Dive Brief:
- Modern Market Eatery recently unveiled a new in-house ordering platform to schedule pickup or delivery through its website, according to Fast Casual.
- The site also includes features aimed at making ordering for large groups easier. The host initiates the order and invites guests to place individual selections by a certain time window.
- Delivery is free for orders of $50 or more.
Dive Insight:
Modern Market Eatery is bucking the industry trend of using a third-party service as it invests in ways to make it easier for diners to place an order either individually or in a large group through its own in-house platform.
Delivery giant Domino's has shown that if done well, keeping that service within the company can give it control of quality, as well as save money as businesses like Uber Eats and Deliveroo take a slice of the profit. McDonalds, for example, has been experiencing some headaches over its delivery partnership with Uber Eats recently, saying that the endeavor has not been as profitable because of the fee they have to pay to the logistics service. Although the majority of the chain's franchisees are onboard with delivery, they struggle with the economics of the equation and wish for a better commission. On average, third-party logistics providers take roughly 15% to 30% of sales according to Restaurant Business.
Managing delivery in-house, however, can be difficult and costly too. Hiring drivers, scheduling, making sure orders are fulfilled on time and creating the software that helps tie all these dots together is a large undertaking and can lead to serious issues if executed poorly.
Another danger that Modern Market will have to consider is whether eschewing popular apps like Uber Eats, which compile delivery offerings from multiple restaurants, will prevent it from being as competitive as possible. For chains like Modern Market, which doesn't have the name recognition as some other fast casuals, its reach could be limited to diners that already eat there and would go directly to a restaurant's website to place an order or peruse a menu.
The Boulder, Colorado-based retailer recently merged with Lemonade Restaurant Group to form Modern Restaurant Concepts. The group now operates 58 restaurants across 10 markets with plans for Modern Market to further entrench its presence in current markets including Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
That doesn't mean Modern Market can't be successful. Panera Bread is also in the in-house delivery game, managing a service that spans 1,300 locations out of its 2,000 total restaurants according to Nation's Restaurant News. The service features 13,000 drivers and workers throughout 897 cities. It makes Panera one of the few non-pizza restaurants to operate a successful in-house deliver business.
