With the fresh idea of creating a delivery marketplace exclusively for independent pizzerias, Slice has attracted more than $80 million from investors who see the massive potential of helping small pizza restaurants compete with the Domino’s and Papa John’s of the world in technology, bulk pricing and marketing. Slice, after recently surpassing more than a billion dollars in transactions on the platform from 14,000 partnered restaurants, is stepping on the gas to go further than just aggregating customer demand. With a unique model that Slice’s co-founder and CEO Ilir Sela […]
If online banking now has a social media function to see which of your friends are sending money to each other, why shouldn’t meal ordering join the party? That’s the basic concept at Snackpass, a three-year-old app designed by Yale students that helps fellow students save time and money by ordering meals and coffee ahead of time, and then bypassing the line once they arrive. Taking the order-ahead concept a step further, Snackpass lets users see what items their friends are ordering and from where, with the ability to give […]
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” […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
