Food Delivery Apps Battle for Your Stomach, No One’s Winning
Rising and Fortune 500 companies alike have been slowly realizing that people eat food. Like, a lot. Responding to this very basic acknowledgement, new food apps and online verticals have been popping up on consumer sites throughout this year. Like, a lot.
Maybe, too much.
The newest addition, UberFRESH, is the latest venture in Uber’s quest for world domination.
Given all the recent negative press surrounding Uber, numerous people have voiced concerns about trusting the company with their information. For the hordes of people who still prefer the service to Lyft and Curb, you can now also trust an Uber driver with your lunch order. The service is currently only available in West Los Angeles and Hollywood and exclusively honors lunch orders from select restaurants, but expansion is expected.
Recent Square acquisition, Caviar, possesses an Uber-like courier service that encourages everyday cyclists to deliver food for the company. Each courier is supplied with a GPS that allows you to track your order from mostly upscale restaurants that are required to post high quality photos of all menu items.
Both UberFRESH and Caviar offer an elitist feel to an everyman market, but Caviar insists that their company wants to appeal to a wide variety of customers and restaurants.
“Our thinking is that the ‘best’ food doesn’t have to mean expensive food,” a spokesperson for Caviar commented. “We look for restaurant partners that offer the best of everything—you know, those places that people get excited about and look forward to eating meals from.”
Both UberFresh and Caviar offer an elitist feel to an everyman market, but Caviar insists that their company wants to appeal to a wide variety of customers and restaurants.
Since food delivering processes become very habitual for consumers, it’s important for these types of services to make excellent first impressions. While service loyalty is great for these companies, the competition segregates the market and can also hide local restaurants from customers.
For a long time, I primarily used GrubHub for my noms needs, but my favorite Thai restaurant only operates through their online ordering portal and, to my recent realization, Eat 24. While my love for this restaurant pushed me to use their janky portal and even go old school with a few phone orders, this discovery has prompted a more 50/50 split between my use of the two food delivery giants (I eat a lot of Thai food).
Abby Hunt, director of public relations for GrubHub Inc., seems pretty undeterred by the increasing industry competition.
“GrubHub Inc. is the clear leader in the US restaurant food delivery space,” Hunt boasted. “Nobody is doing what we do, at our scale.”
With more than 30,000 restaurants across the country and in London listed on GrubHub platforms, she has every right to brag.
When large companies like Amazon Local and Uber attempt to disrupt the food delivery industry, however, it shrinks the market share of existing companies like GrubHub. While this process is capitalism at its finest and will eventually result in a clear winner, it makes it difficult for restaurants to make their food as available as possible to customers.
“GrubHub Inc. is the clear leader in the US restaurant food delivery space,” Hunt boasted. “Nobody is doing what we do, at our scale.”
Greenspan’s Grilled Cheese in Los Angeles, CA, began exclusively offering local delivery through Caviar four months ago and they see no problems with limiting themselves to one service.
“We have been loyal thus far to Caviar based on their excellent network of clientele,” Jay Perrin, partner of Foundation Hospitality Group which owns and operates Greenspan’s Grilled Cheese, predictably stated. “They have an extremely high-valued and immediate response to customer service that we find aligns itself perfectly with our brand.”
The restaurant is open to using other delivery services in the future, but they maintain that they are very transparent about Caviar in-store and on their website. Greenspan’s 73 Yelp reviews and undisclosed number of check-ins, however, have arrived at the conclusion that the hipstaurant doesn’t deliver at all.
When people are more confident that you cater rather than deliver, it’s safe to say your customers have not been made aware of your niche delivery service.
As newer apps and websites are developed, they try to appeal to the sensibilities of certain types of restaurants in order to break into the market. Greenspan’s Grilled Cheese was lured in by the chicness of Caviar, but the pairing does not prove as symbiotic as the restaurant believes it to be.
When people are more confident that you cater rather than deliver, it’s safe to say your customers have not been made aware of your niche delivery service.
For now, there’s just enough choice to make things interesting for consumers, but if this trend continues, restaurants could end up footing the bill.
Amazon Local, UberFRESH and Eat24 could not be reached for comment.
