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Food AI Bulletin: Google’s Robot Breakthrough & Wendy’s Spanish-Speaking AI Drive-Thru Bot

While it’s mid-summer, and while most of Europe (and a good chunk of the American workforce) is taking some well-deserved time off, the AI news hasn’t slowed down one bit.

This week’s Food AI bulletin has updates on a new Google breakthrough on enabling better contextual understanding of our homes (including our kitchens), how Gemini is powering new features in Google’s smart home products, Wendy’s release of a Spanish-language edition of its AI drive-thru assistant, Amazon’s AI refresh of Just Walk Out, a new AI-powered digital tool called the NOURISH to help those living in food deserts make better food choices, a Danone and Microsoft multiyear deal to upskill employees on AI tools, and a survey that shows South Korean students prefer AI-generated healthy food options over more conventionally developed products.

Here we go:

Google’s New Robot Breakthrough Could Make It Easier to Train Your Robot Butler to Cook or Grab You a Cola

In the past, robots were challenged in doing useful tasks with autonomy, in part because they didn’t generally understand what they were seeing and how it related to a person’s specific living situation, etc.

That’s begun to change in recent years, in part because we’ve seen significant advances in robot navigation as researchers using new tools such as Object Goal Navigation (ObjNav) and Vision Language Navigation (VLN) have allowed robots to understand open commands such as “go to the kitchen.”

More recently, researchers have created systems called Multimodal Instruction Navigation (MIN), which enable robots to understand both verbal and visual instructions simultaneously. For example, a person can show a robot something like a toothbrush and ask it where to return it using both the spoken request and the visual context.

Now, Google researchers have taken things a step further by creating what they call Mobility VLA, a hierarchical Vision-Language-Action (VLA). This is a “navigation policy that combines the environment understanding and common sense reasoning power of long-context VLMs and a robust low-level navigation policy based on topological graphs.”

In other words, showing a robot an exploration video of a given environment will allow it to understand how to navigate an area. According to the researchers, by using a walkthrough video and Mobility VLA, they were able to ask the robot and have it achieve previously infeasible tasks such as “I want to store something out of sight from the public eye. Where should I go?” They also write that they achieved significant advances in how easily users can interact with the robot, giving the example of a user recording a video walkthrough in a home environment with a smartphone and then ask, “Where did I leave my coaster?”

One of the biggest challenges around having robots be useful in a food context is that the act of cooking is complex and requires multiple steps and contextual understanding of a specific cooking space. One could imagine using this type of training framework to enable more complex and useful cooking robots or even personal butlers that will actually be able to do something like fetching you a cold beverage.

You can watch a robot using this new Gemini-enable navigation framework in the video below:

“You’re Food Delivery Is Here”: Google Bringing Gemini Intelligence to Google Home

Speaking of Google, this week, the company announced a new set of features coming to their suite of smart home products that their Gemini model will power. The new features were revealed as part of an announcement about a new version of the company’s smart thermostat and its TV streaming device. According to the company, they are adding Gemini-powered capabilities across a range of products, including their Nest security cameras and its smart voice assistant, Google Home.

By underpinning its Nest camera products with Gemini, the company says its Nest Cams will go from “understanding a narrow set of specific things (i.e., motion, people, packages, etc.) to being able to more broadly understand what it sees and hears, and then surface what’s most important.” Google says that this will mean that you can ask your Google Home app questions like “Did I leave my bikes in the driveway?” and “Is my food delivery at the front door?”

During a presentation to The Verge, Google Home head of product Anish Kattukaran showed an example of a video of a grocery delivery driver which was accompanied by an alert powered by Gemini:

“A young person in casual clothing, standing next to a parked black SUV. They are carrying grocery bags. The car is partially in the garage and the area appears peaceful.”

After what’s been a somewhat moribund period of feature-set innovation for smart homes over the past couple of years, both Google and Amazon are now tapping into generative AI to create new capabilities that I’m actually looking forward to. By empowering their existing smart home products like cameras and their smart home assistants with generative AI models, we are finally starting to seeing leaps in useful functionality that are bringing the smart home closer to the futuristic promise we’ve been imagining for the last decade.

