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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Coronavirus

NPD Group: Restaurant Customer Transactions Are Down 42 Percent

Restaurant customer transactions dropped 42 percent during the week ending in March 29 compared to the same time period one year ago, according to new numbers from The NPD Group. 

While dismal, to say the least, those numbers aren’t surprising. With most states now mandating restaurants keep dining rooms closed for the foreseeable future, many businesses have lost their primary sales channel. Full-service and casual dining restaurants (think Olive Garden or your local Mexican restaurant) that still rely on foot traffic for the majority of their sales are having to quickly pivot to off-premises models that offer delivery and takeout orders. Restaurants designed for an in-dining room experience are having trouble making this transition smoothly and quickly.

Reflecting that issue, NPD notes that while QSRs (e.g., Wendy’s) saw a transaction decline of 40 percent, full-service restaurants shouldered the burden of a much larger drop, at 79 percent.

“The transaction declines partially reflect the struggle of on-premise restaurants to pivot to off-premise models,” NPD industry advisor David Portalatin said in a statement. “Many restaurants that are attempting to make the move are doing so with limited menu offerings and without the benefit of drive-thru lanes. Anecdotally, some operators are giving up the cause and closing altogether.”

Some of those closures are temporary; others, sadly not. Recent numbers from The National Restaurant Association show that 3 percent of restaurants have closed permanently and another 11 percent are expected to this month.  

Some restaurant-tech companies, like Allset and Presto, have shifted their focus to providing products and services that could make to-go operations more efficient. Others, like Ordermark and Chowly, are waiving certain fees for restaurants that want to get quickly up and running with delivery. Meanwhile, a number of charities, fundraisers, and other initiatives are working to provide relief to impacted businesses and their workers.

It’s too soon to tell how effective any one of these solutions is in terms of saving more businesses in the long term. Given that major restaurant chains as well as the smaller businesses are now struggling financially, even cautious optimism feels naive right now.

For us average consumers who can afford it, the best course of action right now is to keep ordering takeout from local restaurants and contributing to relief funds, virtual tip jars, and other online initiatives. Soon enough, the numbers will tell us if these moves can make a big enough difference.

Restaurants Can Now Sell Impossible Foods’ “Beef” Directly to Customers

There’s a new silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic: more of us can now get our hands on Impossible Foods’ plant-based beef. The startup announced today on Linkedin that the FDA will now allow all of Impossible’s restaurant partners to sell the Impossible Burger directly to customers in 5 lb. bricks, 1/4 lb. patties, and 1/3 lb. patties.

In order to sell the burgers, the restaurants must give customers a printed out copy of a PDF outlining the ingredients and allergens in the Impossible Burger. Pricing is at the discretion of the restaurant itself.

Admittedly, this initiative is probably not going to radically alter the course of any foodservice establishments. Restaurants are struggling to stay afloat after COVID-19 has forced the vast majority to shutter their dining rooms and pivot to takeout and delivery only. The numbers are sobering: over 3 percent of restaurants are already permanently closed, and NPD reports that restaurant customer transactions declined by 42 percent in the last week of March, compared to the same time period the year before.

Depending on how they price the uncooked Impossible Burger, restaurants are still likely able to make more money selling a finished Impossible product (i.e., a cheeseburger) than the raw material. But if they can’t sell enough of those, selling the raw product is a good way to get rid of inventory — especially if the restaurant is preparing to shut its doors, either temporarily or permanently.

In the end, this move might be more of a boon for consumers. According to NPR, sales of plant-based meat were up roughly 280 percent over the first two weeks of March. However, Impossible Foods’ ground “meat” is only available in select grocery stores in California and mid-Atlantic states. At the same time, over 15,000 restaurants sell Impossible Foods. If they do choose to sell to customers, that will dramatically increase the number of people who can buy uncooked Impossible “meat” to cook at home.

In Seattle, I have been sadly unable to get my hands on the plant-based “bleeding” burgers (outside of restaurants). Impossible’s new initiative will give folks like me, who love Impossible burgers and want to find ways to support their local restaurants, another opportunity to do so. It may be a relatively small silver lining, but in times like these we’ll take what we can get.

You can search for nearby restaurants that sell Impossible Burgers here. Give them a ring to see if they’re selling the raw plant-based burgers, and how much it’ll cost you to get your heme fix.

