They’re virtual food courts where hungry customers can scroll local listings and settle on something tasty for dinner, then place an order with a few quick clicks. Mostly, companies like Seamless are a consumer convenience play. The specifics vary, with some of the companies focusing on particular parts of the order/delivery process, while others are broader in their approach, combining marketing and logistics. Since GrubHub launched in Chicago in 2004, the model has exploded: its competitors now include Yelp’s Eat24, Caviar, UberEats, Munch Ado, DoorDash,, Postmates, Olo, Homer, and ChowNow, to name just the best known. These services charge some combination of fees and commissions and, if all goes well, the restaurant makes up in volume what it loses in margins.Īccording to GrubHub, restaurants using its service see their monthly takeout revenue grow by an average of 30 percent, and one in five restaurants double their takeout revenue one year after signing onto GrubHub. Other platforms use private delivery fleets, sparing restaurants the hassle and expense. The two most familiar “delivery” companies, Seamless and its parent, Grubhub, don’t actually deliver anything at all: restaurants still have to run the food themselves. They’re platforms that aggregate an area’s restaurants, process online orders, and manage credit card transactions. The economic theory of third-party restaurant delivery is pretty straightforward.
Going it alone, however, may be a tough if not impossible task, given a competitive marketplace, the accelerating pace of technological change, and intransigent human nature. Whether you see Roland as a David fighting Goliath, a Don Quixote, or even as a Marie Kondo pushing out techno-clutter, he illustrates the challenge restaurant owners face navigating the myriad options for delivering their food.
“Revolution” may be too strong a word for it, but there’s no doubt that many small restaurateurs like Roland are pitted against the new paradigm of online ordering and delivery. “We are going to start the revolution against these huge companies, located thousands of miles away, who rob small businesses and customers of their hard-earned dollars,” the note reads.
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