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delivery

June 18, 2018

JD.com Investment Puts Google in the Robot Restaurant Biz

Google announced today that it is investing $550 million into Chinese e-commerce company JD.com. Many of the takes surrounding the deal have focused on the access Google will get to the Chinese market (and JD to the American market), and how the deal is an attempt by Google to claw back some product search traffic from Amazon.

Yes, yes, yes. That’s all very important, but let’s take a moment to appreciate something else this investment means: Google is getting into the robot restaurant business! Kinda.

Earlier this month we wrote:

“…JD.com, China’s second largest e-commerce company, will open 1,000 restaurants completely staffed by robots by the year 2020. Though a location hasn’t been determined yet, the first of these robo-restaurants will open in August. It will be roughly 400 sq. meters (~4,300 sq. ft.) and will serve 40 dishes from around China, with customers ordering and paying by smartphone.”

But JD’s robot ambitions aren’t relegated to restaurants. As Axios wrote last week, JD “has built a big new Shanghai fulfillment center that can organize, pack and ship 200,000 orders a day. It employs four people — all of whom service the robots.”

That type of automation is certainly very Amazonian, and perhaps one that could be licensed here in the States much the same way Kroger bought into Ocadao’s robot warehouse technology.

The JD investment becomes even more interesting as it relates to Amazon when you consider the other relationships Google’s been forming. It partnered with Walmart last year for virtual assistant shopping. Just this month, Google partnered with European grocery giant Carrefour SA for online grocery shopping and same-day delivery in France.

Of course, back here at home, Google already has it’s own research efforts around robotics, as well as investments in food robot companies like Momentum Machines and Abundant Robotics.

Now, before you — well, I — get too excited over the idea of a JD robot restaurant host taking reservations from the human-sounding Google Duplex AI, Google’s investment in JD amounts to just 1 percent of the shopping site, and there are much bigger fish to robotically fry than a restaurant chain that hasn’t actually opened yet.

May 21, 2018

Kitchen United Launches to Help Restaurants Meet Delivery Demand

There is no shortage of people ordering restaurant food for delivery. And there is no shortage of services who will gladly deliver those people restaurant food. There is, evidently, a shortage of kitchen space to make all that restaurant delivery food.

That’s where Kitchen United aims to make a difference. The company bills itself as a “culinary on-demand startup,” and today it opened its first commercial kitchen space targeting restaurants that want to increase, or keep up with, the volume of delivery orders.

Located in Pasadena, CA the 12,000 sq. ft. space can house 15 different clients (or “concepts,” as Kitchen United describes them) and features a delivery-specific infrastructure. Restaurants get access to a kitchen with standard equipment (burners, ovens, fryers, fridges, etc.), as well as Kitchen United employees who will wash dishes, manage inbound orders and assist with expediting food to the correct delivery service.

“When a restaurant operator comes to a KU kitchen, they get a virtual restaurant solution,” Kitchen United CEO, Jim Collins told me.

Because Kitchen United was created to help facilitate delivery orders, the building itself is designed to handle the literal traffic generated by the steady stream of drivers. The building has dedicated parking spots for delivery drivers, there are video screens to direct people to the proper pick-up, and attendants to confirm that the right food is going to the right people.

The Pasadena location is the first of 20 to 30 planned Kitchen United centers to be built across the country next year. To help fund this rapid expansion, Kitchen United also announced today that it has raised and undisclosed Series A round from Cali Group, Avista Investments and other private investors.

Unlike other virtual or “ghost” kitchens, where restaurants can experiment with new cuisines, Kitchen United’s main mission is to help national and local restaurant chains keep up with demand for their existing menus. Restaurants that want to sign on with Kitchen United can either pay straight rent, or, if Kitchen United believes it can hit the right numbers, there is an option for revenue sharing.

The Pasadena location has already signed on its first batch of tenants, including Neal Fraser’s Fritzi Coop, Mama Musubi, Barney’s Gourmet Burgers and Canter’s Deli. In a nice bit of synergy, Kitchen United is using Ordermark, the delivery order ticket management system founded by Alex Canter (of the aforementioned deli).

