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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Omnivore

The Week in Restaurants: Starbucks Expands Delivery, Lavu and Omnivore Simplify In-House Tech

Between earnings reports and food delivery bidding wars, there was much to keep a pulse on this week in the restaurant biz. Before you slam into that pumpkin-spice latte on your desk (for shame, btw), here’s a glance at some new developments in restaurant tech from the week.

Starbucks Expands Delivery to 5 New Markets
Starbucks announced this week the latest expansion in its quest to deliver coffee across the nation. Through its Uber Eats program, the chain has added Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, along with further expansion into the New York Metro area. The new locations bring Starbucks total delivery radius to 16 U.S. markets. A nationwide rollout of delivery is expected for early 2020. Now it will need to start adding more ghost kitchen-like locations to help supply the demand of all those lattes in transit.

Lavu and Omnivore Partner to Simplify Third-Party Restaurant Delivery
Point of sale (POS) system Lavu has teamed up with Omnivore to better connect restaurants with third-party technologies up and down the restaurant stack, from back-of-house inventory management to third-party delivery services. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, restaurants using the Lavu POS system will be able to access Omnivore’s marketplace of third-party restaurant technology apps, which includes everything from Uber Eats to Yumpingo to OpenTable. With many restaurants these days lagging in terms of meeting customer demand for technology, Lavu’s POS capabilities with Omnivore’s more than 200 integrations definitely makes access to tech easer.

McDonald’s Franchisee Eliminates 200 Tons of Plastic Waste
To help combat the terrifying problem of single-use plastics in which we now find ourselves, Arcos Dorados, the world’s largest McDonald’s franchisee, announced this week it has eliminated about 200 tons of single-use plastics since removing straws from its beverages. Arcos Dorados, which operates 2,200 McDonald’s locations across Latin America, says the effort is part of McDonald’s ongoing contributions to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The company plans by 2025 to make all McDonald’s packaging from renewable, recycled, or certified sources. Whether that material will actually get recycled is a question for another Friday.

The Week in Restaurant Tech: Ordermark and Omnivore Team Up, Employees Get On-Demand Pay

The restaurant biz may have once been seen as slow to adopt technology, but that’s less and less the case these days. In fact, between all the apps, kiosks, back-of-house systems, front-of-house software, automated pickup cubbies and enough other developments to fill a 600-word post, restaurant tech is a bit of a juggling act to keep up with lately.

A bird’s eye view of the scene every once in a while helps, so with that in mind, here’s a quick look at some highlights from this week in restaurant tech:

Ordermark and Omnivore team up for POS integration.
Los Angeles-based Ordermark, whose hardware-software package streamlines third-party delivery orders into a single dashboard, announced this week it has partnered with POS integration company Omnivore. The deal will allow any restaurant using certain POS systems, including Oracle Micros, Brink, and Dinerware, to integrate with Ordermark and aggregate orders from popular third-party delivery services like DoorDash and Grubhub.

Ordermark, who recently raised $18 million in Series B funding, serves major chains across the U.S., including TGI Friday’s and Subway, while Omnivore works with some of the biggest POS systems (see above). According to the press release, the combined integration “addresses over 85% of [restaurant] venues in North America.”

Waitbusters integrates with Postmates.
Waitbusters is one of those restaurant-tech companies that started with a narrow focus (getting rid of wait times at restaurants) and has since expanded to offer more features, including table-management features and some marketing. This week, the company also delved into the delivery world by adding a Postmates integration that’s aimed at restaurants that don’t have their own delivery fleet and may not be able to afford commission fees for third-party delivery services.

Restaurants are offering on-demand pay for employees.
With so much of the restaurant biz going “on demand” these days, it was only a matter of time before employee paychecks did likewise. QSRs are now offering ways for workers to instantly access their earnings. Third-party payment company DailyPay offers this feature via patent-pending technology that tracks employee earnings and lets them transfer funds, for a small service fee, instantly to their bank accounts. This week, NRN reported that Burger King franchisee TOMS King and LA-based chain Sprinkles Cupcakes both use the service in the hopes of curbing employee turnover and appealing to Gen Z workers accustomed to on-demand, uh, everything.

Backyard Burgers modernizes its chain with Qu’s POS.
The popular burger chain Back Yard Burgers announced this week it has teamed with POS company Qu to replace the legacy tech still hanging around its 28 locations. Back Yard Burgers, who is headquartered in Nashville, TN and has stores around the Southeast U.S., is on a quest to modernize its operations, particularly when it comes to standardizing and centralizing orders from disparate sales channels. Qu’s platform specializes in just that, integrating orders from web, mobile, and kiosks as well as those made in house.

Paytronix buys Open Dining.
Customer engagement company Paytronix this week completed its acquisition of food-ordering platform Open Dining. According to a press release, the new solution will let customers “use online ordering with integrations to point of sale (POS) and third-party delivery partners such as DoorDash and Grubhub.” Ohio-based Open Dining focuses mainly on small- to mid-sized businesses. With the acquisition, it will rebrand as Paytronix Order & Delivery.