Watch Live: The Spoon’s COVID-19 Virtual Strategies Summit

We’ve spent the vast majority of our time over the past month covering how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the food business. Today, our editorial team is setting out to provide strategies that food businesses can implement right now to help navigate these unprecedented times.

We are hosting our first ever Virtual Strategies Summit, this one focusing on the coronavirus outbreak. We’ve brought in a ton of great speakers (see full list below) to talk about everything from legal considerations for restaurants, changes to the grocery store and food waste, and even where to find some hope in these dark times.

Because it’s all online, the whole event is appropriately social distanced. Plus, you’ll be able to ask questions of our experts, and like you, none of the participants have had the chance to cut their hair in the past month. We are definitely all in this boat together.

The event is free, and you can register and watch the sessions by going over to our CrowdCast page. It starts at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Hope to see you there.

powered by Crowdcast

Speakers

Chef Mark Brand – Founder of Save-On Meats 

Sara Roversi– Founder of the Future Food Institute

Dana Gunders – Executive Director of ReFED

Phil Lempert – the Supermarket Guru

Peter Van Stolk – CEO, Spud.ca

Caesaré Assad – CEO, FS6

Paul Freedman – Professor of History at Yale University and author of American Cuisine: And How It Got That Way

Ryan Palmer – Partner at Lathrop GPM, chair of firm’s Restaurant, Food, and Hospitality group

Sterling Douglass – CEO, Chowly

Robert Egger – Founder of LA Kitchen, Fu*kingsh*tup

Michael Wolf –  The Spoon

Chris Albrecht– – The Spoon

Catherine Lamb – The Spoon

Comfort Food & Scratch Cooking: What the Data Tells Us About COVID-19’s Impact on Home Cooking Habits

While it’s hard to see the bright side of things during the dark days of the coronavirus pandemic, one potential silver lining is the fact most consumers are cooking more at home. Research has shown that home cooking not only often can lead to healthier overall lifestyles, but it’s also a good life skill to teach kids.

And whether you’re taking a casual tour of social media or looking at data from any number of sources, signs today definitely point to more of us making our own food. A lot more of us.

But what specifically do the numbers say? First, that a lot of people are learning to make certain types of food for the first time.

Whether it’s something as simple as making rice…

Or something a little more complicated like making bread, interest has spiked to all time highs.

But it’s not just Google searches that are shifting, but actual purchase data of cooking equipment. According to NPD analyst Joe Derochowski, demand for gear to make food at home has jumped significantly.

According to tracking data from NPD for the week ending March 21st, purchases of bread makers were up 800% when compared to the same week a year ago. Electric rotisseries were up nearly 4 times the previous year, while pasta makers were pacing at 3 times their normal sales when compared to a year ago.

While people are learning the basics and scooping up housewares to help them prepare more food at home, they’re also looking for recipes that lets them pinch a penny or two. Chicory, a shoppable recipe app platform used by recipe publishers, has seen a spike in interest for low-cost “bowl food” like soups and stroganoff.

The table below shows a snapshot in time look at the top daily recipe views near the end of March:

What the table data tells us is that people are making comfort food that can stretch a buck, which is not all that surprising since many of us have been thrust into financial uncertainty in relatively short order.

While there are many differences between the great recession and today’s crisis, it is instructive to look at what happened then to get an idea of how behaviors changed during the downturn. Data from NPD shows those categories that saw an increase between February 2007 (pre-crisis) and February 2010 (post-crisis) were pasta dishes, bread and cereal.

In other words, not only did we look to make food that was affordable such as pasta and casseroles then, but we also consumed more carbs, which tend to be cheaper than protein-heavy foods.

And while we are once again cooking more food that will feed us more affordably, unlike the 2008 and 2009 time frame, early indicators show that recent behavior shifts might be driven in part by a desire for food self-sufficiency rather than just saving a buck. Data from Chicory shows in the chart below there’s was a massive spike in mid-March in interest in scratch cooking.

Naturally, part of the interest in making things like corn bread and cookies is due to most of us having more time on our hands, but I also have to wonder if the rapid growth in interest in things like making things like tortillas and basic bread is because some consumers worry they might have to make these staples at home for the foreseeable future.