There are many players in the commercial kitchen co-working/rental space, all of whom seem to be growing. PilotWorks, The Food Corridor and Commonwealth Kitchen are all expanding their commercial kitchen services. Those players, however, seem to be targeting food entrepreneurs, and smaller players looking to build a food business.

Collins told me that Kitchen United will serve those type of clientele as well, but its focus on restaurants is a smart differentiator. For the most part, restaurants already know what they’re doing, and since they are focusing on existing menus, already know how to do it. This should reduce the actual amount of work and assistance that Kitchen United needs to supply.

It’s also a smart play for restaurants who can dedicate resources on both the delivery and in-store aspects of their business to ensure the best experiences for each.

May 16, 2018

Uber Eats Gobbles Up POS Integration With orderTalk Acquisition

Ever gone neck and neck with another car down the road for several miles only to suddenly have them speed up and leave you in a cloud of freeway dust? That’s probably how a lot of third-party delivery services are starting to feel about Uber Eats right now.

Grubhub remains the bigger company in terms of market share, but Uber Eats is the fastest-growing service, and according to recent numbers has the lead in 15 major U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Austin, and Seattle.

And that number will most likely increase, as Uber Eats just announced its acquisition of restaurant tech company orderTalk, who’s online ordering platform is known for its direct and easy integration with existing and custom custom POS systems for restaurants. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Uber Eats head of biz dev, Liz Meyerdirk, told Skift the acquisition is part of a two-fold strategy: to reduce the amount of errors, which can arise with manually entering orders, and to streamline workflow, so that orders via UberEats go direct to the kitchen, sans middleman.

For now, Uber Eats will “retain orderTalk’s point of sale technology as well as several engineers,” according to Meyerdirk. They’ll wind down other orderTalk features over the coming year, including the ability for restaurants to accept orders through the orderTalk platform. (Presumably, they’ll have to switch to Uber Eats.)

The acquisition is none too soon, considering Grubhub already integrates with leading POS systems and has exclusive deals with several big-name chains, including its recently announced partnership with Jack in the Box.

Not to be outpaced, Uber Eats has its own deals with quick-service heavyweights, including its lucrative and exclusive partnership with McDonald’s. They also just inked a deal a deal with Popeye’s to deliver in Florida, New York, Washington D.C., and Chicago.

If you happen to be a Miami-area resident, the Uber Eats-Popeye’s deal means you can get free chicken, biscuits, and red beans today in celebration. Head over to the Uber Eats website or app to get the goods.

For the rest of you, more Uber Eats deals are probably speeding your way in the very near future.

May 15, 2018

Mucho Makes Shoppable Meal Planning More Dynamic & Efficient

“You do the cooking. We do the rest.” That’s the tagline of Mucho, a London-based startup which aims to create personalized, convenient meal plans that can be customized a whole slew of ways. And they really do take you pretty much ALLLLL the way through the meal journey.

Customers can use the Mucho app to select recipes based on dietary preferences (low sugar, vegetarian, etc.), budget, and how people they want to feed. The app then builds a customized shopping basket around the recipe(s), which users can either transfer into a printable shopping list or, if they’re in the U.K., they can also have their shopping list delivered through grocery delivery service Ocado. Users can also add on bits and pieces like cleaning products or snacks to their delivery list.

As of now, Mucho has over 1000 recipes in their database, culled from 40 online influencers and 20 brands — most of whom focus on healthy recipes. 

When I first heard of Mucho, I thought “Isn’t this just emeals, but British?” Both services offer personalized recipe selections, both create shopping lists, and both are linked up with grocery delivery companies so users can have their meals’ ingredients delivered straight to their door.

According to their cofounder Shanshan Xu, however, Mucho differs from emeals — and existing shoppable recipe services in general — quite a bit.