Wendy’s Pilots Spanish-Language Drive-Thru AI Voice Assistant

This week, Wendy’s showed off its new Spanish-language capabilities for its Fresh AI drive-thru voice assistant according to announcement sent to The Spoon. The new assistant, which can be seen in the Wendy’ s-provided b-reel below, has a conversant AI bot that seamlessly switches to Spanish, clarifies the order, and upsells the meal.

Wendy's Demos Fresh AI Drive-Thru in Espanol

According to Wendy’s, the company launched its Fresh AI in December of last year and has expanded it to 28 locations across two states.

This news comes just a week after Yum! Brands announced plans to expand Voice AI technology to hundreds of Taco Bell drive-thrus in the U.S. by the end of 2024, with future global implementation across KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. Currently, in over 100 Taco Bell locations, the company believes the technology will enhance operations, improve order accuracy, and reduce wait times.

Amazon Previews New Generative AI-Powered Just Walk Out

Last week, Amazon gave a sneak peek at the new AI model that powers its Just Walk Out platform.

In a post written by Jon Jenkins, the VP of Just Walk Out (and, as Spoon readers may remember, the former founder of Meld and head of engineering for the Hestan Cue), we get a peek at the new AI model from Amazon. Jenkins writes the new technology is a “multi-modal foundation model for physical stores is a significant advancement in the evolution of checkout-free shopping.” He says the new model will increase the accuracy of Just Walk Out technology “even in complex shopping scenarios with variables such as camera obstructions, lighting conditions, and the behavior of other shoppers while allowing us to simplify the system.”

The new system differs from the previous system in that it analyzes data from multiple sources—cameras, weight sensors, and other data—simultaneously rather than sequentially. It also uses “continuous self-learning and transformer technology, a type of neural network architecture that transforms inputs (sensor data, in the case of Just Walk Out) into outputs (receipts for checkout-free shopping).”

Academic Researchers Creating AI Tool to Help Americans Living in Food Deserts Access Better Food Options

A team of researchers led by the University of Kansas and the University of California-San Francisco is tackling the issue of food deserts in the U.S. with an AI-powered digital tool called the NOURISH platform. According to an announcement released this week about the initiative, the group is supported by a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The project aims to provide fresh and nutritious food options to the estimated 24 million Americans living in areas with limited access to healthy food. The platform will utilize geospatial analyses and AI to identify optimal locations for new fresh food businesses, linking entrepreneurs with local providers and creating dynamic, interactive maps accessible via mobile devices in multiple languages.

Danone Announces Multiyear Partnership with Microsoft for AI

An interesting deal focused on bringing AI training to a large CPG brand’s workforce:

Danone has announced a multi-year collaboration with Microsoft to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) across its operations, including creating a ‘Danone Microsoft AI Academy.’ This initiative aims to upskill and reskill around 100,000 Danone employees, building on Danone’s existing ‘DanSkills’ program. Through the AI Academy, Danone plans to enhance AI literacy and expertise throughout the organization, offering tailored learning opportunities to ensure comprehensive training coverage. The partnership will initially focus on developing an AI-enabled supply chain to improve operational efficiency through predictive forecasting and real-time adjustments. Juergen Esser, Danone’s Deputy CEO, emphasized that collaboration is not just about technology but also about fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation. Microsoft’s Hayete Gallot highlighted the significance of AI in transforming Danone’s operations and the broader industry, aiming to empower Danone’s workforce to thrive in an AI-driven economy.

My main critique of a deal like this is that it essentially brings training and curriculum to train employees from an AI platform provider with skin in the game in Microsoft. As someone who’s long weaned myself off of most of Microsoft’s software products, I’d hate to go into a curriculum that will mostly be largely Microsoft AI tools training, not really broader AI training.

It is a good deal for Microsoft, with a smart focus on upskilling by Danone. Let’s hope Microsoft’s training brings a broad-based AI tool belt to the Danone workforce that is not entirely walled-gardened within Microsoft’s products.

