Spotlight

Restaurants and Accessibility

August 13, 2026

Restaurants are increasingly recognizing that automatic doors are more than good for offering accessibility – they can help restaurants increase traffic and build brand loyalty. Dine-in customers, folks with mobility issues, wheelchair users, and parents with strollers, all benefit because automatic doors allow easy, safe access.

But there is more to the story than accessibility, which in and of itself helps build customer loyalty. Restaurant operators, facing an uncertain economy, are increasing sales by listing themselves on delivery apps, that unfortunately, also decrease profit margins.

According to the National Restaurant Association, elevated costs are also pressuring restaurant profitability – this despite sales growth over the last few years. The downside is that increases in menu prices are the main driver of sales while customer traffic levels have slowed.

Automatic doors can help restaurants increase customer traffic by enhancing the experience of all members of the community with or without disabilities or mobility issues. With customer traffic levels down across much of the industry, increases in menu prices were responsible for a sizable portion of sales growth in recent years. As a result, the extent to which restaurants can grow their way out of higher costs has largely been contingent on their ability to increase prices.

Automatic doors at restaurant entrances keep foot traffic flowing smoothly as eat-in customers, takeout orders, and delivery drivers vie for access. Image courtesy AAADM

For foodservice operations looking to remain profitable, efficiency is the name of the game. An often-overlooked facilitator of this efficiency is the use of automatic doors.

Automatic doors at restaurant entrances keep foot traffic flowing smoothly as eat-in customers, takeout orders, and delivery drivers vie for access. Automatic doors help contribute to operational efficiency by getting people in and out as seamlessly as possible.

Quick service restaurants are also adding automatic doors to new “walk-through” drive-thru concepts. It replaces the standard window with a full doorway, allowing team members to walk directly from the kitchen to waiting vehicles.

In a comprehensive survey conducted by the American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers (AAADM), respondents said the presence of automatic doors serves as a gauge of how much building owners and businesses care about them, and 98.9 percent of consumers who expressed a preference between automatic and manual doors preferred automatic doors.

Beyond their efficiency applications, automatic doors also improve overall accessibility, promote hygiene, and spur positive feelings about a brand.

As restaurants continue to navigate tighter margins, evolving service models, and higher customer expectations, seemingly small choices can have an outsized impact. Automatic doors are a strategic investment to remain competitive in an increasingly demanding market.

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