First of all, it’s more flexible. “We’ve found that people’s mood changes all the time,” said Xu. While emeals requires a subscription that locks users into a set number of dishes from the get-go, home cooks can use Mucho as much — or as little — as they’d like. They update their dietary profile and the number of people they’ll be cooking for every time they open up the app.

Emeals does allow their users switch between plans, but you can’t customize day-by-by. Which can be a hassle if you’re someone that, say, wants to eat vegan one week and flexitarian the next, or isn’t consistently dining with a partner or family. 

Mucho can also be cheaper — depending on how much you use it. Jenn Marsten reported for The Spoon that prices for emeals vary based on how long you choose to commit, but it costs $29.99 for three months or $59.99 for a full year, not including the cost of ingredients and grocery delivery. Mucho’s app is free to use, and if customers choose to have groceries delivered through the app they add a 5% fee to the final bill.

Do a little high school math, and we can determine that if you’re buying less than $1,200 in groceries per year, Mucho costs less than emeals. While $1,200 isn’t much at all to spend on groceries, especially for families, emeals also requires users to sign up for grocery delivery services (such as Amazon Prime or Instacart) separately, whereas Mucho builds Ocado delivery into the service. Xu told me that they’re hoping to soon shift the price burden away from the consumer and onto the grocery retailer.

To me, Mucho is a good option for people who want a more dynamic meal-planning service than emeals, but who need more hand-holding than is offered by shoppable recipes.

I’m betting the app will be popular with young, single folk (read: millennials) who want to cook more (and more adventurously), but also value the convenience of grocery delivery — and are willing to pay for it. Plus, Mucho’s bright, poppy graphics seem like they were made with this audience in mind.

Speaking of millennials, I tried the app myself; it was fun and easy to use, and while I couldn’t use the delivery capabilities (because I’m in the U.S.), I could definitely see myself incorporating Mucho into my grocery routine, especially when, as Xu reassured me, the delivery option comes over the pond.

The app has over 10,000 downloads so far. The Mucho cofounders put together money themselves to create the beta version of their app, and their roughly 10-person team is working to perfect their product before raising their seed round.

May 5, 2018

Food Tech News Roundup: Grocery E-Commerce, Food Fraud & Cooking Robot Goes Beta

Food tech news time! We had quite a few updates on the Spoon this week, too. Chris Albrecht launched a brand new podcast about food-related robots and AI called The Spoon: Automat — give it a listen! We also announced the details of our next food tech meetup: The Future of Meat. Tickets are free, so if you’re in the Seattle area we hope to see you there. And finally, we’re just a little over a month out from heading to the legendary Guinness Storehouse for SKS Europe, so if you want to network with the top leaders defining the future of food, make sure to get tickets before they’re gone.

Now, grab a second cup of coffee and take a look at these noteworthy food tech news stories from around the web.

Photo: Flickr.

Alibaba hops on the blockchain train
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is rolling out a pilot program to combat food fraud in China using everyone’s favorite buzzword these days: blockchain. They’ll initially target food products from Australia and New Zealand that are sold in their Tmall online marketplace, China’s largest open B2C platform.

According to the Australian Financial Review, just two items are part of the pilot program: something in the dairy family and a fish oil supplement. If successful, Alibaba will expand the initiative and try to crack down on food fraud worldwide.

Blockchain is not a perfect cure-all for food fraud. It may be incorruptible, but it doesn’t guarantee that those inputting the provenance and quality of each food item are telling the truth. Other companies, such as Ripe.io and Inscatech, have nonetheless been working on establishing blockchain for food. But this move by Alibaba is on a different level; it’s giving some transparency — and responsibility — to one of the largest e-commerce suppliers in the world.

 

Photo: Klue.

Tech company introduces responsive wearables for nutrition tracking
This week Klue, a technology company developing an OS focused on behavior change, announced partnerships with Stanford University and Crossover Health (a healthcare company) to further their program on shifting consumer eating and drinking patterns.

