The Latest News
ChowNow Moves Delivery Customers In-House
The bigger third-party delivery gets, the more incentives restaurants have to move Grubhub, DoorDash or Postmates customers to in-house channels that don’t cost nearly as much. Filling this gap between self delivery and using national delivery brands that charge...
In Letter, Zume CEO Outlines Big Pivot
Last week, the food tech industry and VC world was abuzz with yet another SoftBank investment making drastic changes. For in all the bluster and grand statements about Zume in the media last week, the facts around the company that was part pizza company, part...
Chase Members Getting Free DoorDash Delivery
Consumers with Chase credit cards now have free subscriptions to DoorDash’s DashPass service, which gives members $0 delivery fees and reduced service charges on orders of $12 or more. This partnership is being touted as the first of its kind due to the sheer scale,...
Instacart Rolls out ‘Self Delivery’
Customers “self delivering” their own meals and retail goods—meaning they pick them up instead of having them delivered—has become a hot focal area in the delivery world. The latest company jumping on the bandwagon is Instacart, which just announced a national...
Report: Grubhub Hires Advisor, Considers Sale
Here we go with the first big delivery headline of 2020: The Wall Street Journal reports that Grubhub, the second largest U.S. delivery provider, has hired a financial advisor to explore strategic options, possibly including a sale, as optimism has morphed into...
Food On Demand Topics
Finance
Behind the Scenes on Ghost Kitchen Economics
On the third day of the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference, execs from Kitchen United, Sweetberry Bowls and Dog Haus joined Food On Demand’s Nicholas Upton to go behind the scenes on the economics and other details for restaurants now operating within...
Research
Why Bad Data Should be Counterpunched
A new study making the rounds shows DoorDash drivers making just $1.45 base hourly pay before tips and making the food-delivery economy at large look pretty dismal. And without real-world data, this is what makes the news. The report appeared on Salon, and a handful...
The Deliverers
Chase Members Getting Free DoorDash Delivery
Consumers with Chase credit cards now have free subscriptions to DoorDash’s DashPass service, which gives members $0 delivery fees and reduced service charges on orders of $12 or more. This partnership is being touted as the first of its kind due to the sheer scale,...
Best Practices
What are your peers doing in delivery? Get some of the best practices out there.
A Glimpse into the Future of Food at CES 2020
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is absolute nerdy chaos. Some 180,000 or more attendees are there to see hundreds or thousands of exhibitors all promising the next big thing in technology. Ultimately, the world may never see what the breathless bloggers hail as...
FOD Briefs
Delivery Bots ‘Paused’ After Accessibility Incident
Stuck because a robot won’t move out of the way might sound like a dumb episode of “Black Mirror,” but that was the reality for a doctoral student on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Emily Ackerman, a chemical engineering student who uses a wheelchair, said she...
Uber Buys Chilean Online Grocery Provider
Uber is getting into the online grocery business, which is increasingly being bundled into the same ecosystem as third-party restaurant delivery. In acquiring majority ownership of online grocer Cornershop, Uber will now have a toehold in Chile, Mexico, Peru and...
Ordermark Partners-Up for Social Media Ordering
The idea of ordering food via social media is gaining more and more traction as messaging platforms gobble up our lives. Huge numbers of consumers live their life on some messaging app or another, be it Slack, Messenger or whatever. Ordermark is sliding right in via a...
Grubhub Announces ‘Perks,’ Adding Offers, Loyalty
Grubhub this week announced new functionality dubbed “perks.” The new in-app feature means new options for diners and restaurant owners to better tailor the experience and potentially entice diners to order from them. It might not seem like a huge deal, but for a long...
DoorDash Cruises into Australia
DoorDash has announced its official launch in Melbourne, Australia, through a post on the company’s blog. It’s the largest U.S.-based delivery brand’s first expansion outside of North America. In preparation for the launch, DoorDash has already added thousands of...
New Waitr App Adds Numerous Quality-of-Life Perks
When we order food in the office via one of the third-party apps, it’s not hard, but it’s also not easy. Generally, whoever had the great idea to get food delivered has to glean everyone’s order from our office messaging app Slack and plug them in or wander around the...