Ordering lunch is more stressful than public speaking for 1 in 4 Americans

The most stressful part of your lunch break might be ordering. New research explains why and what's being done about it.

You know the feeling of being at the counter with the line behind you growing. The menu has 47 items on it. The person waiting to take your order is being patient, but you can feel the clock ticking. You haven't been here in a while, and you're not sure what's new.

New research from Global Payments surveyed 2,000 Americans about what it actually feels like to order at a quick-service restaurant (QSR).

A few stats are worth pausing on:

• 29% of U.S. consumers say it's more stressful than public speaking.
• About 1 in 4 said it's more stressful than a job interview.
• 21% think it's more stressful than going through airport security.

When the menu feels overwhelming and the clock is running, defaulting to something familiar is the path of least resistance. It's less "I really want the usual" and more "I really can't deal with this right now."

Are people actually happy with what they ordered?

Only 34% of Americans say they're very confident they ordered what they actually wanted. Thirteen percent ate their meal and still felt like they'd missed something better. Ten percent said they outright regretted what they got.

So the "safe" order solves the in-the-moment stress, but not the underlying problem. Most Americans are leaving something on the table - sometimes literally.

How many people leave a fast food restaurant without ordering?

Thirty-seven percent of Americans have walked out of a quick-service restaurant without ordering at all, and not for the reason you might think. They were hungry, and the menu was right in front of them, but something about the experience felt rushed, unclear or uncomfortable.

That number may read as a quirky data point to some. But it's more likely a design problem. These aren't people who changed their minds. After all, they came in with every intention of ordering something. The question is whether the experience was built to meet them there.

Do restaurants actually know this is happening?

Some restaurants are paying very close attention to this dynamic. There are operators who have hired agencies to physically track where customers' eyes land on a menu board with cameras and behavioral data, and then redesigned the layout based on what they found. Most people walking up to the counter have no idea that level of research went into what they're looking at.

The good news is that with digital menu boards now standard in many locations, that kind of iteration is faster and cheaper than it's ever been. The experience is fixable. It's just a question of whether it's being treated as a priority.

Methodology

This research is based on a quantitative survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers who had eaten at or ordered from a quick-service restaurant in the past six months, conducted in March 2026 by Global Payments Consumer Insights. Respondents included a broad, representative adult sample with balanced distribution across ages 25-64 and an even gender split, with income skewing toward lower-to-middle tiers reflecting typical QSR behavior patterns.

This story was produced by Global Payments and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

Copyright 2026 Stacker Media, LLC

This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 6:30 AM.