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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Uber

Uber Eats Is Not Bailing On California

California imposed an order this week that, for a minute there, led us all to believe Uber’s food delivery business in that state was on the rocks.

Spoiler alert: it’s totally not.

Recap: On Monday, a California judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering that Uber (along with Lyft) reclassify its drivers as employees in keeping with the state’s AB5, which was signed into law in January. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi then took to the airwaves to tell us all the company will likely have to temporarily shut down service in California if the court does not overturn the ruling.

As is usually the case when we talk about third-party delivery services, there’s fine print, which Eater SF promptly dug up. An Uber spokesperson confirmed to the publication that the shutdown would only apply to the company’s rideshare business, and that Uber Eats — now Uber’s biggest business — would continue “as is.”

I can’t really think of a better way of putting it than in Eater writer Eve Batey’s own words: “Uber’s threat to take their ball and go home if forced to comply with California law really only applies to a ball that, right now, isn’t the one that the other kids want to play with all that much.”

Eats currently generates more revenue than Rides, according to Uber’s second-quarter earnings report. That makes sense, seeing as the world has been in a pandemic-induced lockdown of late, and even with restrictions lifting in places, average consumers are just not going out as much. They are, however, ordering a ton of delivery meals from restaurants. Gross bookings for Eats were $6.96 billion in Q2, which was up 113 percent year-over-year and up 54 percent over Q1 2020.

Uber also recently struck a $2.65 billion deal to acquire fellow third-party delivery company Postmates — a service that just happens to be number one in Los Angeles, a city that just happens to be the second most populated one in the U.S. Yanking the plug on California, even temporarily, would make the deal pointless. Uber might have ethical flaws in its business model, but its leaders aren’t dumb.

Besides, they’ll get a chance to continue the fight to keep its delivery drivers and couriers as contract workers come November, when Californians vote on Proposition 22, which would exempt rideshare and delivery drivers from being considered employees. Needless to say, tech companies are all-in on this one.

But if regulators continue to scrutinize third-party delivery practices, and consumers continue to rely on off-premises meals while restrictions around in-house restaurant dining room remain in place, it seems only a matter of time before Uber et al. go from the frying pan to the fire with food delivery. 

Maybe then we can take eloquently worded threats to shut down seriously. 

Accelerating the Drive Thru

Of late, there’s been much ado about the drive-thru, with major restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Chipotle all announcing an increased focus on the format.

So it wasn’t too surprising this week to get new data showing the drive-thru is far and away the most popular restaurant “experience” among consumers. A new survey from Bluedot and research firm SeeLevel HX found that 74 percent of respondents said they have visited the drive-thru “the same amount or more often than usual” compared to 43 percent in April. Those consumers surveyed also named drive-thru “the safest” of the to-go formats polled in the report.

It’s all a bit of a no-brainer if you ask me. If you’ve hung around inside a restaurant lately waiting for your pickup order, you’ll know the experience is often tense and confusing. Meanwhile, curbside pickup is still so new for most restaurants that operational kinks have yet to be worked out. That makes drive-thru, a decades-old format, seemingly the safest and fastest way to collect your grub at a time when dining at a restaurant is a no-go for many consumers.

But drive thrus could be faster. A lot faster. In this week’s survey, 81 percent said waiting more than 10 minutes in the drive-thru is too long.

As mobile ordering increases in restaurants and more chains reformat their brick-and-mortar locations to accommodate drive-thru, speed of service will need to be at the top of the priority list.

Restaurant Tech ‘Round the Web

  • A new survey by Oracle Food and Beverage found that 59 percent of U.S. consumers and 47 percent in the U.K. “plan to dine-out as soon as they are able.” Forty percent in the U.S. and 39 percent in the U.K. would feel “safer” using a digital menu from their own device. Another 35 percent in the U.S. and 31 percent in the U.K. had similar feelings about digital payments. 
  • Mobile platform Mad Mobile has acquired restaurant tech company CAKE, best known for its POS system. Mad Mobile hopes to use the acquisition to create a next-gen POS designed for mobile-first restaurant experiences. 
  • For more on the future of ridesharing, which is usually an indicator of what’s to come for food delivery, check out this podcast from Axios Re:Cap. 

