latest posts

Rich Kid - delivery at schools

Schools Nix Food Deliveries to Students

By fodnews | June 12, 2019

Following Google Alerts for delivery-related stories is a delight, including this week’s tale from The Washington Post about middle and high school students doing an end run around lame school cafeterias by ordering food from third-party delivery services. According to the piece, schools from coast to coast are now clamping down on the practice. “If they get it delivered to the school, the main office sends it back,” said science teacher Leslie Blaha of the Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Virginia. The Post story also notes that as […]

Read More
12 Sweetberry Bowls arranged on a table

In Delivery, Sweetberry Bowls Tries All of the Above

By Tom Kaiser | June 12, 2019

With all the upheaval in the restaurant industry, the CEO of Sweetberry Bowls is having fun as a former tech guy who says he fell into foodservice. As Founder and CEO Desi Saran grows his franchised restaurant toward 20 locations and explores the full gamut of ghost kitchen and delivery opportunities, he and his team are trying to find creative ways to capitalize on every opportunity that’s cropped up in this everything-on-demand ecosystem. Sweetberry Bowls is a fast-casual franchised restaurant serving indulgent and healthy fruit bowls, salads, oatmeal, smoothies and […]

Read More

New York City Looking Into Grubhub Charges

By fodnews | June 12, 2019

Details are few, but multiple reports suggest the New York City Council is looking into fees charged to restaurants by Grubhub and other delivery providers. First reported by the New York Post, a hearing is scheduled by the city council’s Committee on Small Business on June 27 Bronx Councilman Mark Gjonaj was quoted as saying the council is “trying to figure out ways for small businesses, these mom-and-pop shops, to keep their doors open” in light of delivery-related expenses that have become a challenge for the restaurant industry at large. […]

Read More

Automated Call Answering to Boost Restaurant Sales

By Tom Kaiser | June 6, 2019

Think you’re busy? Consider the plight of QSR cashiers wearing headsets to answer calls while taking in-person orders and coordinating with the back of the house to expedite food. It’s not easy, and we’ve all been on the business side by calling in to place an order and immediately being put on hold. While this very situation has fueled the growth of third-party delivery, there’s a new option to improve this arrangement for workers while trimming labor costs, increasing upselling and ensuring that every caller ultimately gets to place an […]

Read More

Wingstop Delivery: Slow to Enter, Fast to Grow

By Nicholas Upton | June 6, 2019

Wingstop CEO Charlie Morrison took to the airways on CNBC to talk about how the company’s large portion of digital orders has set the brand up for delivery success at the operator level. Because digital sales are more than 30 percent of the Wingstop business as of Q1 results, he added, it’s an easy path leading toward delivery. That, and the brand’s small-footprint restaurants and simplified menu mean others just can’t compete. “It’s a very efficient, carryout—and now delivery-focused—concept that we believe creates efficiencies that some of the big box […]

Read More

Amazon’s Unveils Star Wars-Style Delivery Drone

By Tom Kaiser | June 6, 2019

In its quest for product deliveries faster than a single day, Amazon’s Prime Air division unveiled a new delivery drone that can fly up to 15 miles on a charge and deliver packages under five pounds to customers in less than 30 minutes. Looking somewhat similar to a Star Wars TIE Fighter, the delivery giant’s latest drone was unveiled this week at the re:MARS Conference (Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics and Space) in Las Vegas. Amazon’s 20-year vet Jeff Wilke said in a blog post that it aims to scale its […]

Read More

Grubhub Nabs $400 Million Infusion

By fodnews | June 6, 2019

It’s been a rough eight months for Grubhub’s stock price, but the company is celebrating good news in the form of $400 million in new financing through a private offering. According to the company’s press release, $340 million of that cash pile will be used to repay existing debt. Going deeper into the weeds, the new funds are being run through Grubhub Holdings, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Grubhub Inc. The new notes will be senior unsecured obligations guaranteed by Grub and each of its domestic subsidiaries. In […]

Read More

The Scary Amount of Plastic in Delivery

By Nicholas Upton | June 6, 2019

Packaging for delivery is key, and something the industry is making great strides in to keep food in a decent state during delivery, but the waste created by restaurant packaging is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. The New York Times recently published an article exploring the ugly potential for mass delivery adoption, namely the huge amount of plastic that the Chinese takeout and delivery consumer is using. The issue comes right back to pleasing the consumer at all costs. “Restaurants in China that do business through Meituan and Ele.me […]

Read More

Consumer Reports Rates Grocery Delivery Services

By fodnews | June 6, 2019

Looking at which online grocery delivery brands offer the freshest food the fastest and most cost-effectively, Consumer Reports just published a ranking that listed Target-owned Shipt as the best groceries-on-demand service. Consumer Reports is a subscription-based publication that surveyed more than 3,000 of its members for the report. They collectively rated Shipt highest for hours of delivery, timeliness, communications on delivery status, packaging and text-based customer service—among more conventional factors like quality and freshness of the items delivered. The report also includes a stat from Bain and company and Google […]

Read More

Google Adds “Order Delivery” Button, Will Late Adopters Follow?

By Tom Kaiser | May 29, 2019

Google has added an “Order Delivery” button allowing customers to summon meals from their favorite restaurants, which can be delivered through Postmates, DoorDash, Delivery.com, Slice and ChowNow. The company says more delivery providers will be added soon. By reducing a tiny amount of friction for hangry consumers, integration of delivery into Google’s search, maps and voice assistants could bring a new wave of later-adopters into the food-on-demand ecosystem. Being able to order your favorite meal by saying “OK, Google…” is novel, but the “Order Delivery” button on its search and […]

Read More