As once-temporary pandemic habits become set in stone, Mercatus has released an update on what it calls the “egrocery” market, looking at what factors are impacting online grocery shopper loyalty and what features are becoming most important to shoppers who are now buying their weekly staples online. At a high level, Mercatus and its consumer insights partner Incisiv predict that online grocery will account for 21.5 percent of total grocery sales by 2025, which is a more than 60 percent increase over pre-pandemic estimates. The partnership’s new “eGrocerys’ New Reality” […]
Read More
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype around ghost kitchens and virtual brands, the sexy new channels taking up a huge amount of air in the restaurant industry right now. As the hype train chugs along, operators like Capriotti’s, a Las Vegas-based sandwich shop known for high-quality subs, is taking a careful approach to these new ideas. As David Bloom, Capriotti’s chief development and operations officer said, while they saw the same COVID difficulties, these new channels had been part of the roadmap for years. “I’ve been seeing […]
Read More
To help returning office workers tap back into their daily routine with some pizza, subs and all the fusions of New York’s lunch scene, Zuul has opened a virtual food hall. Zuul, a New York-based ghost kitchen operator, announced that the project dubbed Zuul Market does a lot of novel delivery operations, but the key point for office buildings is the order batching. Orders from the facility can be batched and delivered to specific drop points in an office or residential building. That reduced the number of delivery drivers out […]
Read More
In yet another big consolidation for the global food delivery industry, Delivery Hero is set to acquire Latin- and South-American delivery network Glovo for about $268 million. The deal would mark the second large delivery acquisition by the German-based delivery firm in as many months. The company also announced plans to acquire InstaShop, an online marketplace for grocery, convenience and retail. With the acquisition of Glovo, Delivery Hero will have a much deeper penetration in the South American market as it scoops up delivery operations in 650 cities across 22 […]
Read More
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, a decades-old breakfast brand, says the herd mentality is wrong about breakfast: our upended world has resulted in more occasions and ways to experience breakfast, whether it’s a bowl of cereal at 2 a.m. or avocado toast for dinner. While some restaurants have trimmed their […]
Read More
Amazon is wading into the choppy waters of Instacart and other grocery gig companies with a new Whole Foods delivery program. The company announced the new Shop and Deliver program as a part of Amazon’s existing gig-delivery program, Amazon Flex. Flex drivers use their own cars to make Amazon package deliveries, and now they will get the option to take Whole Foods delivery orders, too. Unlike a typical Flex order, however, delivery workers also will do the shopping. Amazon described the model in a post on Amazon Flex: We’re excited […]
Read More
There’s no getting around the inherent inefficiency of a two-ton passenger car delivering a single cheeseburger—it’s hugely wasteful, impractical and, as third-party delivery providers have proven, bad for an industry hoping to eventually turn a profit. As many delivery watchers hail drones as the eventual savior of the industry’s bottom line, smaller, purpose-built electric vehicles might be the holy grail silently whirring away in the shadows. That’s the goal of Gallery, a Denver-based provider of mobile food and beverage carts that already has a huge presence in stadiums and arenas […]
Read More
Should hotels still operate their own in-property restaurants even if they don’t turn a profit? Not according to Butler Hospitality, a New York-based startup that’s bundling room service operations in a single kitchen that can service as many as 10 nearby hotels with in-room hospitality that is intended to rival the upscale experience road warriors are missing during this ongoing pandemic. Tim Gjonbalic, whose family immigrated to the U.S. in 1990, launched Butler Hospitality four years ago to provide a direct replacement for hotel restaurants that he says are often […]
Read More
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 restaurant business. Held during the virtual Food On Demand Conference, the speakers’ message was consistent: Catering is not out of the woods, and individually packaged orders will have a prominent seat at the table no matter how the back side of the COVID-19 crisis unfolds. With Palmer adding that none of […]
Read More
Burger King released renderings for its next-generation stores that have no dining rooms, a small-scale solar panel farm and countless ways for off-premises orders to reach delivery drivers or customers who either walk up, use any one of three drive-thru lanes or park in an array of order-pickup spaces. Compared to the Taco Bell prototype we recently reported on, Burger King’s new template steps even further into a future that will feature fewer dining rooms from quick-service restaurant brands. Created by BK parent, Restaurant Brands International, its new store designs […]
Read More