Survey: Korean Students Prefer AI-Driven Health Foods

While some Americans are becoming more concerned about AI’s impact on our lives, it appears that at least some South Korean students are embracing AI in the development of healthier food options.

According to a recent survey conducted by Korea University Business School, young South Koreans are more likely to trust and purchase healthy functional foods (HFF) developed using artificial intelligence (AI) than those created through traditional methods. The study involved 300 participants and revealed that AI-developed HFFs scored higher in trustworthiness, perceived expertise, positive attitude, and purchase intention. The AI model, NaturaPredicta™, uses natural language processing to analyze botanical ingredients, significantly reducing the time and cost required for new product development. However, researchers noted the potential bias due to the relatively young demographic of the participants and suggested broader studies for more representative results.

Pipedream Raises $13M as It Looks to Build Underground Middle Mile Delivery Network

Underground delivery startup Pipedream Labs announced it has raised $13 million in funding. Company CEO Garrett McCurrach disclosed the funding, led by Starship Ventures, with participation from Cortado Ventures, Myelin Ventures, and others, in a post on LinkedIn.

The new capital infusion will primarily be utilized to enhance Pipedream’s “Instant Pickup” service and kick-start the construction of an ambitious middle-mile network in an as-yet-unnamed city. This network aims to facilitate quicker, more cost-effective urban deliveries.

What the company calls its Instant Pickup service is when it deploys its underground delivery technology at a grocery store, restaurant, or retail store. According to McCurrach, an Instant Pickup system enables a restaurant or grocery store to hand off an order to a customer in less than 15 seconds. The company says it has 100 preorders for Instant Pickup systems, a number which likely includes its Wendy’s pilot announced last year.

The company says it will also select a city to build its first large-scale middle-mile network installation. While McCurrach doesn’t say in which city they will first break ground, he did include a graphic of a map of the Phoenix metro area with a diagram outlining a “small middle mile network”

McCurrach: “This year, we will be selecting a city to build our first middle-mile network (a large-scale underground delivery network that makes current deliveries faster and cheaper in a city) and collaborating with local government and city officials to maximize the benefits of our low-cost, fast delivery system for all their citizens. Construction is set to begin this year, with plans to start utilizing the network by next spring.”

My guess is the company will likely find a lot more near-term traction for its Instant Pickup business, as extremely short-range delivery within a given plot of land is much easier to deploy than a city-wide installation. It also doesn’t hurt that the company’s push into curbside pickup and fast food drive-thrus comes at a time when grocery stores are growing their pickup business and quick service restaurants are reimagining how they handle drive-thru.

Delivery Giants DoorDash and Uber Eats Join The Rush to Integrate AI Into Ordering Platforms

Over the last six months, we’ve watched as seemingly every quick-service restaurant chain jumped on the AI freight train, integrating new generative AI technology into apps, chatbots, and voice ordering tools to expedite the customer experience.

Now, it looks like food-ordering platforms DoorDash and Uber Eats are taking their turn to roll out AI tools.

This week we learned of DoorDash’s AI-powered voice ordering, which the company is rolling out as part of its merchant solutions portfolio. At first available in select markets, the new AI voice agents will be the first point of contact for restaurants leveraging DoorDash’s white-label voice-order platform. The company says AI voice ordering can take orders in different languages.

The AI will be trained on each operator’s menu and make personalized upsell recommendations. DoorDash makes clear that live human agents will be standing by to jump in if additional support is needed.

And, courtesy of Bloomberg, we also learned this week that Uber Eats is working on a new AI-powered chatbot for its food-ordering app. Techcrunch writes the new AI chatbot will ask users about food budgets and preferences and help them place an order. The Uber Eats AI chatbot news comes a month after DoorDash confirmed it is also working on an AI chatbot.

The news of AI-powered tools by the two delivery giants comes after a string of AI rollouts on the quick service front. This spring, Wendy’s announced it was working with Google to develop an AI for its drive-thru called FreshAI, and early this month, White Castle announced it was working with SoundHound to develop a drive-thru AI.

