Apps like Grubhub and Doordash can help support local restaurants that don’t deliver, and can take a big bite out of a restaurant’s profits.
Bob Heil and Steve Ambrose are no strangers to the city of good neighbors. They say after seeing countless numbers of their fellow businesses close up for good due to COVID-19 they knew they had to help.
“They’re all trying to do delivery and takeout and its costly because the apps that are available were taking 20% sometimes 30% before the business even saw a dime,” Bob Heil said, co-owner of Order Appetit.
What’s different about this delivery system is that the restaurant gets to keep all the revenue from each sale.
“Every order, the restaurant is keeping that entire sale, we don’t take anything from them, we just have a low monthly fee,” Steve Ambrose said, who also co-owns Order Appetit.
Ambrose and Heil say the site has been active for only a couple months. They say Just in the Buffalo area – over 60 businesses have made an account, one of them being Cafe 59.
“We are happy with not having to give away a percentage of the sale. I think now more than ever it’s important to keep money local,” Jeff Cox said, the General Manager of Cafe 59.
Cox tells Spectrum News that other delivery platforms charge a delivery fee, service fee and a percentage of the sale. He says it calculates to a loss of 30% of the entire purchase, and that there’s no bang for the buck.
“Appetit only tacks on 10% all together for the delivery and that’s what they’re getting the total sale we’re getting back,” Cox said.
Ambrose says with all the extra revenue that businesses affiliated with Appetit are able to save, he hopes it won’t cost anymore jobs.
“It sucks. None of them want to lay off anyone,” Ambrose said. “This is a time that we realize is awful for everybody and we want to be investing back into the community.”
Cox added that they’ve only done a handful of sales using Appetit, and so far it’s making a positive difference.
“We’re looking forward to more of those orders,” Cox said.