When Boston Market became one of the hot brands in the ‘90s, its laser focus on convenience was novel in the explosive era of casual dining giants. Now, the company is evolving at breakneck pace along with everyone else as the third-party delivery revolution reshapes the restaurant industry. CEO Frances Allen, who joined the company in May of 2018, said in a lot of ways, the company was ahead of its time back then. “In the ‘90s, we had a Boston Market Express line where you called ahead and you’d […]
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Meals 4 Six-Inch Heels is not your typical food-delivery startup. For one, the founder isn’t a young, white dude pounding out code in a Bay Area WeWork. Founder Nikeisah Newton is a black, gay and social-justice minded chef living and working in Portland. And her company isn’t the promised panacea for society that drives a typical startup founder—it’s tailor made for strippers and other sex workers in Portland, a.k.a. “Strip City.” The hipster haven in the Pacific Northwest got that moniker because it has the most strip clubs per capita […]
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The vast majority of U.S. restaurant customers have yet to try at-home delivery, but major TV spots in recent months have helped raise awareness and bring the later-adopters into the fold. The latest is Louisiana-based Waitr, which is launching a fall TV ad campaign in a handful of states that humorously highlight how delivery can ameliorate the chaos of parenting at home, among other high-drama situations. Created with the ThreeSixtyEight and Fallon agencies, the Waitr and Bite Squad spots are launching this month in Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, South Carolina […]
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After acquiring Mr. Delivery earlier this summer, Delivery.com sees this as the start of a metamorphosis that will result in the New York-based marketplace becoming a much larger player in the restaurant delivery world before diving deeper into alcohol, grocery and laundry-related delivery services. Part of its playbook includes “effectively syndicating” its merchant menus to other platforms, like Yelp, which is one of its launch partners. “If we can bring our capabilities, our tools and technologies to bear for these multiple market operators, market operators can in turn provide what […]
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Drone maker Flirtey has unveiled its delivery-ready flagship aerial drone design. The drone represents the market-ready evolution for the company that has been making real world deliveries since 2016. CEO and Founder Matthew Sweeny said that real-world trial by fire pushed the drone maker in this direction, with the help of some smart people. Flirtey’s Eagle drone delivery technology has been developed from the ground up, originating from NASA’s drone program,” said a company spokesperson. It’s an impressive list of some folks from the smartest aerospace world, including “NASA, Raytheon, […]
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Cowen, a New York analyst firm that closely follows Grubhub, slightly downgraded its price target for the Chicago-based delivery giant. Following the company’s revised 2019 guidance, the firm lowered its price target from $91 to $86, affirming that it still expects Grub to outperform consensus expectations. Citing what it called a “healthy core business,” Cowen listed competitive discounting and industry promotions, its 2019 EBITDA guide-down after the second quarter and costs “inevitably ratcheting higher” as the reasons it lowered expectations of share performance. So far throughout 2019, Grubhub’s stock has […]
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The California legislature passed a hotly contested bill that if signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom would reshape the gig economy in California and likely beyond. Basically, Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), codifies a California Supreme Court ruling that states that workers must be deemed employees if they don’t pass a test. That test, known as the ABC test, asks three questions: A) is the worker free from company control, B) Is he or she doing work that isn’t central to the company’s business, and C) has an independently established trade, […]
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Publicly traded restaurants like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Wingstop are just a few of the mega brands that were early adopters of delivery. Others, like Chipotle, Starbucks and the Yum Brands trio of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut were later adopters. As part of its latest quarterly restaurant update, research firm Stephens dove into how delivery is working out for the biggest restaurant brands, with the included insight that many brands have evolved from focusing on delivery’s incrementality to now referring to it as a pillar “or even backbone” of […]
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There is only one delivery dude in this industry, and he’s the CEO and founder of the namesake Delivery Dudes, a Florida-based regional restaurant delivery surface that claims to be on the verge of profitability as it explores bringing CBD (a derivative of cannabis) product delivery to its network of 500,000 customers. Jayson Koss, who signs every email with The Big Lebowski quote “the dude abides,” is known for his sharp criticism of the large-scale delivery providers. He reserves his most acerbic scorn for DoorDash, the largest U.S.-based delivery provider […]
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Grubhub this week announced new functionality dubbed “perks.” The new in-app feature means new options for diners and restaurant owners to better tailor the experience and potentially entice diners to order from them. It might not seem like a huge deal, but for a long time, restaurant operators have been clamoring for some extra incentives via third-party delivery networks and a way to reward customers even if they’re not in the restaurant’s ecosystem. Why is that such a big deal? Well it’s two of the most important topics in the […]
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