They also promised to reveal their first wearable technology by May 7. We’ve written about Klue before on the Spoon, but that was when their tech synced up to compatible wearables; now, they’re about to unveil their own. Their press release said that the wearables will harness AI to track wrist movements and determine how much — and how fast — consumers are eating and drinking. According to their press release, they’ll then provide “personalized, real-time micro-nudges on dietary behavior modification,” encouraging wearers to make healthier consumption choices like eating more slowly, staying hydrated or avoiding late-night snacking.

While we’re not exactly sure what a “micro-nudge” is, it seems like this could lead to some literally hand-slapping when you reach for that second cookie. But Klue’s products are also very much in line with two big consumer food trends that have been on the up-and-up: personalization and dynamic nutrition services.

 

Photo: Instacart.

Instacart announces plans for $40M support center
This week Instacart said that it had plans to build a Customer Support Center in Atlanta — with a $40 million price tag. The new center will have a staff of 400, and will complete the construction and hiring process over the next two years, according to FoodDive.

With their latest expansions — including new deals with Costco, Albertson’s, and Sam’s club — plus a recent $150 million funding round, Instacart will no doubt need some serious customer support to help with new client onboarding and delivery organization. We made the claim that if they wanted to beat Amazon the grocery delivery company would have to both expand and innovate — maybe this new service center will help them achieve both of these goals while keeping their customers and suppliers happy.

 

Photo: Whole Foods

Amazon ups Whole Foods perks
Speaking of groceries, this week Amazon amped up Whole Foods perks for Prime members in an attempt to get them to shop more often at the grocery store. Most prominently, Prime members will get an additional 10% discount off of already discounted products.

According to CNBC, roughly 75% of Whole Foods shoppers are Amazon Prime members, but only 20% of Prime members shop at Whole Foods. These perks could help the grocery store move away from its reputation as “Whole Paycheck” and capture Amazon’s Prime members, who value convenience and a good deal.

 


Plant-based protein drink company raises $1.1M
This week protein drink startup Après raised $1.1 million seed round led by Rocana Venture Partners. According to BevNet, the company targets women as the core consumers for their plant-based protein shakes — each of which contains 180 -190 calories and 13 grams of protein.

While plant-based protein drinks made of almond or soy have been around for a while, this is one of the first drinks to market itself purely as a protein beverage — and to emphasize that it’s made of plants. Après’recent funding round indicates that plant-based protein’s popularity has expanded way beyond “chicken” nuggets and burgers. And if consumer trends hold true, the market for plant-based protein will continue to grow over the coming years. So we’ll probably be seeing it pop up more often — and a lot more prominently — in a lot of different food categories.

A user prepares food for the Oliver cooking chambers

Else Labs opens up beta testing for cooking robot Oliver

We’ve followed cooking robot startup Else Labs ever since they appeared as part of our Startup Showcase at the Smart Kitchen Summit, so we were intrigued to hear they’ve opened up beta testing for their cooking robot Oliver.  The company, which is raised $1.8 million through the Qatar Development Bank last summer, announced they were looking for beta testers via email.

Live in North America and want to beta test an Oliver? Apply here. If you live outside of North America, you may have to wait a while longer, as the company states via its beta tester survey this round of beta testing will be in “selected cities in North America.”

April 30, 2018

Chipotle and DoorDash Join Forces for Delivery Service

Chipotle just announced a partnership with DoorDash, through which it will bring delivery services to 1,500 of its locations 2,441 locations.

The move is Chipotle’s largest delivery effort to date. It comes on the heels of CEO Brian Niccol (formerly of Taco Bell) joining the company, and after a rocky few years that included such gems as e. coli and norovirus outbreaks, lawsuits, and a 95 percent drop in profits.

It might seem weird that a brand concerned with food integrity as well as bouncing back from a couple health scares would enlist the help of someone from one of America’s least-healthy chains. But Niccol, who succeeded founder Steve Ells at the beginning of March, is credited with turning the Taco Bell image around through menu and marketing innovations, and ultimately making it more appealing.

He’s aiming to replicate that success at Chipotle. Offering delivery should certainly help, since over half of millennials rate convenience as a top driver when buying food, and it doesn’t get more convenient than having quick-service grub delivered to your home or office.

