The Los Angeles Times has a story about a major shift in the Los Angeles restaurant scene, describing it this way:
"Although New Yorkers are accustomed to summoning any cuisine they want at any time, delivery hasn’t traditionally been a big part of Los Angeles restaurant culture, aside from pizza and Chinese food. But the advent of apps such as DoorDash, UberEats, Caviar, GrubHub and Yelp’s Eat24 - where users can browse a menu, place an order and have it delivered without communicating directly with a restaurant - has quickly given anyone with a smartphone (and the funds to cover the delivery surcharge) on-demand access to a wider swath of the city’s rich dining scene.
"For many Los Angeles restaurants, app-enabled food delivery services have gone from being an afterthought to a core part of their business, with restaurateurs realizing that smartphone apps don’t cause a drop-off in dine-in customers, but instead help grow a new customer base."
The Times points to a number of restaurants that have seen double-digit growth that can be traced directly to their delivery offerings, and says that the trend is such that some restaurants actually are rethinking their expansion strategies. Rather than opening a new restaurant in a community, the story says, some are considering the opening of "ghost kitchens" that can serve those communities effectively for deliveries, without all the costs and infrastructure that would be needed to open an actual restaurant.
"Although New Yorkers are accustomed to summoning any cuisine they want at any time, delivery hasn’t traditionally been a big part of Los Angeles restaurant culture, aside from pizza and Chinese food. But the advent of apps such as DoorDash, UberEats, Caviar, GrubHub and Yelp’s Eat24 - where users can browse a menu, place an order and have it delivered without communicating directly with a restaurant - has quickly given anyone with a smartphone (and the funds to cover the delivery surcharge) on-demand access to a wider swath of the city’s rich dining scene.
"For many Los Angeles restaurants, app-enabled food delivery services have gone from being an afterthought to a core part of their business, with restaurateurs realizing that smartphone apps don’t cause a drop-off in dine-in customers, but instead help grow a new customer base."
The Times points to a number of restaurants that have seen double-digit growth that can be traced directly to their delivery offerings, and says that the trend is such that some restaurants actually are rethinking their expansion strategies. Rather than opening a new restaurant in a community, the story says, some are considering the opening of "ghost kitchens" that can serve those communities effectively for deliveries, without all the costs and infrastructure that would be needed to open an actual restaurant.
- KC's View:
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Continuing evidence, I think, that the way people acquire things - including food - is undergoing dramatic, consistent and persistent change ... and that the companies unwilling or unable to keep up will find themselves in a competitive hole.