How permanent these behavior shifts will be depend in large part on how the COVID-19 crisis resolves itself over the course of 2020-2021. My guess is the lingering effects of the Coronavirus crisis will be longer and deeper than that of the great recession and, ultimately, result in more permanent behavior changes than we saw from the last big downturn.

Food Tech Show: The ‘Looking for Bright Spots in a Dark Time’ Episode

Needless to say, when you’re talking and writing about coronavirus all the time, you can get a little down.

So on this week’s podcast, we thought we’d focus on some bright spots, highlighting stories of people and companies who are innovating to help others or are just well-positioned to succeed in an otherwise down time.

Finally, a reminder we’re hosting a virtual COVID-19 strategy summit for food and restaurant people on Monday and we’ll be talking to smart people with good ideas for dealing the crisis.

As always, you can listen to the Food Tech Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download it direct to your device or just click play below.

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When It Comes to Food, What Compromises Will We Make in the Age of COVID-19?

This weekend I went to my favorite neighborhood coffee shop and, just like always, reflexively brought along my takeaway mug. But when I got there I saw the signs that — duh — coffee shops aren’t using takeaway mugs anymore in an attempt to cut down on potential contamination. So I got my coffee in a paper cup and, once outside, poured it into my own mug so that it would be easier for travel.

That interaction got me thinking: with restaurants shifting from dine-in to all takeout and delivery, what will the toll be on packaging? Americans already throw out a staggering amount of food and beverage to-go containers, most of which ends up in a landfill. It’s too early to see any new data from the past few weeks, but I’m willing to bet that that number is increasing.

Really, we’re between a rock and a hard place: on one hand I want to support my local restaurants and cafés however I can, which, right now, means ordering takeout. At the same time I feel guilty when I end up throwing away a clamshell container, cutlery, napkins, and a cup and plastic straw every time I get a veggie taco meal with a drink to go.

This quandary brings up a bigger question that will only grow as we continue into the great unknown of post-COVID-19 life: what are we willing to sacrifice? The question applies to several sectors of the food world.

Grocery. Ordering groceries for delivery has the benefit of convenience and brings less risk of contamination. However, if you’re ordering from Instacart or Amazon, you’re supporting an enterprise that doesn’t necessarily take care of its workers the way it should.

On top of that, you might not be able to get exactly what you want, when you want it. Our own Chris Albrecht wrote about his not-entirely-pleasant experience with online grocery delivery, which was both “misleading” and “confusing.”

Food delivery. If you want to support local restaurants/eat delicious food that you don’t have to cook yourself but aren’t leaving the house, food delivery is an easy option. But as our resident restaurant expert Jenn Marston wrote, delivery is not without its fair share of compromise. Third-party delivery services often take large percentages of each sale from restaurants, despite deals that they’re implementing in the face of COVID-19. They’re also notorious for treating drivers poorly.

However, if you’re trying to really do the social distancing thing or are in quarantine, delivery might be one of your few viable options for feeding yourself.

Health. If you’re working from home right now, like most of us are, staying healthy might be a real struggle. Snacking is all too easy when your pantry is right there all the time and filled with dark chocolate peanut butter cups.

Admittedly, eating healthy is likely not the highest priority for a lot of folks right now. And there are tools that you can use to help stick to a balanced diet, if that’s a goal for you right now. But if this crisis lasts significantly longer and people are stuck eating canned foods and takeout with nary a fresh vegetable in sight, we could start having another health crisis on our hands.

Image via Blue Bottle.

Packaging. As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, single-use packaging for food is a humongous issue plaguing our planet. Before ish hit the fan with coronavirus, a crop of companies were stepping up to reduce their waste. Sweetgreen and Chipotle were rolling out fully compostable to-go containers with no “forever” chemicals. Pre-prepped meal delivery services like Daily Harvest were also transitioning to compostable packaging. These companies are hopefully still moving forward, but other initiatives, like Blue Bottle’s drive to transition to all-reusable cups by 2020, are likely put on pause.

What’s next?

For now, people are going to prioritize feeding themselves and their families — packaging and ethics are not necessarily the highest concern. Nor they should they be. But I have to wonder: will these questions start to factor in again once things go back to normal?