Delivery, anyway, is increasingly becoming one of the most important aspects of a food-service business. The food delivery market is expected to hit $76 billion in 2022, and many consider delivery services a “must-have” rather than “nice to have” for restaurants of all types.

DoorDash has similar partnerships with Dunkin’ Donuts, Wendy’s, and Jack in the Box, among many others. This latest pairing follows DoorDash’s announcement in March that the company has raised $355 million in Series D financing and plans to “triple [its] geographic footprint from 600 to 1,600 cities.” DoorDash’s system integrates directly with restaurants’ POS systems, which creates inherently speedier service.

To celebrate the DoorDash-Chipotle launch, the two will offer free delivery on orders of $10 and up placed via the DoorDash app, effective now through May 6, which means you can celebrate Cinco de Mayo by ordering tons of fake Mexican food by using the code “GETCHIPOTLE.”

DoorDash CEO Tony Xu will join TheSpoon’s Smart Kitchen Summit in Europe on June 11 and 12. Head over to Dublin to see him and other leaders in the food business space.

April 24, 2018

Domino’s Just Delegated Phone Orders to Its Resident Chatbot

Ordering food online has never been easier, but that doesn’t mean everyone wants to do it. In fact, the phone still the preferred method for most consumers. Trouble is, placing orders via phone means more room for human error, since anything from a spotty connection to bad hearing can lead to incorrect orders.

With that in mind, Domino’s just officially unveiled a method that could leverage the accuracy you get with technology without forcing people to go full digital if they don’t want to.

Its (his?) name is DOM, and while this chatbot-like being has been accepting orders online since 2014, this is the first time the AI-powered voice-recognition system will also be taking telephone calls. DOM can also answer questions when customers call to check on the status of their order. 

“While many of our orders come via digital platforms, there are still millions of customers who like to call in their orders directly to their local stores,” Dennis Maloney, Domino’s Chief Digital Officer, said in a press release. “DOM can now take those orders, freeing up our store team members to focus on preparing orders and serving customers already in the lobby.”

Domino’s has quietly been testing DOM’s phone skills in a handful of company-owned locations over the last few months. Initial feedback was positive enough to expand the test to 20 stores, and Domino’s says it plans to implement the service in more sites over the next few months. 

Meanwhile, Domino’s CEO and President, J. Patrick Doyle, noted (in the same press release) that the company’s goal is to “one day be 100% digital.”

The trailblazing pizza company is well on its way: Currently, 65 percent of its U.S. sales are digital, and Domino’s is continually testing new concepts and ideas, be they self-driving delivery robots or giving customers 15 different ways to order digitally on Superbowl Sunday.

But they’re not alone. Papa John’s claims 60 percent of its sales are digital and says it’s more like Amazon than a brick-and-mortar retailer. Likewise, Pizza Hut addressed its dragging sales by starting a loyalty program and allowing people to order via Amazon Echo. And Little Caesars recently filed a patent for a pizza-making robot, which means they too have an eye towards technological solutions.

So is pizza the new tech company? Actually, it’s a good route to test out these new concepts. The worldwide pizza market is currently worth $134 billion, and one doesn’t need a statistician to predict that the pizza-eating population isn’t declining anytime soon.

But as Domino’s implied when it announced this week’s news, not everyone is ready to hang up the phone and order exclusively through digital. “Voice is a more natural way for people to interact with technology,” Domino’s CEO and president, J. Patrick Doyle, noted in the press release.

It could be this flexibility that gives Domino’s an edge over its competitors. DOM gives the company a way to meet the needs of less tech-savvy customers without sacrificing its digital strategy. That combination could mean Domino’s is headed for absolute dominance sometime soon.

April 14, 2018

Food Tech News Roundup: SmartPlate Updates, Localized Meal Kits, & Food Alternatives

Forget the crossword and stack of pancakes — get ready for the best part of your weekend. We’ve rounded up the food tech and innovation-related stories that caught our eye around the web this week for your perusing pleasure. From plant-based sliders at White Castle to (maybe) smart plates, get ready for your weekly dose of news.