As I mentioned in my writeup of the food AI workshop ethics workshop, one of the first areas I expect to see AI and automation impact food is on the front lines of quick service. The historically low pay and high turnover for these jobs make them low-hanging fruit when it comes to AI tool integration, particularly for order taking, which is often the biggest bottleneck and the most easily automated part of the entire food purchase process.

We’ll be talking AI and how it will change the restaurant business at our Food AI Summit on Oct 25th in Alameda. Get your ticket today to join the conversation!

Wendy’s Announces FreshAI, a Generative AI for Drive-Thrus Powered by Google Cloud

Today Wendy’s announced it is working with Google Cloud to develop a generative AI solution for drive-thrus called Wendy’s Fresh AI.

The new solution, which is powered by Google Cloud’s generative AI and large language model technology, will go into a pilot test next month at a Wendy’s company-operated store in Columbus, Ohio. According to the announcement, the new tool will be able to have conversations with customers, the ability to understand made-to-order requests, and generate responses to frequently asked questions. 

In contrast to general-purpose consumer interfaces for LLMs such as ChatGPT and Google Bard, Wendy’s Fresh AI will be walled off and tailored around interacting with customers ordering food at a Wendy’s drive-thru. According to the company, Wendy’s Fresh AI will have access to data from Wendy’s menu and will be programmed with rules and logic conversation guardrails, ensuring that the conversation bot doesn’t spout off about politics or culture when prompted, but focuses solely on helping customers get their burger order right.

The deal is a nice pick-up for Google, which has been on its heels to a degree since last fall when the OpenAI released ChatGPT. Google’s strength in enterprise platforms through its Google Cloud infrastructure services could possibly give it a leg up on other generative AI platforms, even though OpenAI beat the company to the fast food drive-thru lane through its partnership with Presto.

Wendy’s says that it will use the learnings from the pilot to inform future expansion of the platform to other Wendy’s drive-thrus.

Where Is This All Going?

The restaurant quick-service industry has been embracing digital transformation in a big way over the past few years as a way to remedy the industry’s continued struggle with finding qualified workers, and the fast food drive-thru is probably one of the roles could be largely automated with a well-tuned generative AI model. I can envision a hybrid model that utilizes a gen-AI as the first point-of-contact customer interaction layer, but has it backstopped by a remote carbon-based life form (i.e. human) that can step in when there is the first hint of something out of the ordinary. Think of it as a Gen-AI/Bite Ninja hybrid model (while Bite Ninja hasn’t announced any AI solution partnerships for its cloud labor platform, I would be surprised if those conversations aren’t already underway).

Wendy’s to Launch 700 Ghost Kitchens Via Reef Partnership

Wendy’s announced this week it will expand its number of delivery-only kitchens via a partnership with ghost/mobile kitchen provider Reef. With the deal, Wendy’s plans to open 700 more of these kitchens over the next five years in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Wendy’s and Reef first announced their partnership in 2020, when the two started testing delivery-only kitchens in Canada. The partnership is part of Wendy’s ongoing strategy to be operating 7,000 units globally by the end of the year, according to the company’s earnings call this past week. The QSR chain plans to have 30 percent of all its new units come from nontraditional locations.  

Reef’s mobile kitchens certainly count as “nontraditional” when it comes to QSR formats. The company, which raised $700 million last year, houses ghost kitchens in mobile trailers that can be parked more or less anywhere there is underutilized real estate and demand for restaurant food. Right now, the company partners with existing restaurant chains that want to boost the number of delivery-only orders they fulfill. Saladworks, Wow Bao, and BurgerFi are just a few names using Reef’s mobile kitchen infrastructure. 

“We are still very early in our nontraditional development journey, but we are encouraged by the results that we’ve seen with Reef, and we’ll continue learning alongside them throughout this partnership as we grow our brand,” Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor said on the earnings call.

Partnering with Reef on mobile kitchens allows Wendy’s to expand its new build-outs faster, since there’s less development time needed compared to a traditional QSR location with a dining room attached. Wendy’s decision to go the mobile kitchen route differs from other QSRs like Burger King, McDonald’s, and Taco Bell, all of whom have recently announced new store prototypes that emphasize digital ordering and delivery. In those cases, however, the units are stationary and have yet to be built out en masse.