This is the web version of our newsletter. Sign up today to get updates on the rapidly changing nature of the food tech industry.

Just Eat Takeaway.com to Stop Using Gig Workers in Europe

Just Eat Takeaway.com just made its sentiments known about how to classify gig workers — but not in the way you’d expect from a third-party delivery service. Company boss Jitse Groen told BBC this week that Just Eat Takeaway.com will “end” gig working in its operations in Europe.

“We’re a large multinational company with quite a lot of money and we want to insure our people,” he said. “We want to be certain they do have benefits, that we do pay taxes on those workers.” 

“Large multinational company” aptly describes Just Eat Takeaway.com these days. The company itself is the product of Netherlands-based Takeaway.com’s recent acquisition of the U.K.’s Just Eat. And in June, the newly formed company announced it would acquire Grubhub, creating the largest food delivery service in the world outside of China.

All that M&A means more hiring. But this hasn’t been a particularly easy time for gig workers, in Europe or elsewhere. With the pandemic keeping more folks at home, delivery orders are up. That demand renders the folks driving or biking the food to customers frontline workers at higher risk of exposure to the coronavirus. Under the status of gig worker, these individuals do not have access to certain workplace protections (e.g., paid sick leave) they would as employees.

Just Eat Takeaway.com’s changes to worker classification may only apply to Europe right now, but the company has operations all over the globe. The aforementioned Grubhub deal will soon give the company a presence in the U.S., too, where the debate over gig workers is especially heated right now. Just this week, a California judge ordered Uber and Lyft to reclassify its contract workers as employee. For Uber, that would mean changing the underlying model around its Eats business, too.

Groen did not say when the change for its his company’s European workers would take place. And how Just Eat Takeaway.com handles U.S.-based workers once the Grubhub deal kicks in remains to be seen. 

While Just Eat Takeaway.com looks to remove many of the downsides of gig worker jobs, others are spending millions to fight any changes to the system. At some point a new standard around benefits for these workers might emerge from the fight. Let’s hope it’s one that values human health and well-being over food delivery’s ever-elusive path to profitability.  

Updated: California Judge Orders Uber and Lyft to Reclassify Drivers as Employees

UPDATE: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company would probably shut down operations in California temporarily if this week’s ruling is not overturned. However, that would only apply to the company’s rideshare business. An Uber spokesperson confirmed to Eater that the company “has no plans to cease California operations of Uber Eats.”

PREVIOUSLY:

A California judge late Monday ordered that Uber and Lyft must reclassify their drivers as employees. This preliminary injunction is stayed for 10 days, during which time Uber and Lyft can file an appeal. Both companies have said they will do so.

This week’s order comes after California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and city attorneys in California sued Uber and Lyft in May for allegedly treating their workers as contractors. The suit alleged that these companies were in violation of AB5, which went into effect in January of this year. Under the law, gig economy workers (including food delivery couriers and drivers) must be classified as employees and given access to benefits like sick leave, unemployment, and workers comp.

Uber, Lyft, and other gig worker companies have already funneled substantial resources into challenging AB5. In December of 2019, Uber and Postmates filed a complaint (which was later rejected) alleging the law violates constitutional rights. DoorDash, along with Uber and Lyft, has vowed to spend millions to get a ballot measure in 2020 that would counteract AB5. And these tech companies have argued ad nauseam that their workers want to be independent contractors and that their services are exempt from the law on the grounds that they are platforms, not transportation companies. 

California Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman wrote in this week’s ruling that such logic “flies in the face of economic reality and common sense… To state the obvious, drivers are central, not tangential, to Uber and Lyft’s entire ride-hailing business.”

That third-party food delivery services stand on the same side of the AB5 argument as rideshare companies is no surprise. The third-party delivery model relies on workers to transport food from restaurants to customers’ homes. Having to pay workers things like health benefits and paid sick leave would undercut the entire third-party delivery model, adding extra costs for the likes of Uber and DoorDash, and ultimately slowing their still-elusive path to profitability. 

Uber went as far as to say that if this week’s injunction stands, it may have to exit California. Assuming that would apply to both its rideshare business and its Eats operation, that would erode the company’s recent deal to acquire Postmates, a service that’s most popular on the west coast. 