Photo: Kitchen 1883

Kroger to expand in-store restaurant chain

Kroger recently announced that it will open a second in-store restaurant in the Greater Cincinnati area. Dubbed Kitchen 1883, its menu features new American comfort food. Kroger launched the first Kitchen 1883 restaurant last November in Kentucky.

As grocery sales move online, this is a bid from Kroger to get shoppers to physically go to their stores, and to stay awhile. It’s a similar concept to this frozen yogurt kiosk or Ikea’s beloved meatballs and cinnamon rolls; keep people around, and they’ll buy more.

 

Photo: Smartplate.com

Smartplate (Might Be) About to Finally Ship

A few days ago Anthony Ortiz, founder of Smartplate, the plate/app combo that tracks the nutrition of what you’re eating, posted an update on their IndieGo page stating that they had built the first 15 production-grade Smartplate TopViews. These new plates are flatter, with updated software.

We’ve covered Smartplate before on the Spoon, with some healthily skepticism. Their update claims they’ll be ready to ship by July 2018, but they’ve already missed a few ship dates. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if Smartplate is finally ready for the real world — but in the mean time, you can go ahead and download the Smartplate app.

 

Photo: Soylent

Soylent at Walmart!

Soylent, the powdered meal replacement drink aimed at busy millennials, became available at Walmart this week. The beverage made the leap into brick-and-mortar retail last year when it launched in 2,500 7-Eleven stores. Previously it was only available online.

Rosa Foods, the maker of Soylent, announced that it will be available in 450 Walmart stores across 14 states. This latest expansion signifies that the beverage, which had a few ups and downs over the past few years, is becoming more mainstream. It also indicates a strong market for meal replacements aimed not at people who want to weight loss, but who want to save time and brainspace.

 

Photo: Local Crate

Local Crate Raises $1.4M for Fresh Food Delivery

Minnesota-based meal kit service Local Crate raised $1.4 million this week. The startup focuses on sourcing local ingredients from smallholder farmers and local producers, which they pre-portion and deliver in their meal kits, along with chef-inspired recipes. With this new fundraise, they plan to expand into Wisconsin and Iowa. They also want to develop their brick and mortar presence, following recent announcements by Weight Watchers, Walmart, Plated and others who also placed their meal kits on supermarket shelves.

 

Photo: White Castle

White Castle Now Offering Impossible Burgers at Affordable Price

On Thursday, April 12th, White Castle, the fast-food chain known for its tiny, square hamburgers, will offer a version of its sliders made with Impossible Foods’ plant-based patties. The sliders will come with smoked cheddar, pickles, and onions, but customers can nix the cheese to make it vegan.

White Castle is rolling out the plant-based sliders in 140 locations and will eventually offer them nationally. We tried the patties last month and decided that while they tasted pretty good, their high price point could be a barrier to widespread acceptance. This partnership will make Impossible’s “bleeding” burgers much more widely available — and more affordable, too. White Castle’s Impossible sliders will cost only $1.99 each. It will be interesting to see how the bleeding burgers fare in a fast food environment, instead of the fast casual and high end restaurants where they have been offered up until now.

April 6, 2018

Dishq CEO Kishan Vasani Predicts You Want Snails for Dinner

At one point or another, we have all suffered from menu confusion: the feeling when a restaurant offers too many good-looking dishes, overwhelming us with choice. You don’t want to choose the wrong thing and be stuck with it, but you need to make a decision.

Bangalore-based startup dishq is using AI and consumer data to try and simplify the process by giving companies like restaurants, office cafeterias, and food delivery services the power to make personalized food recommendations to their customers.

In preparation for SKS Europe this June in Dublin, we decided to ask dishq co-founder and CEO Kishan Vasani a few questions about how his company is trying to simplify the food decision-making process.

Read the full Q&A on our Smart Kitchen Summit blog to learn about how the company uses AI to personalize your restaurant recommendations, the future of predictive ordering, and what Vasani predicts that I want for dinner. (Hint: he was (partially) right.)