The truth is we don’t know when things will return to the way they were — or what parts of the meal journey will be permanently altered. Will we go back to our old balance of dining in and takeaway? Will we continue to order out more since many folks have struggled with unemployment and thus have less spending power? How many restaurants will even survive to reopen?

The scary answer is, we don’t know. But you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll be here to report on the shifting food space throughout the coronavirus pandemic — with a cup of to-go coffee in our hands.

Frontline Foods is a Grassroots Org. Delivering Food from Local Restaurants to Hospital Workers

Many of us are wondering what we can do to help during the coronavirus pandemic. We can order takeout from our favorite local restaurants and applaud hospital workers, but, at least for me, it feels like I should be doing more.

At least one initiative has sprung up to help both restaurants and medical professionals. Frontline Foods is a donation-based platform that purchases and delivers food from local restaurants to hospital workers fighting COVID-19. One of the organizers, Joel Wishkovsky, came up with the idea just a few weeks ago (it feels like eons ago!) and started a GoFundMe page to raise money to buy food from local restaurants with which to feed hospital workers.

Pretty soon, he started to see folks in other cities working on similar initiatives. So he founded FrontlineFoods.org as a platform to centralize the grassroots efforts. “We provide tools, processes, and national funding for all of these local chapters,” Wishkovsky told me over the phone yesterday.

Less than two weeks in and Frontline Foods has already raised over $700,000 and delivered over 7,000 meals to healthcare workers. So far Frontline Foods is currently available in nine urban areas, from Austin, TX to Silicon Valley. You can donate to your local city or choose to donate nationally, in which case the organization itself will decide where to allocate the funds. Local restaurants apply to become part of Frontline Foods’ network, and all food is delivered either by the restaurant itself or by volunteers.

Today Frontline Foods announced its partnership with the NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK), helmed by celebrity chef José Andres. WCK typically drops chefs in to feed hungry people in disaster-stricken areas. But in this crisis, Wishkovsky said that WCK was looking for a way to help the disaster that is supporting a restaurant during COVID-19. WCK will provide 501C3 backing for Frontline Foods and help them vet restaurant partners.

No Frontline Foods branch in your city? Don’t fret. You can also take initiative and petition to start your own chapter locally as long as you’re comfortable with putting together a team and leading fundraising (admittedly no small task).

If you want to do something a little less involved but still help out, you can also donate to Frontline Foods here.

Newsletter: COVID-19 Could Help Us Build a Better Restaurant

Welcome to the first-ever Weekly Spoon newsletter that’s entirely focused on restaurant innovation. That we chose to launch this just as a pandemic is sweeping across the globe is entirely intentional. Of all the food tech sectors out there, none has been hit so hard or will change — forever — as drastically as the restaurant biz.

With that in mind, let’s kick this thing off by not rehashing the gloomy stuff. Instead, let’s highlight some ways in which the current restaurant business meltdown is spurring a ton of initiatives that could make a better overall industry in the long term — if we let it.

The Virtual Tip Jar Will Stick Around

As anyone whose ever waited tables, tended bar, or delivered pizzas knows, tips are an important portion of workers’ incomes. With most bars and dining rooms closed right now, an astounding number of what are basically virtual tip jars have popped up online. We first got wind of this last week, when we came across a site called chatt.us that lets at-home drinkers leave tips for service workers in Chattanooga, Tenn. via Venmo or CashApp. 

A little more digging uncovered more of these virtual tip jars in, well, pretty much every state from Maryland to Idaho. One site in particular, serviceindustry.tips, lets you choose specific cities from a list and direct your funds to workers in that area from a very user-friendly web interface. Others are simple spreadsheet interfaces, though no less popular from the number of entries on some of them.

While these virtual tip jars can’t make up for the lost wages and job layoffs many restaurant workers now face, they could at least provide some aid to those currently struggling.

They could also be a valuable tool for the restaurant industry even when dining rooms re-open. As one restaurant owner explained to me recently, in-house staff prepping the off-premises orders don’t see any of the tips left through third-party ordering platforms. A virtual tip jar could be a way for customers who wanted to hand over a little extra to tip those employees for their work. There are also well-documented issues around tipping delivery drivers in general. Since fewer folks seem to carry cash these days, a virtual tip jar could be a way to bypass that aspect of the platform, thereby making sure it’s the worker who gets the tip — not the tech companies.