Revenue in the online food delivery segment in the U.S. is expected to reach $32 billion in 2021, which is about 15 percent of the total U.S. fast food market today. That suggests a long-term trend towards non-dine-in formats for QSRs and more focus on the “hub-and-spoke” model where the kitchen is the central piece of the restaurant serving multiple different sales channels. QSRs, in particular, are well suited to the non-dine-in format because customers aren’t typically going to these establishments for the ambiance or experience one expects in a dining room setting.

For their part, Wendy’s and REEF expect to open approximately 50 delivery kitchens in 2021, with the remainder launched by 2025. 

Burger King Launches a Ghost Kitchen Initiative in the UK

Burger King said over the weekend it is trialing its first-ever delivery-only restaurant, a location in London, UK that opened on Sunday. The burger chain said this new venture has the potential to reach over 400,000 customers in the North London area.

For its first delivery-only initiative, Burger King has partnered with FoodStars, the commissary kitchen company bought by Travis Kalnick’s CloudKitchens back in 2019. Customers will be able to order meals for delivery via third-party service Deliveroo. Service from Just Eat and Uber Eats will be available soon, too. 

The expansion to delivery-only service comes just as the UK is in the process of opening back up. From today (May 17), restaurants, cafes, pubs, and bars in England, Scotland, and Wales are finally allowed to serve customers inside, with certain restrictions around social distancing and the size of groups. But while consumers will no doubt flock back to restaurant dining rooms, food delivery is expected to remain a popular option for many. This is less about a fear of the dining room and more about new habits getting established during COVID-19-related lockdowns. Many consumers who had never before ordered delivery got comfortable with the concept during the last year or so, and will continue that behavior for the long term.

Burger King is one of many major QSR chains responding to this change. Chipotle announced its own ghost kitchen initiative in 2020, for example. And many chains are redesigning overall store designs to accommodate more off-premises formats. On its recent earnings call, Wendy’s said 30 percent of a planned 1,200 new locations will be “nontraditional units,” a label that includes delivery-only locations and ghost kitchens. Like Taco Bell and Burger King, the chain has introduced new store designs that feature little or no dining room space.

Burger King has not yet said if its ghost kitchen initiative will expand to other UK locations and eventually to other countries. Presumably, the chain will first test the success of this endeavor before announcing any new delivery-only locations.

Chipotle Finally Launches Its Own Take on the Ghost Kitchen Concept

QSR brand Chipotle is a known leader in the restaurant industry’s current transition from dining room to off-premises formats, but the company has for the most part been quiet in the conversation around ghost kitchens. Up to now, that is. The company today revealed its Chipotle Digital Kitchen a pickup- and delivery-only restaurant that is essentially its own homegrown take on the ghost kitchen concept.

The new restaurant, located in Highland Falls, New York, will open this coming Saturday (Nov. 14). Chipotle said in today’s press release that the Digital Kitchen is meant to drive business in “non-traditional locations” such as dense urban centers that can’t hold a full-service restaurant.

While the restaurant does feature a small lobby with a few seats, there is no assembly line from which to order food and no cashier to ring orders up. Instead, customers must place orders digitally via the Chipotle app or website, or through a third-party delivery platform. Guests retrieve their orders from the aforementioned lobby that is “designed to include all of the sounds, smells and kitchen views of a traditional Chipotle restaurant.” The location can also fulfill larger catering orders.  

Chipotle’s news comes the same week McDonald’s unveiled plans for its own to-go-centric store format that will consist of a kitchen surrounded by drive-thru lanes and parking spaces for curbside pickup. Since Chipotle’s Digital Kitchen is, initially, at least, focused on urban settings with space limitations, it does not accommodate a drive-thru lane. That said, the company has been very public about its intentions to incorporate that format into its stores, and today’s release notes that the new store format “allows for flexibility with future locations.” Drive-thru may not be part of this first location, but it’s undoubtedly on the way as the company opens more of these new store concepts.

