latest posts

Dog Haus Scouts Value of Ghost Kitchens

By Tom Kaiser | March 28, 2019

Hot dog franchise Dog Haus is expanding quickly beyond its current stable of 35 locations, and is looking to get into the ghost-kitchen space as delivery becomes an increasingly large share of its business.

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FoodBoss Aims to be Kayak of Food Delivery

By fodnews | March 28, 2019

Michael DiBenedetto, the co-founder of delivery aggregator FoodBoss came up with his business idea when facing the conundrum of a group order. Everyone had their own apps, their own accounts and preferences, but he wanted to filter his delivery options as one would in so many other digital retail experiences.

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Robots Boost Breakfast in Campus Bot Blitz

By Nicholas Upton | March 27, 2019

A herd of robots have been delivering food around Virginia’s George Mason University since January and robot manufacturer Starship is ready to release some insights from the test. According to a release from the company, the 25,000-person test showed that convenient delivery significantly boosted breakfast volume among students at the university. Starship and operating partner Sodexo said that they completed 1,500 additional breakfast orders on campus since implementing the automated deliveries. A 2016 study from Australia’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition showed college students skip breakfast 88 percent of […]

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ezCater Acquires Monkey Group

By Tom Kaiser | March 27, 2019

Boston-based ezCater has acquired Monkey Group, an enterprise software and training company that’s the developer of Monkey, a cloud-based platform for takeout, delivery and catering.

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Teeing Up the Second Wave of Franchise Restaurant Delivery

By fodnews | March 20, 2019

Food On Demand’s Nick Upton led a sophisticated dive into the future of franchised third-party delivery with three industry experts, including a national attorney in the restaurant space, an exec from Red Robin and a Chicago-area franchisee for Jersey Mike’s. The group covered everything from involuntary delivery participation, cannibalization of dine-in, POS integration, data ownership and what to do when delivery and franchise territories don’t overlap. Click here to watch the session With a generously packed agenda, the session began with how the franchised third-party delivery scene has changed in […]

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Relationships Key in Checkers Massive Delivery Push

By Nicholas Upton | March 20, 2019

Checkers and Rally’s is taking on delivery in a big way, going all in with every provider it can get and maybe changing the delivery game along the way. Checkers has around 900 locations, with about 300 of those corporate locations. So it’s not as large as the big QSR players, and it’s not small enough that it could just turn on delivery and hope it works. That in-between size may have helped the company avoid hazards at the bleeding edge of the third-party delivery industry. “We’re just trying to […]

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Grocery Pup Delivers Sous-Vide Dog Meals

By fodnews | March 20, 2019

Editor’s note: Grocery Pup is now known as A Pup Above.  A new startup called Grocery Pup is bringing freshly cooked meals—for your dog—right to your doorstep. Billed as the “tastiest and most nutrient-rich cooked dog food,” Grocery Pup uses sous-vide cooking to achieve what it claims is the highest quality, human-grade, and most convenient dog food around. Shoppers can buy products on a one-time basis or opt for a subscription method like human-focused meal kits. The subscriptions are based on the dog’s weight for proper portion control. Using the […]

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Bringing Food to the Foodless

By Tom Kaiser | March 20, 2019

How many times have you found yourself sitting at a bar with friends, or at a theater or lonely hotel room wishing you could order a bite to eat that doesn’t require Googling nearby restaurants or hopping in a car? According to the unconventional meal delivery service 2ndKitchen, that struggle to feed the foodless masses is real—and the foundation for a delivery platform connecting bars, restaurants, hotels and luxury condos with nearby restaurants that can use a courier or send a server walking down the block to deliver meals to […]

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All Eyes on New York’s Hudson Yards

By Tom Kaiser | March 14, 2019

As New York City’s $25 billion Hudson Yards opens to the public, many in the retail and restaurant worlds will be watching to see if this largest private development in U.S. history can succeed with a mega-scale formula representing the biggest bet ever placed on in-person shopping, people watching and dining.

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My Day as a Bite Squad Driver

By Tom Kaiser | March 13, 2019

On-demand restaurant delivery would be just a figment of a futuristic imagination without considering the perspective of the thousands of drivers who make this industry’s wheels go round. For a taste of the day-to-day experience, I went through driver training at Bite Squad and spent a day motoring about the city with Brent, a Canadian expat who may be the friendliest delivery driver in the city. My big day as a driver had somewhat hilarious timing as my hometown of Minneapolis had been buried under a succession of late-winter blizzards […]

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