Researchers from the University College London found the average time it takes for a new habit to stick is 66 days, though individual times varied. If you extrapolate this statistic to the behavior consumers were forced to develop as a result of the pandemic, experts predict delivery and off-premises habits are here to stay. And as this becomes the over-stated “new normal,” restaurants are scrambling to see how they can meet the new shift in consumer expectations. In a conversation on day one of the Food On Demand Conference August […]
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Independent restaurant operators are navigating some of the most brutal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even multi-unit operators in great markets have seen radical changes in the last several months, as they described in a Food On Demand Conference panel discussion titled “Delivering a Consumer Experience.” Kim Bartmann, of Minneapolis’ Bartmann Group, Nate Pollak, of The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen in San Francisco and Enrique Mendez, of Stone Bridge Pizza & Salad in New York, said their work today is all about the experience, but even more about just getting […]
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Ridesharing and food-delivery giant Uber had a rough quarter as ridesharing was essentially hollowed out, but food delivery served as a bright spot in the company’s second-quarter results. Uber depends on travel and commuting, and looking around the COVID-era world, that’s not happening. Travel was down 75 percent in July according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and that’s an improvement from being down 86 percent in June. At the peak of the pandemic, scores of people were working from home. With two key travel months wiped out by the […]
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What is it like to run a restaurant reservations platform during a pandemic, Food on Demand Editor Tom Kaiser asked the founder of Tock to kick off today’s virtual FOD conference. “It took work that was interesting, and made it important,” replied Nick Kokonas in a pragmatic and hopeful discussion about third-party delivery and the survival of restaurants. Kokonas launched Tock in 2015 as an “elevated” reservation service, added Tock To Go in March amid COVID-19 and in May raised $10 million from a Starbucks-backed venture fund to bolster the […]
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Bastian Lehmann, CEO and co-founder of Postmates, was man of the hour as his keynote address kicked off the third annual Food on Demand Conference today, for the first time in all-virtual format. That’s because Uber is set to buy Postmates, which is a distant fourth in market share at 8 percent but nonetheless mighty, Lehmann maintains, especially as a third-party delivery pioneer.
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Philadelphia is the latest major U.S. city capping fees and placing new restrictions on third-party delivery services. Signed by Mayor Jim Kenney and effective immediately, the new bill limits delivery fees, mandates that fees must be transparent to customers and that third-party providers can no longer list restaurants on their platform without explicit, written consent. Philadelphia’s Bill No. 200344 contains five explicit restrictions on delivery providers operating within the sixth largest U.S. city, with a population of more than 1.5 million people inside its municipal boundaries. It was signed into […]
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In a brief report looking at the top 50 metro areas in the U.S., Square, a payment processing tool for online ordering, highlights which cities have seen the biggest percent increase in new sellers moving online in response to the pandemic. The list is headlined by Albuquerque, New Mexico; Durham, North Carolina; Portland, Oregon; Minneapolis and Richmond, Virginia—all cool kid cities by any measure. The study defined adoption by the percent increase in sellers who took their first payment using Square’s online store during the period, which included January and […]
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Amazon’s major investment in the U.K. delivery firm Deliveroo has been approved by regulators. As CNBC reported, it was an unusually contentious look at the deal by country regulators that underscored the caution they were taking around this massive shift in the restaurant industry by similarly massive players. “Today’s final decision is the result of a thorough examination of this deal and the markets in which Amazon and Deliveroo operate,” said Stuart McIntosh, who led the inquiry for the Competition and Markets Authority. The approval came a year and change […]
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Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) reported strong second-quarter results and gave a few updates on the Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET) transaction. The company released the results without an earnings call as the company has chosen not to hold calls until the close of the JET acquisition. Revenue and user growth continued on the solid trajectory seen in the first quarter, but there were some weak spots. Revenues hit $459.3 million, a 41 percent increase from 2019. Net income, however, sank to negative $45.4 million, a sharp decrease from $1.3 million in income […]
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Now that meal delivery has expanded far beyond the urban markets that fueled the industry’s growth the last decade, some delivery providers are differentiating themselves with a more selective roster of restaurants. First came Slice, which focuses exclusively on pizza restaurants, and now Chowbus, which just received a $33 million investment to bring its curated roster of Asian-only restaurants to new cities in the U.S. With a pleasing interface similar to other national delivery apps, Chowbus presents users with a list of trending restaurants and individual menu items, restaurants only […]
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