No other state has yet moved so aggressively to get gig workers reclassified. But thanks to COVID-19, much light has been shed on workers’ access to things like health benefits or even paid sick leave and unemployment during a global crisis. In March, a New York Court ruled that Postmates couriers are employees and therefore eligible for unemployment. In the same month, Instacart revamped its benefits for drivers after workers threatened to strike.

You can read this week’s ruling in full here. If it stands, and Uber and Lyft are unsuccessful in their appeals, the order could have a ripple effect across other states in the U.S.

Uber Q2: Eats Generates More Revenue than Rides

There are two stories coming out of Uber’s Q2 earnings report today. The first is the straight ahead numbers: The company did $2.18 billion in revenue for the quarter, which was down 29 percent year-over-year, but beat analyst expectations. Uber’s net losses were $1.8 billion, narrower than the $2.94 billion in Q1.

Of course, much of this was due to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the company’s mobility business. Uber’s mobility division had gross bookings of $3.046 billion for the quarter, which was a decline of 73 percent year-over-year. With people on lockdown, they had no need to hail a ride.

But while the coronavirus kept people from catching an Uber across town, it also pushed them to ordering more food delivery while they stayed home, which leads us to the other story.

Gross bookings for Uber’s delivery business (Uber Eats) hit $6.96 billion in Q2, which was up 113 percent year-over-year and up 54 percent over Q1 2020. That’s a lot of french fries delivered to people’s front doors.

In addition to getting a pandemic push, Uber Eats also streamlined some of its costs in Q2. The company ceased Uber Eats operations in eight different markets around the world where it wasn’t in a leading position.

In the Q2 earnings release, Uber also said that it now has more than 500,000 partnered restaurants on the platform, a 50 percent jump year-over-year.

With Q2 in the books, it’s time to look ahead to Q3 which will include the $2.65 billion all-stock purchase of rival food delivery service, Postmates, as well as the expansion into grocery delivery here in the U.S.

Postmates Now Delivering Dodger Stadium Food to LA Doors

Dodger fans now can change up “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” with some new lyrics:

Take a walk down my hallway
Take a seat on the couch
Postmates and Dodgers now deliver snacks
Just in time now that baseball is back

Baseball fans may be stuck at home, but if you’re rooting for the Dodgers in LA, you can still eat like you’re at the stadium. Postmates announced earlier this week that has partnered with Home Plates to offer home delivery of Dodger Stadium food.

From a Postmates blog post describing the program:

Home Plates will serve Dodger Stadium fan-favorites like Dodger Dogs, micheladas, and garlic fries to go along with snacks, salads, bar, and dessert options. In addition to premium Dodger Dogs, items specially produced by Home Plates include individual thin-crust Brooklyn-style pizza, carne asada helmet nachos, and Dodgers’ blue gelato. Also, check out the family party pack and catering options.

Right now, delivery is only available in the Hollywood and West Hollywood neighborhoods of Los Angeles, with plans to expand to other areas of the city. Hollywood and West Hollywood, of course, are also the neighborhoods where Postmates uses its Serve robot to make deliveries. So your Dodger Dog may be brought to you by a cute robot!

This isn’t the first deal between Postmates and the Dodgers. Last year, the two teamed up for online ordering and food pickup inside Dodger Stadium. But with stadiums shut down, this is the next best thing for those wanting more of a realistic baseball experience while watching the games at home.

Postmates was recently acquired by Uber for $2.65 billion, which could buy a lot of peanuts and cracker jacks.

I say this without judgment, but given the greasy nature of stadium food, I’m curious as to how well it will travel for delivery. Obviously, downing a Dodger Dog on your recliner at home is a lot different from eating one amongst tens of thousands of your fellow fans. But will the food even be that good outside a stadium? If you’re in LA and try this out, drop us a line and let us know if it was a home run or a strikeout.

Instacart Files Lawsuit Against Uber’s Cornershop Over Grocery Listings

Today Instacart sued Cornershop, which Uber bought a majority stake in last year, alleging that Cornershop stole product images and other intellectual property.

