Week in Restaurants: WeWork Shuts Down Spacious, Just Eat Rejects Another Takeover Bid

Have I got news for you: Today is the last day you can get a free burrito from Chipotle by entering a code into Instagram. Snack on that while you also chew on a few final bits of news that happened this week in the restaurant world.

WeWork Shuts Down Spacious
Just four months after acquiring it, WeWork is shutting down Spacious, a startup that turns high-end restaurant space into coworking locations for members. The shutdown is one of many cost-cutting moves the much-maligned WeWork is making to offload businesses it has acquired over the last few years. Spacious’s whole staff — 50 employees total — have been laid off. Current Spacious customers will be given prorated refunds and discounts on some WeWork memberships, according to a statement from WeWork.

Delivery Service Just Eat Rejects a Takeover Bid — Again
Naspers-owned tech investor Prosus has once again made a hostile bid for food delivery company Just Eat. Once again, Just Eat has rejected the bid, saying its board “continues to believe that the Prosus Offer fails to reflect appropriately the quality of Just Eat and its attractive assets and prospects.” This is the third bid Prosus has made for the company in the last few months as it tries to win Just Eat away from Takeaway.com, who announced plans to acquire Just Eat in July. Prosus’ latest counter bid was for £5 billion (~$6.6 billion USD).

Jimmy John’s Expands Loyalty Program Nationwide
Following a six-month test, sandwich chain Jimmy John’s this week did a nationwide expansion of its Freaky Fast Rewards program, which lets members build up rewards points, track them, and pay for food via the Jimmy John’s mobile app. One-tap technology in the app enables users to make in-store payments via Google Pay and Apple Pay. According to a press release, more than 1.8 million people have signed up for the program since it launched in March of 2019.

Also This Week:

Charlotte, NC-based chain Clean Juice has teamed up with multiple third-party delivery services to widen its off-premises reach.
Restaurant management platform Waitbusters integrated its online order feature with Google Search and Maps.
Swag alert: My friends at Nation’s Restaurant News have the definitive list of QSR-branded merchandise available this holiday season.

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