What happens to "pay when you pick it up" carry out if I never pick it up?

Likely it will end up in the trash. Most restaurants have a prohibition against employees eating or taking food home…that insures that they don’t do it on purpose for a free meal.

And it’s possible you could get on a list if you do that repeatedly. Pizza Hut for instance keeps customer ‘accounts’ that show your history by phone number.

Of course they’ll be royally pissed off at you. Food costs money and most food places operate on thin margins.

There really are few legitimate reasons for doing what you describe and certainly none for doing it a second time or more.

They would have every right to refuse you this type of service in the future. You’d have to go in and eat there or pay and then take it home.

Whether or not they will varies from one place to another.

They’ll either dump it or eat it depending upon what rules are set up regarding employees taking food home.

I remember someone who works for KFC commenting on the foolishness of wasting food which had to be dumped in the trash at the end of the night rather than feeding the homeless or allowing employees to take it home. But that was the policy.

In my hometown was this bar/restaurant that made amazing pizza. We’d go out drinking for the night, then swing by that place to see if they had any unclaimed pizzas. They almost always did. For $5.00 they’d sell it to us. win win. That was before computers.

Geez, I’ve never done it. But I can think of ton of legitimate reasons. No need for all the attitude.

Usually it sits there until someone realizes it’s “really old”... pickup food waits the longest because it doesn’t matter how late the customer is, if their food isn’t there when they come, the restaurant has to make it right.

I’ve never been anywhere where they really worry about finding the customer unless something else stands out like it’s a huge order, or they were rude. If someone on staff is hungry, and they have time, most food that can’t be served is free game. In the larger restaurants I worked at, there was a spot where it would be put for people to find or take home.

There’s so many reasons food can’t be used in a restaurant that it becomes the norm. Like large sums of money in a bank or sick people in a hospital.

I’ve worked in places where, at the end of the night, if the food hasn’t been claimed the employees can just take it home. They don’t really worry about the employees calling in and scamming, because by the time you take it home it’s not very attractive.
I don’t know how it is in higher end places or big chains, as I’ve not worked in those.

@hug_of_war What do you mean by “attitude”? People here are using the on-personal “you”, they aren’t accusing anyone of doing anything. They are expressing a general view from their experience of how restaurants react to unclaimed orders.