The Information was first to report on the lawsuit, with reporter Amir Efrati tweeting out the following:

According to Bloomberg:

Instacart claimed Cornershop stole copyrighted images and modified the file names in order to conceal the alleged theft. Instacart also said Cornershop posted job listings for software engineers with “advanced scraping” and other skills indicating that taking and reusing content is part of a company-mandated effort, according to the complaint.

Instacart’s lawsuit comes on the heels of Uber announcing earlier this month that it was expanding grocery delivery into the U.S. through its Cornershop unit.

Grocery e-commerce has seen record sales over the past few months in the U.S., spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. With the coronavirus negatively impacting Uber’s ridesharing business, the company’s ability to diversify its revenues has become more important. Uber also this month announced that it was acquiring rival third-party delivery service, Postmates.

We’ll be following this story as it progresses, but its clear that Instacart, which has raised more than $2 billion in funding, will actively protect its grocery delivery turf. With the lockdowns, Instacart became an essential service for people needing food, and the company bolstered its gig-working delivery worker ranks to 750,000 to meet up with demand.

How big a threat Uber can be with its later and currently limited arrival into grocery delivery reamains to be seen, but the company does have a huge installed base and Instacart looks like it is taking no chances.

Uber Launching Grocery Delivery in U.S. Amidst Record-Setting E-Commerce

Uber announced today that it will launch grocery delivery in select cities this month. The announcement comes at a time when the global COVID pandemic has spurred consecutive monthly record-setting grocery e-commerce sales in the United States.

From the Uber blog post announcing the news:

Starting today, in collaboration with our partner Cornershop, customers in select cities in Latin America and Canada can order groceries through both the Uber and Uber Eats apps. And starting later this month, grocery delivery will be available in Miami, FL and Dallas, TX. In those two cities Eats Pass and Uber Pass members will receive an additional benefit, free grocery delivery on orders over $30. 

According to Grocery Dive, the service will be available through the Uber and Uber Eats apps, where users can select a participating retailer and order their groceries. And though Cornershop is fulfilling orders now, Uber drivers will be able to sign up to make grocery deliveries.

Uber announced last October that it was acquiring a majority stake in Cornershop, an online marketplace for on-demand delivery from supermarkets across Chile, Mexico, Peru and Toronto. That deal still hasn’t gotten formal approval from the Chilean government, though Uber believes that will happen in a matter of days.

This grocery expansion news comes just one day after Uber announced that it was acquiring third-party delivery service Postmates for $2.65 billion. Both the Cornershop and Postmates deals show how Uber is bolstering its Eats delivery business at a time when the COVID pandemic and quarantining is hammering its ride sharing business.

The pandemic is also driving a grocery e-commerce boom. According to surveys from Brick Meets Click, online grocery shopping has had month-after-month of record setting sales as restaurants were shut down and people were forced to shelter in place. With the pandemic showing no signs of slowing down here in the U.S., getting into grocery is a smart move for Uber.

Uber is, however, facing stiff and well-funded competition. Last month, Instacart raised $225 million (and has raised $2.1 billion in total) as it has seen a surge in demand. It was also ratcheting its ranks to 750,000 Shoppers (the gig workers who shop and deliver) to increase delivery availability. Not to mention huge grocery retail players like Walmart and Amazon making and expanding their own delivery programs.

For its part, however, Uber does have a large installed user base from ride sharing and restaurant delivery that it can tap into. Now we’ll have to see what kind of an impact it can make when it comes to getting people groceries.

Uber Just Made an Offer to Buy Postmates

Just weeks after it lost the chance to acquire Grubhub, Uber has made an offer to buy Postmates, according to the New York Times. 

Three sources “familiar with the matter” and speaking anonymously told the NYT that Uber could potentially buy its third-party delivery rival Postmates for $2.6 billion and that the deal was in talks right now — though it could also fall apart.

It wouldn’t be the first time a deal fell through for Uber. Only weeks ago, the company looked to be buying Grubhub to bolster its Eats business. Those plans went awry after Dutch food delivery service Just Eat Takeaway.com swooped in and made its own deal with Grubhub for $7.3 billion. 

Antitrust concerns were one of the main issues with an Uber-Grubhub deal. Had the two companies combined, the new entity would have created a delivery service with as much marketshare as DoorDash currently holds (45 percent of the U.S. market) and rendered the on-demand food delivery arena much less competitive.

