As our household tires of diving into the pantry or freezer for each meal, we checked out two great options: curbside pickup from a local restaurant/market that included a dozen eggs, and a liquor delivery service called Drizly.
Read More
If your restaurant is keeping the lights on amid the coronavirus pandemic, status-quo business plans no longer apply. Two experts in the off-premises space are recommending operators make critical changes immediately to get through this moment, while also setting their restaurants up for success when normalcy finally returns to the dining room. Their advice ranges from launching a customer relationship management (CRM) system to identifying and communicating with your best customers in a personal way, bringing brand fans “into the problem with you,” offering family-style meal kits and mix-at-home drink […]
Read More
With so many offices and factories now closed, it’s a dark time in the catering industry. One of the largest catering marketplaces, ezCater, has rolled out a zero-commission program through April 15, while Foodsby has reportedly laid off the majority of its staff shortly after moving to a new headquarters in downtown Minneapolis. It’s too soon to quantify the impact on catering in specifics, but category expert, ErleDardick,said his phone is ringing off the hook as he connects with industry friends and contacts who are now starting to ponder what’s […]
Read More
It’s hard to quantify how many more people are ordering during the COVID-19 crisis. A new survey from Sense360 shows that 21 percent of respondents are now working from home, with 15 percent saying they would order groceries online, but just 5 percent planning to order more food delivered. With a new marketing push by all the big delivery providers, including National Takeout Day, the DoorDash “Open for Delivery” campaign and big PR pushes from Uber, Grubhub and Postmates about supporting restaurants, one would think there is a huge new […]
Read More
We’re all in this together, that’s the dominant message from DoorDash’s new marketing campaign dubbed “Open for Delivery.” Demonstrating the power of a national brand with national marketing power to help independent restaurant partners in particular, the company rolled out a 30-second ad showing star independent chefs and operators making food for delivery. Part of the message was the heartstring-pulling message: “They’re still there for you, now you can be there for them.” It’s one leg of the company’s push to help partners weather the drastic change in business brought […]
Read More
Food On Demand reporters Nick Upton, Laura Michaels, Tom Kaiser and Callie Evergreen tried curbside delivery service from Red Robin, Applebee’s, Chili’s and TGI Fridays. Our results varied, of course, but there’s always room for improvement.
Read More
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. Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Starbucks and Chick-fil-A were the first brands to announce they would shut down dining rooms, but remain open for delivery and to-go orders. And hour-by-hour, more brands announce drastic changes to operations from closing dining rooms, reducing hours or shutting down […]
Read More
The focus of the piece is survival and what you can do to stay in business and protect the long-term viability of your restaurant operation. Two things are paramount in this moment: keeping your employees informed and preserving cash at all costs.
Read More
Food On Demand spoke to restaurant attorney Ryan Palmer about conversations with restaurant clients related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is closing dining rooms and forcing others to pivot exclusively to off-premises operations. Palmer said this moment is bigger than the Great Recession, and that pivoting to takeout and delivery won’t be nearly enough to bridge the gap for restaurants that now have empty dining rooms.
Read More
With many states and local municipalities closing bars and restaurants or restricting service to off-premises channels only, the four largest U.S.-based national delivery providers have rolled out a wave of ways to help their restaurant partners. So far, those efforts include increased marketing to boost delivery in general; Grubhub suspending $100 million in commission payments from independent restaurants under limited circumstances; Uber Eats waiving delivery fees for independent restaurants and allowing daily, rather than weekly merchant payouts; and Postmates waiving commission fees in certain markets. Here’s a rundown of the […]
Read More