by Nicholas Upton | May 23, 2022 | Best Practices, News
Wow Bao, the mostly virtual steamed bun chain, launched the first virtual restaurant rewards program. The program, dubbed Bao Bucks, awards customers with in-program cash to spend on food. The points accumulate only with direct orders, much like other brand loyalty...
by Nicholas Upton | May 23, 2022 | Best Practices, News
Ask two independent operators how to approach third-party delivery and digital off-premises operations and you’re bound to get five answers. That rang true during a Food On Demand Conference panel titled Case Studies from Independent Operators. Moderated by...
by Nicholas Upton | May 18, 2022 | Finance, News
Grocery delivery giant Instacart has filed with a confidential notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the first legal step toward an initial public offering. The statement from the company was terse: Instacart today announced that it has confidentially...
by Tom Kaiser | May 17, 2022 | Automation, News
Building the Automated Kitchen was a fascinating panel at the Food On Demand Conference, and not just because Flippy, Sippy and other neato robots are taking over unpleasant tasks while allowing human former fry cooks to be redeployed. Pizza chains using Perfect...
by Beth Ewen | May 17, 2022 | News
Integration is the name of the game for point of sale or POS systems, as one restaurant client of Toast described via video at the Food On Demand Conference. “So prior to Toast we trialed another POS system for a year, but they didn’t have the same...
by Tom Kaiser | May 17, 2022 | Finance, News, Top Stories
For the first time, this year’s Food On Demand Conference included a panel of high-profile restaurant tech investors who opened their playbooks to share what they’re watching at this pivotal convergence of automation, innovation, convenience and challenges driven by...
by Nicholas Upton | May 17, 2022 | News, Third-Party Delivery
The third-party networks continue to evolve, expanding into new verticals as growth continues. Two third-party leaders talked with Editor Tom Kaiser during the 2022 Food On Demand Conference, touching on some of the big trends in a panel discussion titled Diversifying...
by Nicholas Upton | May 17, 2022 | Best Practices, News, Retail & Services
Cardfree, the digital services and digital ordering provider, announced a new tool to digitize multiple parts of the hotel experience. Dubbed Cardfree Concierge, the “all-in-one platform” brings all manner of ordering, payments and loyalty functionality to...
by Laura Michaels | May 12, 2022 | News, Top Stories
Remember when Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings drew the ire of some customers after it was discovered the virtual brand was really Chuck E. Cheese in disguise? Applebee’s, too, came under fire for the Neighborhood Wings menu it rolled out on Grubhub, but that reaction is...
by Laura Michaels | May 12, 2022 | Best Practices, News
The topic of the Food On Demand Conference panel was translating data into top line growth, but with so much information at their fingertips, the chief technology officers at Blaze Pizza, Jack in the Box and Freebirds World Burritos all agreed they need to first...