Ditto for Contactless Delivery and Payments

Three months ago “contactless delivery” wasn’t even a phrase, at least not in the vernacular sense. In an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus worldwide, what started in China (see above image, courtesy of Yum China) has now quickly caught on. All the major delivery platforms as well as grocery sites like Instacart and individual restaurant chains now either use contactless delivery as the default option or make it clearly available through their apps.

I doubt we’ll revert back to the old method once this horror show is over.

At their most basic, contactless delivery methods as well as contactless payments are just more hygienic. Fewer germs can spread when cash and cards aren’t being handed back and forth over a counter, or when customers and their delivery couriers stand a certain distance apart during a drop-off. I doubt I’m the only person who’s ever ordered delivery while having bronchitis. Contactless delivery would go far in protecting workers — many of whom do not get paid sick leave — from illnesses their customers might be carrying while they’re stuck at home. Vice versa, too.

And if this look into China’s (sort of) newly reopened restaurant scene is anything for the rest of the world to go by, mobile payments will see a boost, too. More customers will be using apps like Apple Pay, CashApp, and Google Pay to avoid constantly handing over a credit card.

Simpler Menus Will Beget Better Service

“Pare down your menu” is a directive I’ve been hearing a lot as restaurants quickly pivot to serving customers through takeout and delivery channels. That means offering only the items that are easy to produce, will travel well, and are ones that customers actually want. 

That’s not breakfast, at least not right now. In a statement this week, McDonald’s announced it was temporarily pulling breakfast items from its menu and will focus on serving its most popular items. Taco Bell also nixed breakfast items for now. More chains are likely to follow.

Of course, these moves are in response to the potentially billions of dollars the restaurant industry will lose over the next few months. I suspect, however, that slimmed down menus could actually improve certain aspects of the restaurant industry, particularly where tech is concerned. Have you ever tried to navigate a Taco Bell self-service kiosk? Finding Waldo inside Google Maps was an arguably easier task.

Smaller menus could also speed up times in the drive-thru, improve AI-powered upsell recommendations, and use fewer ingredients overall, thereby reducing food waste.

In no way am I suggesting that menus need to look like this one from 1973. And who knows? Breakfast and Monster Tacos might go back on the menu at some point. But maybe this strange, unsettling shift in which we now find ourselves can show us that simpler menus leads to better experiences for everyone involved.

Keep on truckin’,

Jenn

Kitchen United Is Hosting an Online Event to Help Restaurants Make Sense of the Stimulus Package

In an effort to help restaurant operators decipher what the $2 trillion stimulus package means for them, Kitchen United is hosting a free webinar tomorrow, according to a company press release emailed to The Spoon. The event, slated for Tuesday, March 31, will be an “instructional webinar for restaurant operators of any size” to better understand how they can take advantage of the stimulus package. 

President Trump signed The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act into law on Friday. Among other things, it will provide $803 billion in loans to businesses, $349 billion of which is dedicated to small businesses. 

As with most legislation, the stimulus package is massive and chock-a-block full of legal jargon, and that’s where Kitchen United is stepping in. The webinar will help restaurants understand if they qualify for any relief, how much they can expect to receive, and how to apply for it. KU’s CFO Michael Montagano will host the online event, sharing tips on the above topics and more. Jim Collins, who in addition to being CEO of Kitchen United is also a restaurant owner, will also share his experience and thoughts around the process of applying for relief. 

It’s an understatement to say restaurants are struggling in the wake of forced dining room closures happening around the country. While businesses may remain open for delivery and takeout orders, the reality is that switching to those off-premises formats isn’t an overnight process — nor an affordable one, in some cases. Some restaurants are already saying they’ll have to close locations permanently, while others have furloughed employees. And with the social distancing guidelines now extended through the end of April, the struggle for restaurants is far from over. 

Collins recently told me that lack of information and misinformation are two big problems restaurants face amid this crisis, which is presumably what next week’s webinar discusses. “We need to start to address that, but then there are series of concrete things we’re working on to see if we can’t help folks start to deal with all of this successfully,” he said. 

Collins added that Kitchen United is working on a number of forthcoming initiatives designed to help restaurants during this time. 

