Page 50 - foodservice magazine Feb 2019
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CHEFS’ CORNER
Delivery Dependence
SYDNEY HOSPITALITY VETERAN AND CHEF-OWNER AT RED LANTERN MARK JENSON WEIGHS IN ON THE GLUTTONY OF FOOD DELIVERY COMPANIES.
Food delivery platforms like UberEATS, Deliveroo and Menulog have challenged
traditional paradigms and shaken consumer habits. These platforms provide a level of convenience never before conceived by our industry and with this comes unprecedented hurdles.
I’ve been a chef for 26 years, co-owning Red Lantern for the last 16. I have seen the ups and downs of the industry and trends come and go. I accept that food delivery platforms are here to stay.
Each platform has an impressive business model that ultimately serves itself first. To bring in revenue, the app usually charges the consumer a flat $5 delivery fee, and then takes a 25 to 35 per cent cut
of the food bill as commission. But how many customers know those numbers? Our industry knows that up to 35 cents in every dollar goes to the delivery business, but the general public does not. It is the lack of transparency to the consumer that I take issue with.
Most restaurants and cafes make three to five per cent net
profit from every plate of food. That's a total profit of $10 from a $200 cover. Paying a 35 per cent commission to a delivery platform just does not make sense.
So don’t use them, I hear
you say. Well, if you are already paying the rent, and staff are
in the kitchen, then this is an opportunity to put them to work. Yet in reality, overloading staff during peak service times does nothing for the in-house dining experience of your restaurant.
Food delivery platforms
are the conduit between the seller and the buyer, connecting the marketplace to an endless supply of hungry customers. Yes, customers are hungry for convenience, and who could blame them? So restaurants respond to market forces as they have always done.
Oh, and then there is the supposed free advertising. But on these apps, restaurants are lumped together with the same photography and graphics, so consumers are at a loss to know which to select, and will likely
Mark Jenson, Red Lantern.
default to ordering from venues they've visited before.
When cash flow is lean, inexperienced operators are easily sold a silver bullet. Typically, a restaurant owner simply doesn’t have the capital or physical space to invest in their business to be competitive in this new age of convenience.
So how can we combat this? In short, restaurants should only offer low-margin items on food delivery platforms, meaning a select menu with an average food cost of no more than 20 per cent. This is why burgers and pizza are so popular. But what's equally important is proactively educating customers about the true cost of the transaction, and concentrating on providing a memorable in-house dining experience.
I believe there is a small yet noticeable number of customers who would happily phone through and pick up their order, or better still, dine in if they were aware of the commission. It wouldn’t take long for discerning diners to become a movement.
PHOTOGRAPHY: ALI NOVIS


































































































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