Walmart has begun doing real-world drone deliveries in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with partner Flytrex, which got approval in the city last year. The drones can carry about 6.5 pounds and travel 7 miles per trip, reaching speeds of about 32 miles per hour, according to Flytrex. Walmart said it was one of many automation tests in process now as the big-box retail giant figures out what’s next. “We know that it will be some time before we see millions of packages delivered via drone. That still feels like a bit […]
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Casual dining is still hurting as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps many customers from dining in. That has BBQ Holdings, the parent company of Famous Dave’s and Granite City, using virtual outlets to bridge the ongoing sales hole. “How do you fill those gaps? We really found that ghost kitchens virtual brands and dual-concepting are really working,” said BBQ Holdings CEO Jeff Crivello. Currently, the company has 17 non-traditional restaurant outlets, including seven ghost kitchens, eight virtual restaurants and one co-branded restaurant. The company just launched Hayward’s Hen House, jumping into […]
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The last couple of months have been “crazy” for Moe’s Southwestern Grill while many of the pending projects the franchise had in the works were rolled out quickly to meet the demands caused by the pandemic, such as a free delivery campaign at 550 stores, Tad Low, senior director of marketing, field and off-premises, for Moe’s, told the audience for the Franchise Delivery Ops panel on Day 2 of FODC. The panel, moderated by Franchise Times Editor-in-Chief Laura Michaels, also included Brandy Blackwell, director of delivery and catering for Dunkin’ […]
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Bolt Bikes, the e-bike manufacturer that’s focused on the delivery market and led by a former Deliveroo exec, announced it landed an eight-figure investment designed to help it expand operations in the United States, while also moving into new categories globally. Along with the capital raise, the Australia-based startup is also rebranding with a new name, Zoomo. The Australian Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) led the capital raise with a $5 million USD equity investment. Equity investment from Hana Ventures and existing investors Maniv Mobility and Contrarian Ventures, together with […]
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Native delivery has emerged as one of the biggest themes of the year, said Food On Demand Editor Tom Kaiser, as restaurant operators seek to improve the economics of delivery and maintain more control over the experience. “The economics of third-party delivery are much different when it’s 10 or maybe 20 percent of your restaurant’s overall volume,” said Kaiser. “When it’s such a small portion of the total, paying 30 percent, give or take, for the marketing and actual deliveries is a great solution for reaching new customers and raising […]
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Drones was the original idea for delivering meals to boaters on White Bear Lake in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, but “I thought that wouldn’t work with people who had a couple of drinks,” said Dylan Dierking, founder of Foodski, a jet ski delivery service, most likely “the drones would end up in the water.” A dingy with a motor was also rejected, “because the food would be bumping around too much and you can’t have the food spilling, especially from nicer restaurants,” the University of St. Thomas junior said. And if […]
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In the hour-long Deep Dive panel during the Food On Demand Conference, leaders within the four major third-party networks shared some critical insights about the space. To see the whole panel and soak up all everything they discussed as well as many other great panels, head over to the conference page to watch the recorded sessions (registration required) or see our conference coverage here. There was a lot to cover but how things have evolved through the COVID-19 pandemic was a top topic and there were a lot of […]
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Now that the dust has settled from this year’s Food On Demand Conference, we reached out to our moderators and panelists to answer any outstanding audience questions we weren’t able to cover during the live Q&A sessions. If you have any additional questions for us or individual panels, please send them my way at [email protected]. Tracking the Shift in Consumer Expectations NA: I find that the older demographic thinks about food tampering more than other age groups. Sam Acuna, Gallup: With safety concerns today and other liability in general, […]
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Fifty restaurant brands in one kitchen. That’s the model The Local Culinary launched last year in Miami, which is now calling itself the first ghost kitchen franchise to hit the market. The company finalized its franchise disclosure document earlier this month and is seeking first to work with restaurant owners who are fighting to stay in business during the coronavirus pandemic, said founder Alp Franko. These owners, he continued, are dealing with limited dine-in service and other restrictions, and many aren’t equipped to simply convert their concepts to a delivery […]
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About 18 months ago, Brinker International had something like 50 delivery partners across its 1,600-plus Chili’s and Maggiano’s locations, didn’t want to sign an exclusive deal with a third-party delivery service and didn’t even believe in the incrementality of delivery. That’s how Toby Espinosa, VP of business development at DoorDash, remembered it as he recounted the first meeting between the two companies “in a conference room that the sun has never seen” at DoorDash’s San Francisco office. Despite that inauspicious start, the groups emerged from that meeting with a shared […]
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