What are everyone’s thoughts on Tina Daheley’s Panorama documentary tonight? I think my views on food delivery disrupters, Deliveroo and Just Eat, have taken a slight U-turn after watching the takeaway industry’s secrets exposed! Feel free to restore my (customer) faith and change my mind (please also read disclaimer).
In a world where the Innovation Labs predict that consumers will turn to digital delivery services as an every day norm (making cooking a "one off treat or hobby"), it's worth taking a look at just how the shifting landscape of the competitive market will keep up with demand.
1. Consumer concern: shipping container, box-like kitchens set up in gritty, city car parks (without windows), now labeled as 'dark kitchens' are paying for big-name licenses and delivering to customers who think their food is coming from well-known (and supposedly 4/5 hygiene rating) restaurants. The disruptive and ‘innovative’ nature of the Deliveroo brand means there are no current regulations broken.
Imagine it - you go to place an order from Thai chain Busaba Eathai or Franca Manca because you're last visit to the restaurant was enjoyable, you trusted the service, and in the background while you wait on the sofa staring at your Deliveroo app for an update, a chef (trained to be fair) is cooking your food in a metal box with the door wide open otherwise it's too hot. These satellite kitchens are the result of a rapidly growing appetite for the much-loved, upmarket takeaway and a need for restaurants to 'expand' in a new direction (as Deliveroo pick-ups and drivers are getting in the way of the restaurant services).
Still love the service but want your food to actually come from the restaurant? Look out for Deliveroo Editions - the 'brand new concept' filling the market gap and providing chain-branded training to entry-level chefs - to be in the know of which restaurants are using these interesting new outlets.
2. Local business concern: takeaway restaurants throughout the country need to keep up with the growing demand and '80% of takeaway orders that are now placed online' in order to remain competitive. However, the constantly increasing commission fees paid to companies like Just Eat make it difficult for businesses to stay afloat. If keeping above water with your customer's food alternatives wasn't enough of a challenge, restaurants are also faced with the dilemma of making actual profit, with margins already squeezed enough in the industry.
Just Eat go one step further in shaping brand awareness and customer decisions by offering promoted listings that boost restaurants to the top of the results page. That's all said and good, after all, we all know the principles of paid advertising and Just Eat would still monitor who gets the top spot, right? Apparently not. Even after stating that only 4+ hygiene rating restaurants are eligible to appear in a sponsored ad, Panorama revealed that zero star takeaways were still able and featured in the promoted, top section of the results page.
While we do understand those principles of sponsored ads, it's fair to say as consumers we'd expect to only see top and eligible restaurants being recommended (albeit paid) to us when we hit that 'find food' button. In a customer-centric world where the consumer trusts other customers, low rated restaurants seemed to have found a way around earning their views while Just Eat digests their spend.
Disclaimer: this isn't an article to boycott the brands or distrust the industry but it's good to know and share the background behind our digital-kitchen apps, especially when it comes to food hygiene. These delivery services are still great platforms for on-demand customers who have hundreds of choices for dinner simplified and at their door at a click of a button.
Likewise, digital exposure and the innovative services attributed growth for the market has many benefits for small, food businesses.
But while new digital technologies and industry-disrupters shake things up, get shouted about in commercial and consumer press, trend on Twitter and become talk of the office, it is these small revelations (that uncover just how key players shape and then keep up with the demand they bolstered, while continuously reinventing the industry) that triggers us to think more consciously.
I urge everyone to watch this and keep an eye out to see what happens next!
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