Ever since UberEats and McDonalds teamed up at the end of 2016, fast food chains big and small have made a charge towards delivery services in an attempt to keep up.
White Castle is the latest such chain; today they announced, via an email release, a partnership with DoorDash to offer delivery at almost 300 locations in the U.S. This is in addition to White Castle’s existing delivery services (see below). And in what’s also becoming a typical move for such releases, there will be a limited free delivery deal.
The majority of the White Castle menu is now available on DoorDash, from the iconic slider to those Crave Cases that have fed many a Superbowl party over the years. To celebrate this new partnership, DoorDash is offering free delivery on White Castle orders of $10 or more between today (July 30) and August 5, in selected areas. The company didn’t specify which areas, so check DoorDash’s list of locations for more info.
If said deal isn’t near you, fear not. You can still likely get White Castle delivered to your doorstep via Grubhub (though there’s no deal involved), as White Castle teamed with the service earlier this year.
Many food chains partner with multiple third-party services in order to grab the biggest slice that they can of the $43 billion food delivery market (predicted to hit $76 billion in 2022). That said, we’re seeing a small rise in exclusive partnerships — à la McDonalds-UberEats. DoorDash and Wendy’s also unrolled an exclusive partnership at the end of 2017. And earlier this year, Grubhub became the “official online ordering partner” of Yum Brands (Taco Bell, KFC, etc.) when the latter invested $200,000 million in Grubhub common stock.
No word yet on whether White Castle will partner with anyone else — Uber Eats, for example — in the future. White Castle has already embraced alterna-burgers and attempted to deliver Crave Cases via drones. So it’s safe to say the company is open to new ways in which to reinvent its business (digitized drive-thru strategy, maybe?), and new partners that can help that process.