If you want to hear Kishan Vasani speak more about how AI and predictive ordering will shape our eating patterns, make sure to get your tickets for SKSEurope in Dublin June 11-12th. 

April 5, 2018

Instacart Takes Home Another $150 Million

Instacart, the grocery delivery startup, has raised an additional $150 million in funding. This new cash is part of its existing Series E round and in addition to the $200 million the company raised in February. Axios broke the story this morning with the company later confirming it.

This new money brings the total amount raised by Instacart to more than a billion dollars. According to Bloomberg, the additional funding raises the company’s valuation to $4.35 billion.

Instacart is going to need all the money it can get as it works to fend off Amazon, which started rolling out two-hour deliveries from its subsidiary Whole Foods earlier this year. Instacart actually has its own delivery partnership with Whole Foods, but obviously with Amazon’s latest moves, that deal is not long for this world.

To make up for this expected loss, Instacart has been busy signing up additional retailers like Costco, Kroger, Albertsons and Sam’s Club. That last one is of particular interest as Walmart owns Sam’s Club. Walmart shut down 63 Sam’s Clubs in January, but if the Instacart partnership bears fruit, it could lead to bigger opportunities for for both companies as they look to keep Amazon at bay.

Having a variety of large partners is good for Instacart, but it will have to battle Amazon on the technology front as well. Just today, Amazon announced expanded smart lock compatibility for its Key service in a bid to bolster its in-home delivery capabilities. Whether or not people will ever be comfortable with letting strangers into their unattended home is TBD, but the point is that Instacart will need to use this money to both expand and innovate.

March 30, 2018

Ontray Provides Online Ordering and Delivery for Smaller Restaurants

A recent CNN Money headline read “Why Uber Eats and GrubHub partnerships are risky for restaurants.” The post lays out reasons for caution, including squeezing already tight restaurant margins with third-party delivery fees and increased chances of poor customer experiences with your brand (think: late delivery of lukewarm food).

The siren song of these alluring delivery services is enticing, especially considering the large audiences companies like Uber Eats and Grubhub have. In the fourth quarter of last year, GrubHub alone had 14.5 million “active diners” (a 77 percent year-over-year increase). And in the cutthroat world of the restaurant biz, you have to go where the customers are.

Ontray, a small Philadelphia-based startup, doesn’t want eateries to abandon services like GrubHub and Uber Eats. But it does return some of the power (and the purse) back to individual restaurants.

It does this with a SaaS-based tool that makes it easy for smaller restaurants to create their own websites, complete with online ordering and delivery capabilities. There’s no upfront cost for the restaurant; Ontray only charges a 5 percent commission on sales, which the restaurant can assume or charge to its customers.

Armed with their own site, restaurants can better claim their own SEO, and they aren’t driving repeat customers to an aggregator like GrubHub. If forced to go to a service like Uber Eats, a customer could be distracted by a different restaurant listed or even nudged into a restaurant owned by Uber.

Ontray Founder and CEO, Tyler Wiest, considers his company complimentary to delivery services. He thinks restaurants should take advantage of the big audiences GrubHub and Uber Eats provide, but those services should serve as springboards. Wiest suggests that when restaurants fulfill those outside delivery orders, they should include a coupon offering 10 percent off the next meal if it’s ordered directly through the restaurant’s site. In other words, a third party like GrubHub should become more of a marketing arm for a restaurant rather than an ongoing driver of business.

To broaden its reach, Ontray also partners with smaller, regional delivery services like Chow Caddie just outside of LA, and Catskills Delivery outside of NYC. These local services can do the leg work of reaching out and bringing neighborhood restaurants onto the Ontray platform.

While this moves Ontray in the right direction, Wiest’s company still faces competition from a number of bigger players like Olo, LevelUp and MonkeyMedia–all of whom offer tools to get restaurants online. Additionally, while Ontray-created sites are mobile friendly, they don’t yet offer restaurants the ability to create their own mobile apps.