Those interested in joining next week’s webinar can go here for details. A replay will also be made available via the Kitchen United website.

COVID is Migrating All My Food and Beverage Shopping to Online Mail Order Boxes

We’re all waiting to see what permanent changes the COVID-19 pandemic will bring about in our daily lives (handshakes, hugs, etc.). At least in the Albrecht house, after the worst of it subsides, regular, in-person trips to the grocery store may be a thing of the past.

Even before our home state of Washington was given a shelter-in-place order, we were pretty hardcore about our social distancing. I tried various online grocery shopping methods (to varying degrees of success), and have only been to the supermarket once because we ran out of milk (and even that trip out was filled with gloves and hand sanitizer).

Given that we don’t know how long this social distancing will last, this past week I explored all the online ways I could find to replace old habits. With the goal of maximizing social distancing and minimizing human contact, here’s what I signed up for.

  • CrowdCow for proteins. I also looked at ButcherBox, but it wouldn’t ship until the end of April. CrowdCow will deliver this weekend. (Sidenote: I can’t wait till someone creates an alternative protein box subscription so I can subscribe to Beyond and Impossible plant-based meat.)
  • Full Circle for fruit and veggies. I haven’t received a box yet, so I’m concerned about what will actually be in there (i.e., month after month of eggplant), but it has the bonus of also supporting farmers.
  • Smith Brothers for milk, egg, yogurt and other staples.
  • Amazon Subscribe and Save for my morning tea, and I’m considering one of the coffee subscriptions Catherine wrote about to keep whole beans coming to the house (and maybe some sort of booze club, depending on how long we’re all cooped up).
  • And I’ll still use Walmart online for curbside pickup of last minute items or cleaning supplies.

What’s missing from this list is meal kits, which are also seeing a bit of COVID-induced resurgence. I dabbled in meal kits a bunch of years back when Blue Apron was first coming on the scene. I didn’t like all the work it took then and I’m not thrilled about the prospect now, so I’m skipping those altogether.

All these mail order boxes aren’t just about replacing trips to the grocery store. They also help maintain a pipeline of food in the house. Knowing that each week/month a box will arrive with what we need gives me one less thing to worry about in a world filled with plenty of other things to worry about. (Granted, society could break down altogether, but I can cross that bridge when I get to it.)

Ordering food online by subscription isn’t new or rocket science, and perhaps I’m overreacting to any potential dangers lurking at the supermarket. But some of these services are ones I’ve been eyeing for awhile; the coronavirus just nudged me into action. For instance, we still eat meat, and it will feel better to patronize smaller farms via CrowdCow. Same for the fruits and veggies.

Will my subscriptions to these boxes stick around once the outbreak abates? Who knows! At that point I’ll just be thankful there’s a world to emerge out into.

Like Local Farms? You Better Step Up Now or They’re Going to Disappear

Certain food sources, like e-commerce grocery sites and meal kit companies, are seeing a boost in sales in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, many parts of the world are shuttering farmers markets and restaurants, eliminating key revenue sources for local farmers. So how can those farmers survive in our new coronavirus reality?

Unfortunately, it won’t be easy. Small farmers make a significant chunk of their money from these markets or selling to restaurants — which, as you’ve probably noticed, are also struggling. The numbers are discouraging: Civil Eats pointed to an analysis of the impacts of COVID-19, predicting a $689 million decline in sales from March to May 2020 for farmers who sell at local markets. It’s especially tricky for farmers who sell perishable goods, like eggs and produce, which might go bad while their sales channels are blocked.

Some farmers and supporters are fighting back by making a petition to designate farmers markets in areas like Seattle, where they’ve been shut down, as essential. I think that makes sense. People are already shopping shoulder-to-shoulder in grocery stores, way closer together than six feet. Arguably, it’s less dangerous from a public health standpoint for them to shop outside in the open air?

One solution for farmers could be to move towards selling more CSAs, or Community Supported Agriculture. With a CSA, individuals can buy a share in a farm’s output, which is delivered either to their door or a pick-up point, usually once a week. It’s a way to continue to get local produce and support farmers without having to risk cross-contamination in a farmers market, if those are even still available. Clearly people are interested — according to Yelp, deliveries of CSAs have gone up 405 percent in March.