With the future of the dining room still very much unknown, there’s something of a mass exodus from that format happening among well-known quick-service brands. Burger King, Wendy’s, Dunkin’, Popeye’s, and Tim Horton’s are just a few names on the growing list of restaurants changing up their store formats.

Chipotle has been trekking towards this shift for some time. In December of 2019, the company announced a few different store format designs for to-go, drive-thru, and delivery orders. 

Make sure to join The Spoon’s Ghost Kitchen Deep Dive event on December 9th. Register here!

McDonald’s Is the Latest QSR to Embrace the Drive-Thru-Centric Restaurant Format

At its McDonald’s 2020 Virtual Investor Update today, McDonald’s unveiled a long-term growth strategy that includes a new loyalty program, more AI and machine learning in the drive-thru lane, and revamped formats for future locations. 

At the Update, which directly followed the company’s Q3 2020 earnings call, CEO Chris Chris Kempczinski and several other presenters outlined the pieces of this new strategy, dubbed “Accelerating the Arches.” 

Technology will play a huge role in future growth, particularly where the drive-thru is concerned. In 2019, the company acquired Dynamic Yield, whose tech can show menu options based on external data, such as the weather or traffic patterns in the area, and is currently installed at about 12,000 McDonald’s locations. At the time of the acquisition, McDonald’s suggested this system would eventually be able to make recommendations based on more personalized preferences and order history for each individual customer. Deploying that capability to the drive-thru lane is now part of the Accelerating the Arches plan (though there’s no definite timeframe).

Also in 2019, McDonald’s acquired voice-tech company Apprente. Some McDonald’s franchisees already have an Apprente-powered voice assistant taking orders, rather than a human being. Experts say Apprente could be ready to scale across the McDonald’s system as early as next year.

Other updates to McDonald’s drive-thrus will include express lanes for digital orders and a conveyor belt that delivers your food without the need for human-to-human interaction. 

Wait times at the drive-thru have progressively increased over the last several years, and the latest data shows that total wait time in 2020 was about 30 seconds longer than 2019 across the QSR sector. Add that to the pandemic-related need for more contactless ordering and more efficient ways of fulfilling off-premises orders (i.e., those outside of the dining room), and it’s no wonder reinventing the drive thru is at the top of the priority list for many QSRs. Burger King also envisions a conveyer belt in the drive-thru, and in terms of more AI-enabled tech and dedicated drive-thru lanes for digital orders, everyone from Dunkin’ to KFC is exploring options.

Like some of those other chains, McDonald’s is also rethinking the physical layout of future stores. Even before the pandemic started its latest streak of record-breaking case numbers, QSRs were doubling-down on off-premises formats and calling into question the future of the dining room. Many, including Burger King and Wendy’s, have announced drive-thru-only restaurants for the future. McDonald’s said at today’s investor Update that it is considering a store format that is just a kitchen serving drive-thru and pickup orders.

Finally, the company will launch a new loyalty app called MyMcDonald’s by the end of next year. McDonald’s today also announced McPlant, its own line of plant-based meats, which will be testing in markets in 2021. 

While all of these efforts are features and initiatives many brands are exploring, McDonald’s sheer size (nearly 40,000 restaurants worldwide) and inevitable influence over others could greatly accelerate the rollout of these technologies into the mainstream.

Wendy’s is Semi-Secretly Testing a Plant-Based Burger in Canada

Wendy’s seems to be following in McDonald’s footsteps and launching a plant-based burger in Canada. In September McDonald’s began testing a meat-free burger in select Canadian locations. Earlier today, vegan advocacy sites LiveKindly and VegNews reported that social media picked up an outdoor Wendy’s advertisement in Toronto showing a burger called “The Plentiful” along with the words: “Where’s the beef? Not here.”

The fast-food chain hasn’t publicly announced the new burger yet, nor is it listed on its website. According to LiveKindly, The Plentiful is made from pea protein and is served with non-vegan cheese and mayonnaise.

