【Reading】でまえ

【English Name】Delivery

A commercial custom of delivering food prepared in a shop's kitchen to a destination at the customer's request—that is what "demae" (delivery) is. Such a custom is said to have already taken root by the early Edo period, boasting a long history.

Sushi restaurants have long been one of the representative trades engaged in this delivery. Note that the format of arranging a large quantity of assorted platters for ceremonial occasions is called "shidashi" (catering) and is often distinguished. Whereas the basis of demae is delivering small quantities quickly, shidashi is characterized by handling large orders with advance reservations.

A scene once commonly seen on street corners was that of a delivery person maneuvering a bicycle or motorcycle with an okamochi (carrying box) dangling from one hand. However, because of frequent spills of the goods, in the latter half of the 1950s a spring-equipped fixed stand called a "demae-ki" (delivery device) was devised and spread throughout the industry. Ordering long relied on telephone and fax, but online order-taking accelerated when Demae-kan opened its portal site in 2000.

Incidentally, it is also known that, from the standard exchange in which "if you call a soba shop to chase up your order, the answer always comes back 'it just went out for delivery,'" an idiomatic expression referring to a stopgap excuse spread into the world.