Certain online platforms are also facilitating online sale of local foods. MilkRun in Portland, Oregon, for example, is an online marketplace connecting people with local farms in their area. MilkRun’s CEO and Founder Julia Niiro told me that the company’s orders have increased more than 6 times since the start of the crisis with “no signs of them slowing down” as farmers markets close. Even if you aren’t in the Portland area, Niiro is urging diners to buy from local farmers wherever they can. “If you want to be able to get beautiful, local food at any restaurant after this crisis is over, you need to buy directly from small farmers now,” she told me.

Restaurants are also thinking of creative ways to support farmers. Naked Farmer in Tampa Bay, Florida, which was slated to open its doors this April, has instead pivoted to open a digital farmers market. People can order locally-sourced foods through either the Naked Farmer website or UberEats, and can get their orders at a pick-up zone or via delivery. In Seattle, Eric Rivera, who’s been especially innovative in the face of COVID-19, is partnering with local farmers to sell bags of locally grown vegetables for pickup at his restaurant. Diners can also add it onto their delivery order from his restaurant, Addo.

Some existing online farm-to-diner sites are struggling to keep up with the sudden explosion in demand. UK-based platform Farmdrop, a service that delivers food from farmers to Brits’ doorsteps, has had to limit its drop-off days. When I checked the site earlier today, I saw a note that they are “at capacity and unable to take any further orders for the current days available,” but would be opening new slots soon. In the U.S., local farmed food delivery service Hungry Harvest has also had to pause new signups due to an increase in orders.

That’s an encouraging sign that people want to support local farmers and buy their goods. It also shows that we need more services connecting consumers to farmers and facilitating purchases and delivery. And soon.

Small farmers are already struggling to survive for a myriad of reasons — if we don’t find ways to sell their produce, or give them a significant bailout, we could be looking at a future with significantly fewer farmers markets and locally-grown food. And that’s not a future I want to eat in.

Zippin Waives Setup Fees for Stores that Want Cashierless Checkout Pop-Ups to Sell Essential and Safety Products

Next time I go to that grocery store, my cashier will be scanning my groceries from behind a plexiglass shield, yet another measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus to grocery workers on the front line of this pandemic.

The enormity of the COVID-19 crisis makes me think that cashierless checkout would be really nice to have at a time like this. Shoppers could walk in, grab what they want and go, getting charged automatically upon exit. No interaction with cashiers or baggers, or standing in line with other people.

So I reached out to Krishna Motukuri, Co-Founder of Zippin, to see if there’s been increased interest in his company’s cashierless checkout technology. He said that there has been, particularly in the company’s Zippin Cube, which is a modular pop-up that allows the creation of a cashierless pop-up retail store-within-a-store. In an email to me, Motokuri wrote:

With a Zippin Cube (popup) at the front of the store (or a dedicated aisle converted into a Zippin section) stocking the top-selling products, stores can ease some pressure on their cashiers. Shoppers who need just some cleaning supplies or a cough syrup can walk into the Zippin section, grab those items and leave, without adding to the congestion in the main store.

I mean, it’s his company, so of course he thinks Zippin is a great solution for retailers right now. But the scenario that he describes actually makes a lot of sense. Sick people still have to shop (even in non-COVID-19 times), so they bundle up and head out to the grocery store, wandering the aisles, looking for things like medicine and Gatorade. Then they get in the same checkout lines as the healthy people.

Instead, as Motukuri suggests, grocery or drug stores could build a pop-up near their entrances filled with the items sick people buy. That way, these people, along with those caring for (and thereby in contact with) sick people, can quickly shop in a separate area, limiting contact with store workers and other customers.

This of course, can feel a bit ethically sticky. Prior to the pandemic, the big discussion around cashierless checkout was the removal of another human job. Now that doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. But this vision of a store-within-a-store for sick people does admittedly conjure images of a second-class area for sick people to be shoved into. That’s to say nothing of the unbanked and underbanked not even being able to use cashierless checkout options.

I don’t have a clean answer to that problem. Life was complicated enough even before we implemented a six-foot personal space bubble around us. But these are the questions any retailer setting up cashierless checkout will have to grapple with.

But for those retailers interested in setting up their own cashierless Zippin Cube, Motukuri says his company is waiving all setup fees to stores selling household essentials or health and safety products.