And… that’s about all we know for sure. It’s unclear how much The Plentiful will cost, how many Wendy’s locations will offer it, or how long it will be available. Perhaps most importantly, we don’t know which brand of plant-based burger is on The Plentiful or whether it’s made from a patty developed internally by Wendy’s. Since we know the burger is pea protein-based, that rules out Impossible, which is made from soy and potato protein — but not Beyond.

If indeed The Plentiful is made with a Beyond Burger, Wendy’s would really be taking a page from McDonald’s book. The latter began testing a plant-based burger made with a Beyond patty called the P.L.T. (Plants, Lettuce, Tomato) in select locations in Canada this September. If this is the case, both Wendy’s and McDonald’s chose to omit the Beyond brand name from their new menu items — a move that I think is a missed opportunity to draw in new consumers familiar with the Beyond media buzz.

Regardless, it’s not a huge surprise that Wendy’s is hopping on the plant-based meat trend. During this year’s second-quarter review call Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor acknowledged the popularity of meat alternatives and said it was something that the fast-food chain would “look into.” Right after that Wendy’s fans gathered around 30,000 signatures on a petition calling the restaurant to add a plant-based burger to its menu.

Canada seems to be prime territory for fast food restaurants to test out new plant-based products. In addition to McDonald’s, 7-Eleven began selling a Beyond Meat pizza in the Great White North. Canadian chains Tim Horton’s and A&W were some of the first major fast-food chains to add Beyond Meat to their menus — though Tim Horton’s has since stopped serving the meat alternative in all but two regions.

We’ve reached out to Wendy’s and will update the post when we hear back. Until then, if you’re a Spoon reader in Toronto, give The Plentiful a try and tell us what you think!

 

Wendy’s Ramps Up Its Digital Order and Delivery Strategy

Wendy’s is intensifying its efforts around digital order and delivery, announcing at an Investor Day call last Friday that it is aiming to make digital sales 10 percent of all orders by 2024. Right now, digital sales account for 2 percent of orders.

Earlier this year, the Dublin, OH-based chain said it was investing an incremental $25 million into building “a stronger foundation” across its digital platforms. So far, that move to play catch up to its competitors appears to be paying off. At Investor Day this past Friday, Wendy’s Chief Digital Experience Officer Laura Titas noted in a presentation that check sizes are now 20 percent larger with mobile orders. For delivery specifically, the chain now sees check sizes 50 to 60 percent larger.

Titas’ presentation also suggested delivery will be key towards helping Wendy’s reach its 2024 goal for digital sales. To that end, she outlined multiple initiatives around improving the delivery experience.

For starters, it’s adding more delivery services. Wendy’s has partnered with DoorDash since 2017. Next year, the chain will expand its reach with third-party delivery to include Uber Eats and Grubhub, too.

And as is the case with many chain restaurants, QSR or otherwise, Wendy’s isn’t focusing its delivery strategy solely on those third-party partnerships. Instead, it will also launch what Titas called “in-app delivery,” where, thanks to a POS integration, Wendy’s can also process orders directly through its own app. While she didn’t give too many details, Titas said she expects this direct integration to knock three to five minutes off the delivery process. Meanwhile, the arrangement will also allow Wendy’s to track customer data more precisely.

Geolocation capabilities, to improve delivery and help ensure that customers are ordering from the right (i.e., the closest) Wendy’s, voice-order via Google Assistant, and a long-needed loyalty program were all announced at the Investor Day event as well.

Wendy’s certainly has its work cut out when it comes to evolving into a tech-forward restaurant company. Between Burger King’s many publicity stunts to drive mobile orders and McDonald’s turning itself into a tech company, competition is only growing fiercer when it comes to retaining customer loyalty. But with 60 percent of all restaurant orders now off-premises, there’s also a lot of room for growth and new audiences to grasp for those who can make their reach wide enough.

Wendy’s Doubles-Down on Its Tech Ambitions Post Earnings Call

If there’s one big takeaway to glean from Wendy’s first-quarter 2019 earnings call, which took place on Wednesday, it’s that the quick-service burger chain is ramping up its tech game in a big way.

