When Grubhub came to Iowa City in 2017, Jon Sewell got what he describes as a “call to action.” He owns a D.P. Dough franchise there and had been using a delivery service called OrderUp to get his calzones to college students. But then Grubhub bought OrderUp and doubled the commission on orders to an …
Continue reading “Big Tech’s food-delivery apps face a grassroots revolt”
NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa (KWWL) – The price of gas had dipped slightly in Iowa in recent days, but it is still up 50 cents over the last month. “Usually my tank is like 40 dollars, so the jump was like straight up to 50,” Jonathan Jackson said, a driver for CHOMP delivery service in Johnson …
Continue reading “Customers paying about $.50 more per order to support drivers during gas spike”
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – People who order food on third-party delivery apps might soon see some changes in the people delivering their food. A bill in the House and one in the Senate add regulations to drivers. It was a change Kurt Bean, owner of Bops Pizza on Blairs Ferry Rd, said needed to …
Continue reading “Legislation aims to regulate third-party delivery drivers”
Ride-hailing service Lyft is entering the food-delivery space in a partnership with online-ordering platform Olo. Though it may sound like Lyft is trying to become the next Uber Eats, it’s setting itself apart with a different strategy. “This is not about Lyft creating a clone of Uber Eats,” Olo CEO Noah Glass told Insider (Dec. 14). The Strategy Lyft’s …
Continue reading “How Is Lyft’s Food-Delivery Strategy Different?”
From online retail giants to local takeout, last year’s home quarantine period saw a boom in home-delivery services. That wave receded this spring as vaccination numbers grew, but larger Iowa markets are likely to see continued growth in the service. “We anticipate more customers choosing online shopping as their primary way to shop for groceries,” …
Continue reading “Home food delivery still going strong for Iowa businesses”
Promo video for Chomp and LoCo:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfhMIlehlt0
When the pandemic-induced economic shutdown hit the United States in March 2020, among the hardest hit businesses were restaurants. A National Restaurant Association report published last January estimated that 110,000 establishments had closed at least temporarily—and many permanently. That’s one in six restaurants nationwide. An estimated 2.5 million jobs were lost. To survive amid shutdown orders and …
Continue reading “Delivery Co-ops Offer Growing Alternative to National Gig Delivery Services”
During the pandemic, homebound Americans more than doubled their food delivery orders, largely through third-party apps like Seamless and UberEats. COVID-19 lockdowns may have hastened the apps’ growth, but economists have tracked a dramatic uptick in the use of such platforms over the past five years. But the convenience of these apps masks an inherently predatory nature, with crippling …
Continue reading “Delivery Co-ops Provide an Answer to High Fees and Low Wages”
NEW, LOCAL CHALLENGERS ENTER THE MARKET Big delivery apps including Uber, Grubhub, and DoorDash have recently found themselves in hot water, facing a class action lawsuit over delivery fees, according to a report from Legal Newsline (June 22). The high fees implemented by these companies are spurring independent restaurants to explore their own delivery options. In response …
Seeking to stay busy after retiring from a career in nonprofit health-care management, Jon Sewell opened a calzone shop in Iowa City, Iowa. After eight years in the business, he can tell you all about the joys of plying college kids with late-night cheesy goodness—and even more about the downsides of delivery apps such as …
Continue reading “Local Delivery Alternatives Bite Into DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber”