A Postmates deal would raise fewer regulatory flags, since the Bay Area-based service, last valued at $2.4 billion, is a much smaller player than Grubhub.

Even so, consolidation is in full swing in the food delivery world. Besides Just Eat Takeaway.com’s deal with Grubhub, Delivery Hero recently bought South Korean service Woowa Bros. for $4 billion and Brazil-based iFood announced a merger with Colombian delivery heavyweight Domicillios.com.

Uber has said Eats will only operate in markets where it is the number one or number two player. In the U.S., that feat that would have been easy to accomplish with a Grubhub acquisition. Were a Postmates deal to go through, it’s less certain how dominant Uber Eats would be across the country, since Postmates holds considerably less market share than the other major players.

More COVID-Related Cuts for Food Delivery: Grab Lays Off 5 Percent of Its Workforce

Singapore-based food delivery service Grab is letting go of about 5 percent of its workforce and “winding down” several projects and functions, according to AgFunder News. 

The layoffs are part of Grab’s ongoing struggles with COVID-19’s impact on the global economy. Grab had previously asked its workers to accept decreased hours or take unpaid leave of absence in an effort to avoid having to reduce its workforce. The company also implemented pay cuts for senior management.

But in a letter to staff that was cited by AFN, Grab cofounder and CEL Anthony Tan noted that after trying everything possible to avoid staff reductions, the company now has to accept this reality. “In spite of all this, we recognize that we still have to become leaner as an organization in order to tackle the challenges of the post-pandemic economy,” he said.

Affected employees will receive “enhanced severance payments, expedited equity vesting, extended medical insurance coverage, and access to career advice and mental health support.”

Softbank-backed Grab bills itself as “your everyday everything app.” The company offers on-demand food delivery as well as ride hailing services in about 300 cities across Southeast Asia. 

And it’s hardly the first food delivery service to announce layoffs in the last few months. In India, the two major players in third-party delivery, Swiggy and Zomato, both announced layoffs in May. U.K.-based Deliveroo cut 15 percent of its workforce in April, citing coronavirus’s impact as the reason, and Uber recently laid off employees, including those working for the company’s Eats division.

At the same time, consolidation has come for the food delivery world, most notably in Just Eat Takeaway’s plans to acquire Grubhub. In 2019, Delivery Hero bought South Korean Woowa Bros.’ food delivery service, and Brazil-based iFood merged with Colombian service Domicillios.com.

Layoffs don’t necessarily signal that a company is about to get gobbled up by an acquisition, but the pandemic has certainly caused many on-demand businesses around the world to struggle, cut costs, and become leaner all around. Competition has long been fierce in food delivery, especially in Southeast Asia, where Grab competes with rival Gojek for dominance. Grab’s announced layoffs this week are hardly the last we’ll see in the coming months as the market for on-demand food delivery becomes even more cutthroat.

Updated: Just Eat Takeaway Acquires Grubhub

Update: Amsterdam, Netherlands-based delivery service Just Eat Takeaway announced this afternoon it has entered into an all-stock deal with Grubhub. Just Eat Takeaway will acquire 100 percent of Grubhub’s shares, and the merging of the two companies will create one of the largest food delivery services in the world. The news puts Uber, which had previously been in talks with Grubhub, out of the running.

Previously:

It seems that the bidding war for Grubhub is coming to an end before it ever really got started. Multiple news outlets today have reported that Uber Is ready to pull out of its proposed deal to buy Grubhub while Just Eat Takeaway is in advanced discussions to buy the latter.

CNBC reported today that Uber will likely to pull out the proposed deal with Grubhub because of antitrust concerns that have been raised over it by multiple Democratic lawmakers. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., summed up the concerns in the following statement (reported by CNBC):

“I have repeatedly raised concerns and advocated against a potential merger between Uber and GrubHub. During this pandemic, when millions are out of work and many small businesses are struggling to stay afloat, our country does not need another merger that could squelch competition. News that the Uber/Grubhub deal may not materialize would be good for both consumers and restaurants.”

Meanwhile, at the start of this week, Grubhub looked to have two suitors from Europe, Delivery Hero and the newly formed Just Eat Takeaway. According to a press release from today, Just Eat Takeaway is in “advanced discussions with Grubhub regarding an all-share combination of Just Eat Takeaway.com with Grubhub.”

