Food On Demand spoke to restaurant attorney Ryan Palmer about conversations with restaurant clients related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is closing dining rooms and forcing others to pivot exclusively to off-premises operations. Palmer said this moment is bigger than the Great Recession, and that pivoting to takeout and delivery won’t be nearly enough to bridge the gap for restaurants that now have empty dining rooms.
With many states and local municipalities closing bars and restaurants or restricting service to off-premises channels only, the four largest U.S.-based national delivery providers have rolled out a wave of ways to help their restaurant partners. So far, those efforts include increased marketing to boost delivery in general; Grubhub suspending $100 million in commission payments from independent restaurants under limited circumstances; Uber Eats waiving delivery fees for independent restaurants and allowing daily, rather than weekly merchant payouts; and Postmates waiving commission fees in certain markets. Here’s a rundown of the […]
Nobody knows how the current social distancing and mandated bar and restaurant restrictions will impact the wider foodservice industry as many restaurants pivot to off-premises-only operations or close down, but the leading restaurant analysts are zeroing in on what the coronavirus scare means for individual restaurants and investors in the space. As Wells Fargo analysts Jon Tower and William Miller note with an iceberg analogy, the most disconcerting thing at the moment is not the financials analysts see, but what lies beneath the visible surface. Below are excerpts of the […]
The appeal of virtual restaurant concepts for existing restaurateurs looking to monetize excess kitchen capacity is straightforward, but getting new online-only virtual brands up and running still takes work like negotiating new contracts, securing prime placement on delivery apps, creating branding and building buzz. A new company called Nextbite aims to simplify the process by offering restaurant operators its own handmade virtual restaurant brands they could implement in a flash, with no financial risk beyond food costs. Nextbite’s CEO Geoff Madding said many people have the same response when learning […]
After testing Postmates on-demand delivery services from Walgreens stores in New York City last fall, the second-largest U.S. pharmacy chain announced it is expanding its Postmates partnership to bring delivery service to an additional 13 cities across the country. Walgreens consumers in Los Angeles; San Francisco; San Diego; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Portland (OR); Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Atlanta; Charlotte; Miami; Ft. Lauderdale; and Houston can now get health and wellness and other convenience products, including certain over-the-counter medications, delivered to them via Postmates. In making the announcement, Craig Whitmer, Postmates’ vice […]
The World Health Organization announced that that the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 is officially a pandemic. That scary news marks the first official pandemic since the 2009 Swine Flu (H1N1). The response from the delivery industry has been swift and many key best practices are emerging to keep things clean and slow the spread of the virus. In China, where the virus emerged, there has been an incredible response to the disease from city-wide quarantines to shutting down complete industries. In the hardest hit areas, restaurants are sending out […]
After testing Postmates on-demand delivery from Walgreens stores in New York City last fall, the second-largest U.S. pharmacy chain announced it is expanding its Postmates with partnership to bring delivery service to an additional 13 cities across the country.
This article was originally published by Alex Canter, founder and CEO of Ordermark, on LinkedIn. It is republished in full here with permission. Thank you to Alex and the Ordermark team for their insights. As concerns about coronavirus grow, Ordermark sat down with Alex Canter (Ordermark CEO) and Charlie Jeffers (Ordermark Head of Innovation) to share input on how it’s affecting restaurants and ways that restaurants can prepare for an indefinite period of reduced foot traffic and on-premise dining. 1. Foot traffic is down nationwide. How should restaurants respond to […]
Jason Droege, who has led Uber Eats, the ride-sharing company’s meal delivery arm since it first launched as UberFRESH in 2014, is stepping down. Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber’s current VP, international rides, is taking over as the top executive for the Eats business. The news of Droege’s departure was first published in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 25. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, along with Droege and Gore-Coty posted the announcement on Twitter, with Khosrowshahi calling Droege “fearless, clear-eyed, a deep thinker, and a true entrepreneur.” […]
Restaurant software brand Omnivore is busting out of its Silicon Valley birthplace, where co-founder and CEO Mike Wior says the culture changed from a “renaissance of ideas” to an environment where top talent is frequently lured away by the Googles, Salesforces and Pied Pipers of the world. It will keep some staffers in the Valley and remote locations around the country, as it builds up its new headquarters in Tampa, Florida. A year after Coca-Cola led a $10 million investment into Omnivore, which was a notable moment as the flashiest […]
