Handpicked news stories related to the food delivery industry from the month of May 2017
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By Nancy Weingartner Monroe Before the meal-kit industry took on America’s kitchens, there were make-and-take meal services whose business plan was to entice young mothers to make a week or month’s worth of meals for the freezer while socializing with their girl friends. Concepts abounded in the mid-2000s, with names like Dream Dinners, Super Suppers, My Girl Friend’s Kitchen and Let’s Dish. Most started franchising right out of the gate, gobbling up the independents. While these were brick-and-mortar sites catering specifically to mothers, how the industry went from multiple franchises […]
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Instead of a tired, overworked or maybe even stoned delivery driver, what if your food came from a friendly neighbor, or a happy coworker? That’s exactly the question startup delivery enabler JoyRun seeks to answer by tapping into the delivery gig economy in a way that makes everyone happy—the restaurant, the delivery “runners” and the end users, said founder and CEO Manish Rathi.
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It’s officially time to change the way we talk about robots. With Postmates six weeks into large-scale tests of sidewalk-traversing delivery robots in Washington, D.C., and Redwood City, California, robots are here, they’re ready and they’re making a beeline for your front door with ramen and chopsticks in tow.
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In a ring filled with retail heavyweights, Amazon is the hulking value giant. The Seattle-based online retailer, grocery chain, filmmaker, foodservice equipment supplier and yes, bookstore, is worth more than Walmart, Costco and Target combined, reports Fortune, as Amazon’s stock has nearly tripled in value over the last two years.
Read MoreA round of up food on demand related stories for the month of April 2017.
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By Laura Michaels Panera is ready to double down on delivery in 2017. With 15 percent of the system already in the delivery business, Panera Bread Co. will expand that figure to 35 to 40% by the end of 2017, said company President Blaine Hurst. In a February 8 conference call with analysts, Hurst said Panera sees the potential to “change the delivery paradigm by offering a fast-casual, higher self-esteem experience through our menu offerings and our service.” Offering delivery, Hurst said, will help differentiate them from the rest of […]
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By Nicholas Upton Whenever a hurricane comes along, meteorologists love to make a big map with lots of scary red lines showing where the storm might go. What’s been dubbed “the cone of uncertainty” has everyone up and down the coast glued to the television until—most often—the hurricane loses steam and disintegrates in the Caribbean Right now, GrubHub has a wide cone of uncertainty ahead of it. Will it make landfall, blowing away rivals and storming the restaurant-delivery landscape? Or will it come to pieces between high-pressure rivals of Uber […]
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By Tom Kaiser – Raw numbers can be hard to come by in such a new industry, especially one dominated by cutthroat competition banking on explosive predictions to keep the venture capital flowing. But research from 1010data on the restaurant and meal delivery categories offers a piping fresh look at who’s up, who’s down and which food-delivery upstarts are retaining customers after the initial trial period.
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By Nancy Weingartner Monroe While the big players are trying to outrun each other on the delivery treadmill, some smaller companies are offering fun additions to the food on demand category. Plus there’s no shortage of unusual nourishment you can get in the mail. For instance, what liberal wouldn’t want a meal engineered by President Obama’s former chef, Sam Kass? Kass is no longer withstanding the heat in the kitchen, but rather out providing nutritional guidance for Sprig. Cities receiving the meal kit services are San Francisco, Palo Alto and […]
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