A deal with a European company would raise fewer regulatory flags because it would still mean four major third-party delivery players operated in the U.S. market: DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates, and Grubhub-Just Eat Takeaway. Uber buying Grubhub would have knocked that number down to three, eradicating some competition.

Uber, DoorDash and Others ‘In Talks’ to Compensate Drivers Affected By Coronavirus

Under pressure to offer more protection to workers, major gig economy companies are considering setting up a fund to compensate drivers affected by the coronavirus, according to The Wall Street Journal. Uber, Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash, and Postmates are “in talks” to see how they can come together to set up a fund to pay workers infected by or quarantined with the virus.

Food delivery drivers are in high demand right now as more Americans are working from home or simply staying away from restaurants in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Postmates and Instacart have responded by implementing contactless delivery options where drivers simply leave food on the doorstep instead of handing it off directly to the customer.  

Those measures mitigate some risk. However, they don’t account for the fact that gig economy workers are classified as contractors in most states, which means they don’t get paid for time off, including sick leave. In some cases, taking time off for illness could drastically affect workers’ livelihoods. One worker told the WSJ that “staying home won’t pay the bills.”

That puts delivery drivers in a tough position: stay home and miss earning essential income, or work even when you’re feeling sick and potentially risk further spreading coronavirus. While this conundrum is true of many, many types of workers right now, gig workers are in especially high demand as more people order food in, rather than go out to restaurants. 

The aforementioned companies are expected to make a decision about this potential fund in a few days.  Uber has already said it will compensate up to 14 days for both rideshare drivers and delivery drivers diagnosed or quarantined with coronavirus.

Compensating affected drivers is just one of many issues around worker treatment for which delivery companies have come under fire recently. Uber, Lyft, and Postmates are on the list of gig economy companies currently fighting California’s Assembly Bill 5 — also known as the “gig worker bill” — which reclassifies those workers as employees and entitles them to certain benefits — including paid sick leave. DoorDash and Instacart famously made a lot of enemies in 2019 over their worker tipping policies. Meanwhile, advocacy groups like Gig Workers Rising and Gig Workers Collective are putting pressure on tech companies to enact better labor policies.

One possible result of the current outbreak is that it could prioritize the issue of gig workers’ rights and spur both regulators and tech companies into action faster. Coronavirus isn’t the last public health crisis we’ll see in our lifetimes. As gig economy jobs become the norm for a growing number of the population, ensuring better protection for workers’ health needs to be built right into the job description. 

California Labor Law Remains for Now as Judge Denies Uber and Postmates’ Injunction

A California labor law that reclassifies gig workers as employees rather than contractors will remain in place for now, as a federal judge yesterday rejected a request from Uber and Postmates to prevent the law from taking effect.

Gig economy companies are vociferously against California’s AB 5 law, and on Dec. 31 of last year, Uber and Postmates filed their complaint, which my colleague, Jenn Marston reported on at the time saying:

The complaint, filed Monday in a U.S. District Court, argues that AB 5 violates multiple clauses in the U.S. and California constitutions, including equal protection. The suit points to the “laundry list” of occupations exempted from AB 5, which includes travel agents, grant writers, construction workers, and salespeople, and argues that AB 5 is designed to stifle gig-economy companies and their workers.

According to The New York Times, Judge Dolly M. Gee agreed that Uber and Postmates could face harm from the law, but the public interest in having living wages and regulating employment were more in the public interest. Judge Gee did not rule on the merits of the case.

At stake is the underpinning of gig economy model, which uses less-expensive contractors and not full-time employees for jobs like doing the actual delivery of food. The question over the viability of this model will become increasingly important as delivery from third-party services is expected to make up 70 percent of all food delivery by 2022.

Companies like Uber, Postmates and DoorDash are all under increased pressure from investors to become profitable. Laws like California’s AB 5 certainly complicate that path to profitability.

Yesterday’s decision does not mean the fight over AB 5 is over. Postmates and Uber both said they are considering an appeal of the judge’s decision. In addition to this court case, DoorDash, Uber, and Lyft have pledged $90 million to get a 2020 ballot measure passed that would counteract AB 5.