned above- you get tip shared and taxed as if you made the 10% on gross sailes. So by not getting tipped you are losing money in many instances.
It's like going to Whataburger(Whatever fast food join) and ordering a burger.... telling them to 86 the pickles, lettuce, special sauce... but adding cheese.
They charge you for the cheese... and don't 'reduce' the price for the crap you took off. The businesses are one-tracked minds and only look at potential losses, not at what you give them back.
Bottom line, restaurants do NOT make money when 20 people are out waiting to get seated. If half of those people called ahead of time... they are making a more efficient profit and the wait is then 10 minutes and not 30 etc.