Coronavirus Coverage, Resources and Reporting
In an unprecedented time, restaurants large and small are closing dining rooms, laying off staff, and scrambling to figure out off-premises solutions. Empty, closed-off dining rooms even in areas where it’s not mandated by local governments are certainly the most visible response to the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic.
The entire team at Food On Demand is committed to providing well informed and timely content for our readers. Please email us at [email protected] with any questions and we will work with our industry partners to provide answers and possible solutions during this time of transition.
DoorDash Helping Closed Restaurants “Reopen for Delivery”
DoorDash is rolling out a new program to help restaurants reopen as delivery-only locations. It’s the first partnership in the delivery brand’s new “Reopen for Delivery” initiative to help restaurants reopen without the typical, arduous overhead costs of a traditional brick-and-mortar location.
CloudKitchens Spends Big on 40 New Properties
Recently revealed real estate documents provide another hint at what ghost-kitchen builder CloudKitchens has going on behind the scenes. According to The Wall Street Journal, CloudKitchens has gobbled up 40 properties across the country, spending more than $130...
Bahia Bowls Finds Food Cost, Lean Labor the Key to Profitable Delivery
It’s not every day a 19-year-old starts a franchise restaurant. It’s similarly uncommon for a new restaurant brand’s first franchisees to find themselves building their first stores just as the pandemic began to shut down the world around them. For Florida-based Bahia...
First Watch: COVID Helped Make Breakfast an All-Day Occasion
The herd says the breakfast daypart has been one of the biggest losers during the pandemic, as working from home, job losses and a general reshaping of daily habits caused more people to either skip breakfast or eat something quick at home. Florida-based First Watch,...
Hunting for Hope in a Catering Meltdown
Experts from ezCater, Foodsby and DeliverThat joined Ryan Palmer, a restaurant attorney with Lathrop GPM, to discuss where each catering-focused brand is finding optimism as the pandemic continues to depress volume in an important chunk of the North American...
Report Outlines 5 Key Things to Watch in Delivery Space
A new report identifies five key things to watch for in the delivery space over the next few years. As outlined by financial analytics firm Canaccord Genuity, the report points to some ongoing trends, but also attempts to quantify the shift in the space due to the...
Dark Grocery Expands, May Stick After COVID
Dark kitchens and virtual restaurants continue to expand across the country, but as the pendulum of food spending swings back toward grocery, a similar model is expanding rapidly there as well. While a dark grocery store sounds like nightmare fuel out of a zombie...
Online Grocery Continues to Accelerate, Market Share Shifts
Some new data in the grocery space showed just how explosive the growth of grocery delivery has been and which players are gobbling up market share. The big number: $6.6 billion. That’s how much people spent on online grocery sales in May 2020 alone, according to a...
Subway Leaning Harder on Third-Party Delivery, Discounted Promotions
With fewer drive-thrus than some of its prime competitors, Subway has leaned hard on a third-party delivery strategy that is helping the mega-brand—with $16.2 billion in annual systemwide sales—post weekly sales gains after a year’s worth of work to roll out and...
McKinsey Restaurant Report Offers Grim Reality, Some Ideas
McKinsey put out a report advising the restaurant industry how it might survive or thrive in the “next normal.” Noting that the pandemic has most severely impacted restaurants in urban areas, the authors outlined nine possible scenarios for the restaurant sector’s...
Q&A
We are here to help. Email us at [email protected] and we will engage our staff and industry partners to best help answer your questions.
Vendors
We understand that things are changing rapidly, and your business may be changing as well. We have provided a convenient list of industry leading companies that can help provide valuable products and service solutions during this difficult time.