The Convenience Economy 2026: What Americans Will Pay to Skip the Trip

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.

Read more about the report here.