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.
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