The latest big quick-service chain to answer the growing demand for food delivery is Jack in the Box, who popped up in the headlines today to announce a partnership with Grubhub.
As of now, delivery via the Grubhub site or app is available in more than 20 Jack in the Box locations, among them Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, St. Louis, Dallas, and the chain’s native San Diego. Grubhub said, in a statement, it plans to expand the partnership to “hundreds more Jack in the Box locations” in 2018.
Part of this partnership involves integrating the Grubhub POS system with Jack in the Box’s own in-house system. Earlier this year, Grubhub rolled out its POS system to a wider range of restaurants after successful trials. With Jack in the Box, this integration will allow stores to manage all orders — in-house and delivery — from a single device. As we’ve been discussing of late, the need to juggle incoming orders from an increasing number of sources is an issue getting more and more airtime. This feels especially true for quick-service restaurants, where customers expect, well, quick service.
To celebrate (and promote) the partnerhship, Grubhub is offering free delivery on orders with minimum purchase from today through May 16.
Grubhub has been steadily building its list of national chain partners. Since October of 2017, the company has added BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, The Cheesecake Factory, and White Castle to its list of national restaurant chain partners. And while not all of those additions are quick-service restaurants, they do highlight the importance delivery has taken in the food arena. According to NPD Group, revenue from deliveries has grown 20 percent over the last five years. In particular, the market for delivery via third parties like Grubhub is expected to hit $24.5 billion by 2022.
Right now, Grubhub owns the most market share in 22 of the country’s most populous cities. But as anyone whose scanned their Twitter feed lately can tell you, competitors keep stacking up, from UberEats to Caviar to DoorDash. Large companies like Jack in the Box tend to be lucrative partners for these delivery services, and with delivery basically being the new drive-thru, we can expect to see a lot more of these deals in future.
delivery basically being the new drive-thru