The Latest News
Alinea, Tock Owner Outlines Fine Dining’s To-Go Pivot at FODC
What is it like to run a restaurant reservations platform during a pandemic, Food on Demand Editor Tom Kaiser asked the founder of Tock to kick off today's virtual FOD conference. "It took work that was interesting, and made it important," replied Nick Kokonas in a...
Postmates Founder, Pioneer in Ride-Sharing for Stuff, Kicks Off FODC
Bastian Lehmann, CEO and co-founder of Postmates, was man of the hour as his keynote address kicked off the third annual Food on Demand Conference today, for the first time in all-virtual format. That's because Uber is set to buy Postmates, which is a distant fourth...
Square Report Shows Top 50 Cities Adopting E-commerce
In a brief report looking at the top 50 metro areas in the U.S., Square, a payment processing tool for online ordering, highlights which cities have seen the biggest percent increase in new sellers moving online in response to the pandemic. The list is headlined by...
Amazon Approved for Deliveroo Investment
Amazon’s major investment in the U.K. delivery firm Deliveroo has been approved by regulators. As CNBC reported, it was an unusually contentious look at the deal by country regulators that underscored the caution they were taking around this massive shift in the...
Grubhub Reports Shaky Growth Going into JET Transaction
Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) reported strong second-quarter results and gave a few updates on the Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET) transaction. The company released the results without an earnings call as the company has chosen not to hold calls until the close of the JET...
Food On Demand Topics
Finance
Amazon Approved for Deliveroo Investment
Amazon’s major investment in the U.K. delivery firm Deliveroo has been approved by regulators. As CNBC reported, it was an unusually contentious look at the deal by country regulators that underscored the caution they were taking around this massive shift in the...
Research
Uber Eats Switches Bait, Goes After Postmates Instead
After ponying up an all-stock offer of $4.9 billion to acquire Grubhub back in May, multiple reports suggest Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is swapping in some lighter tackle to land Postmates, the fourth largest U.S. restaurant delivery service, for a less biting $2.6...
The Deliverers
Philadelphia Institutes Third-Party Delivery Caps, Restrictions
Philadelphia is the latest major U.S. city capping fees and placing new restrictions on third-party delivery services. Signed by Mayor Jim Kenney and effective immediately, the new bill limits delivery fees, mandates that fees must be transparent to customers and that...
Best Practices
What are your peers doing in delivery? Get some of the best practices out there.
Kiwibot Expansion Marks New B2B Integrations
Kiwibot, one of the handful of companies expanding autonomous delivery options via adorable coolers on wheels, is moving into San Jose, California. Unlike prior expansions that pushed bots onto college and corporate campuses, this new operational arm extends further...
FOD Briefs
Uber Eats Releases Survey of Delivery During the Pandemic
A new survey of restaurant operators on the Uber Eats platform shows many feel that, were it not for third-party delivery volume, the vast majority would have had to lay off staff members or cut staff hours to get through the pandemic. Putting a finer point on it,...
Low ABV Drink Maker and Membership Club Snags $4.5 Million
If you love cocktails, but don’t like to get drunk or go outside, there’s a new multi-million-dollar startup looking to plug you into a low-alcohol cocktail membership. With the promise of reviving “aperitif culture,” Haus secured $4.5 million in seed funding from a...
Chicago Restaurants Getting Grocery Delivery
MyValue365.com, a Chicago-based ethnic grocery ordering and delivery company that’s previously focused on at-home consumers, announced its entry into B2B grocery-delivery business, which includes deliveries to restaurants. This offering is a part of the company’s new...
DoorDash Unveils 2019’s Trending Delivery Foods
DoorDash has released its annual delivery trend report dubbed “The DoorDash Dish: 2019-2020 Trend Report,” showing what U.S. delivery consumers are hungry for. The report is built on the data from orders through the network and a survey of more than 1,200 DoorDash...
Uber Paints Picture of Future Drone-Driver Hybrid Model
Aerial drones may represent an incredible leap in foodservice technology, but there is still plenty of work to be done before we collectively get there. Uber’s Elevate division recently painted a picture of what that future model might look like as it announced its...
Amid Turmoil, Waitr Lays off Minneapolis Bite Squad Employees
Minneapolis’ StarTribune newspaper reports that Louisiana-based Waitr Holdings laid off the majority of employees at Bite Squad’s downtown Minneapolis headquarters. Waitr acquired Bite Squad in late 2018 for $321 million. The move is the latest shakeup for Waitr,...