While it’s great that Ontray wants to even the playing field for the little guy, targeting small businesses makes it more difficult for the startup to scale. The company isn’t venture backed as of yet, and Wiest, the only employee, has had to manage both the technical and business development side of his startup, which can put a strain on both.

Wiest remains undaunted, however. In an email he told me, “Ontray is primarily using online ordering to gain a foothold in both the restaurant and delivery industries. Using this foothold allows us to build an ecosystem facilitating interactions between not only restaurant and delivery providers but also marketing agencies, reservation application, ticket management / POS systems etc..” He sees Ontray becoming the glue that brings together any system the restaurant wants to use to facilitate order and delivery.

Until then, however, restaurants looking to get online can give Ontray a try. Since there’s no upfront cost, that relationship probably isn’t terribly risky.

March 26, 2018

What Do Whole Foods’ Marketing Layoffs Mean for Its Brand?

Last Friday, Whole Foods slashed its regional marketing staff, laying off graphic designers, product marketers, and store graphics artists. It’s unclear exactly how many jobs were eliminated.

Business Insider broke the news after obtaining a recording of a seven-minute conference call on Thursday, on which Nicole Wescoe, president of Whole Foods’ northeast region, announced the sweeping cuts.

Among others, Whole Foods sign-makers — employees who design and create copy for in-store signage — got the axe. This move was an effort to centralize the creation and production of the brand’s signage, but it also speaks to a much bigger shift within Whole Foods. These layoffs are a response to parent company Amazon’s demands that the grocery retailer cut costs and centralize their marketing efforts.

Since being acquired by Amazon last year, Whole Foods has been slowly but steadily moving away from its trademark approach to providing food that is wholesome, organic, and often locally-sourced. And the shift has ruffled some feathers: more than a dozen executives and senior managers have left Whole Foods since the brand was acquired last summer, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

It’s easy to see this move as a manifestation of Whole Foods losing its soul to Amazon. Consider, for example, recent news about the brand’s changes to its supply chain and inventory processes to cut costs, which caused stock outages and destroyed employee morale. The company is even reportedly considering adding Coca-Cola to its shelves at Amazon’s urging, despite Whole Foods’ ban on all foods with artificial colors and sweeteners.

But what did we expect? Amazon built its brand on the promise of cutting costs and offering the lowest possible price to consumers by skipping brick and mortar stores and popularizing speedy online delivery. Did we think Whole Foods would be immune to Amazon’s laser focus on the bottom line? Just because the former built its brand on principles like never selling products with artificial sweeteners doesn’t mean it gets to maintain those principles now that it’s part of Amazon.

By cutting prices of everyday items, like eggs and milk, up to 50 percent, launching two-hour grocery delivery, and transforming urban stores into delivery hubs, Amazon is wasting no time in molding Whole Foods to further its mission to dominate the grocery market. Clearly Amazon isn’t trying to maintain the original Whole Foods’ principles while it does so — particularly in light of these recent layoffs.

If this centralization continues, the grocery brand could simply become the brick and mortar fronts for Prime and Amazon Go services. Which will severely weaken — if not destroy — Whole Foods’ identity as a high-class grocery store that offers transparent sourcing and products from local producers.

Whole Foods seems to have predicted this already and is repositioning itself accordingly. Its recent ad campaign shies away from showcasing high-end ingredients and instead focuses on the wide array of consumers who shop at Whole Foods, from dorky dads to millennial flexitarians.

That doesn’t mean we won’t see any pushback. Whole Foods attracts a high-income crowd that is willing to pay a premium for organic, local products. These consumers are the very type that would eschew mass marketization by a place like Amazon — at least publicly.

It will be interesting to see if, as Whole Foods becomes more Amazon-ified, its core consumers begin shopping at more localized specialty grocery stores. Of course, a cheaper, more accessible Whole Foods will also poach budget-focused customers away from stores like Walmart and Trader Joe’s. That is, as long as they don’t mind having the same, mass-produced “fresh tomatoes” sign at every Whole Foods around the country.

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