Not that the Dublin, OH-based company was slacking. Prior to Wednesday’s call, Wendy’s had already installed self-serve kiosks in about 75 percent of its (North American) stores, accelerated its delivery program with DoorDash, and made progress on redesigning existing stores to better serve the digital needs QSRs in 2019 must meet.

Based on the transcript from this week’s earnings call, those initiatives have so far paid off. CEO Todd Penegor noted on the call that Wendy’s saw “system-wide sales growth” and that the company continues “to make meaningful progress with [its] consumer-facing digital capabilities.”

That progress includes further expansion of its delivery program, which Penegor said “continues to pace ahead of expectations.” The company plans to have 80 percent of its North American system available for delivery by the end of 2019, along with a more streamlined mobile app that will integrate DoorDash and make off-premise ordering an easier experience for customers. Mobile ordering will be available across the North American Wendy’s market by the end fo the year. (It currently operates in 75 percent of North America.)

A newer initiative for Wendy’s is the introduction of digital scanners, which are part of Wendy’s $25 billion investment in digital initiatives. Penegor said on the call the company plans to have scanners in all its restaurants by the end of 2019. Speed is the obvious benefit here, as the technology will allow employees to simply scan mobile coupons on orders, rather than keying them into a POS system, as was done previously.

For a QSR, however, providing speed at scale is almost important as the quick turnaround times themselves. Penegor said as much on the call, going as far as to say that scale “allows you to make investments in such things as enhanced training and tools, and that those with scale will ultimately win.”

Wendy’s celebrated its 50th birthday this year, but in terms of digital adoption, it has moved slower than McDonald’s, whose aggressive “experience of the future” redesign and foray into personalized recommendations have garnered much attention of late. That said, so has its ongoing battle with its franchisees, for whom all this new technology is sometimes more of an albatross around the neck than a revenue generator.

Wendy’s hasn’t reported any such friction as yet, so it will be important to keep an eye on the company as it scales its tech plans across the continent. They may not have a Dynamic Yield-like deal in the works yet (that we know of), but they could be creating a solid blueprint for growth worth mimicking in future.

Starbucks Will Power More Than 300 Texas Stores With Solar

Starbucks made another move towards investing in green energy today when it announced a partnership with solar company Cypress Creek Renewables. In a post on the coffee giant’s Stories site, Starbucks noted that the two companies, along with U.S. bank, are “teaming up on a portfolio of farms across Texas.” The partnership includes two solar farms that will power 360 Starbucks stores across Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, and Arlington.

The post also noted that Starbucks is investing in six other Cypress-owned solar farms in Texas, and predicts that the eight total farms will reduce the company’s total carbon footprint by 101,000 tons annually.

The Seattle-based coffee retailer isn’t new to solar initiatives. In April 2017, Starbucks invested in NC-47, solar farm in North Carolina to power around 600 Starbucks locations in that state as well as Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. In September of 2018, Starbucks announced its Greener Stores initiative, which, among other things, aims to power all stores with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. That includes solar as well as wind — in November of 2018, the company invested in an Illinois wind farm to power almost 350 of its locations.

Starbucks isn’t alone, either, in its plans to ramp up the sustainable side of business, for which the year 2025 is shaping up to be the key date for big-name quick-service brands. Wendy’s has its Squarely Sustainable program, which so far has included using more energy-efficient kitchen equipment and HVAC systems. The company also plans to reduce its overall energy usage by 20 percent by 2025. KFC will convert its packaging to renewable plastic sources, also by 2025. Meanwhile, McDonald’s has said it will source 100 percent of its packaging from renewable materials by, yep, 2025, and Dunkin’ has said it will do away with polystyrene cups by next year.

What will become clearer in future is which of these areas will help quick-service chains make the most positive impact on sustainability. From the perspective of a consumer, it’s easier to see that impact in compostable coffee cups and cutlery as replacements for polystyrene and plastic. Renewables are trickier in that they are a) harder for customers to “see” and b) have a long way to go in meeting long-term climate and sustainability goals. However, that doesn’t make them any less important, and as we inch towards 2025, we’ll see more of these initiatives from more chains, both in the U.S. and globally.