Food On Demand: All the News that Fits into Our Busy Schedule
I don't think any
other industry has as many jaw-dropping stories to read as Food on Demand. Just recently my research led me to a story about future astronauts creating food from their own human waste. You can pair
that up with the joke about the planet Uranus, and you still won't be getting many grade school boys interested in space travel once they hear the menu. The source of the story, by the way, was NPR,
not the Onion-I double-checked. And then there's the collection of the weirdest delivery stories, including one about a pizza driver who traveled 35 minutes to deliver a pizza to an Amish family,
where he was expected to stay for dinner. No one can say that we aren't entering into bold, new territories: We now even have a boat in Dubai delivering hamburgers to yachts in the Persian Gulf, but
even more amazing, we have a conference dedicated just to the fast-paced food-on-demand universe. In this issue, you can read about some of the highlights of the March 19-20 conference in Dallas, and
find out how to sign up. The link at the end of this email will take you to the brochure in its entirety. We also have the business side of food on demand contained in this e-newsletter, so keep
reading. And if you have any questions, story ideas or fun facts to share with us, please contact me at nancyw@foodondemandnews.com. If you have any complaints, feel
free to contact Tom Kaiser at tkaiser@foodondemandnews.com Just kidding, he'd like your news tips as well. See you in
Dallas. | |  |
-Nancy
Monroe Editor of Food On Demand Nancyw@foodondemandnews.com
|
|
|
| | Why
You Should Register for FOD's Conference As We Read By Tom
Kaiser Since you're reading Food On Demand, odds are you know it's a new era in the restaurant business. Mobile technology and third-party delivery are bringing a sea
change to both large and small operators, and after months of preparations, we're ready to take it to the streets with the first-ever Food On Demand Conference. Read More |
| A Miniature Walmart In Your Home From the department of zany patents comes Walmart's idea for a convenience store inside your own home. In a patent filed by the company with the sexy moniker of "Unattended Storefront Apparatus," an area of the home would serve as an in-house Walmart monitored digitally and
restocked by robots. Read More |
|
|
Mobile Access Drives New Capriotti's Model
By
Laura Michaels Convenience continues to prevail as a
priority for consumers, who are also not conceding on quality and taste. This shift is pushing limited-service concepts to reconsider their approach, with some scaling back menus and others using
technology as the basis for revamping store designs to make it in this new restaurant world where only the adaptable will thrive. Read More |
| Wendy's, Doordash Emphasize 'Restaurant Quality' in
Partnership By Nick Upton Delivery dinners are pretty forgiving. When the fries come a little soggy or the salad has been a little
wilted by warm toppings, it's generally OK. But Wendy's didn't want its meals to be "good for delivery," they wanted them as good as they were in the restaurant. Read More |
|
|
High-tech Solutions Leads to Too Many Five-finger Discounts
By Nancy Weingartner Monroe In this age of tech-centric retail, maybe we really do need the human touch to keep
us honest. According to a recent article in The Atlantic, self-scanning in supermarkets is turning into self-scamming, as shoppers switch barcodes or ring up expensive by-the-pound items with the code
for a cheaper per-pound item. That last bit of "external shrinkage" is referred to as "the banana trick." Read More |
| Tales Spun Round the Web
DoorDash Helps feed the Homeless Delivery giant DoorDash is using its delivery algorithm to help feed the
homeless along with Feeding America. In a new program dubbed DASH (DoorDash Acts for Sustainability and Hunger),
restaurants can easily get the food to homeless shelters. Something that has been tricky to do for restaurants who want to help but either can't get the food to shelters efficiently or are barred from
doing so by local food safety rules. Autonomous Vehicle Startup Nuro Wants
Vehicles Delivering this Year How many autonomous delivery vehicle startups can there be? Well, at least one more. A pair of former Google self-driving car engineers founded Nuro and have already amassed $92 million in funding. David Chang's Ando Now Part of UberEats Continuing its growth in the food category, Uber's restaurant delivery arm
UberEats acquired Ando, David Chang's delivery-only restaurant in New York City. The Momofuku chef launched Ando as a digital-only smartphone app-based restaurant brand in May 2016, with a menu suited
to portability and food prepared at a Midtown East kitchen without a storefront. Dunkin' Opens Next Generation Store Dunkin'
Donuts unveiled its next generation concept store in Quincy, Massachusetts, the same city where it opened its first location 68 years ago. In addition to an updated design, the store features the
brand's first drive-thru exclusively for mobile ordering.
|
|
Get on board for the most important conference of the
year Brought to you by the same team that produces the popular restaurant dealmakers' event, the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference, the Food On Demand Conference
registration is now open. On March 19-20 in Dallas, we're bringing together foodservice's key players and experts in mobile ordering, internal and third-party meal delivery, prepared meals,
packaging, and robotics and drone technology to share strategies for increasing efficiency and adding incremental sales. |
|
|
| |
