Delivery logistics giant FedEx announced what it calls the SameDay Bot, an autonomous delivery robot aimed at retailers wanting to make same-day and last-mile deliveries. With the bot, which resembles a trash compactor-Opportunity rover hybrid, retailers can accept orders from nearby customers and use the bot to deliver products directly to their homes or businesses on the same day. FedEx is collaborating with a variety of brands including AutoZone, Lowe’s, Pizza Hut, Target, Walgreens and Walmart to assess their autonomous delivery needs. According to FedEx, more than 60 percent of […]
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Kitchen United had some big, aggressive goals. Last year, Founder and CEO Jim Collins laid out the path to 15 locations open or under way by the end of 2019. It’s the hallmark in the restaurant industry to over-promise and hope everyone forgets about it, but given a major addition to the leadership team, two new locations all on the heels of a successful funding round, the company seems poised to deliver. In late February, the company announced four major additions to the executive team, adding a dedicated CFO, and […]
Read MoreGrubhub solidified its presence in Philadelphia on Monday morning. Standing next to Mayor Jim Kenney, Grubhub’s CTO Maria Belousova and Chief Product Officer Sam hall ceremoniously cut the ribbon to a 15,000 square-foot office in Philadelphia’s city center. Once scattered at five different offices around the city, the Grubhub team will all be working under one roof.
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Waitr and its newly acquired Bite Squad subsidiary both saw impressive gains in delivery orders on Valentine’s Day, with a particularly notable increase in seafood-based items and kids meals like mozzarella sticks and chicken tenders. For Waitr, the Louisiana-based delivery service that purchased Bite Squad in January, create-your-own-pizza was the biggest gainer on Valentine’s Day, up 85 percent compared to the previous year. Mozzarella sticks, chicken tenders, mac and cheese and cheese pizza rounded out the top six. From there, the adults got in on the antisocial fun with spicy […]
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DoorDash raised an additional $400 million, the industry crosses another mega-checkpoint with investors valuing the San Francisco-based delivery service at $7.1 billion.
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Fleat Network, a Florida-based delivery logistics startup, announced it will debut its “intelligent mobile retail platform” at the upcoming Food On Demand Conference in Chicago April 1st and 2nd. The company’s StreetLogic software combines automated delivery management with so-called “database intelligence” that allows restaurants and retail operators to reach customers wherever they are, including their homes. “Third-party delivery services are stealing the soul from brick-and-mortar retailers,” said Patrick Fore, Fleat’s CEO and co-founder at a recent industry conference. “When retailers join their competitors on third-party delivery marketplaces like UberEats, Instacart […]
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For all the articles, news segments and business conference quips that Amazon is responsible for the difficulties seen in the U.S. retail market as once-iconic brands continue to fall, one retail real estate expert argues that the Seattle-based mega-giant’s impact is vastly overstated and almost universally misunderstood.
Read MoreFresh off the Valentine’s Day sugar high for the restaurant industry at large, Yelp announced strong growth in its restaurant services offering, including a record-setting V-day week where its reservation and waitlist software assisted 5.6 million diners.
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Elizabeth Tomlinson worked her way up at Potbelly as an assistant manager, GM, part of the corporate operations team and then district manager. Now she’s director of ops for urbanbelly, Chicago’s hip Asian fusion concept owned by the Cornerstone Restaurant Group.
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Amazon is taking an earthbound detour with its new drones. The ecommerce giant that has a handful of wild patents for our aerial drone future has taken to the streets around Seattle with a new roving delivery bot. Dubbed Scout, a six-wheeled robot that looks like a cooler on wheels, began deliveries on January 23 in Washington’s Snohomish County. For the initial test, Amazon fielded six of the robots that will deliver packages during daytime hours. During the test, the robots will have a human Amazon counterpart to make sure […]
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