Page 82 - SHARP November 2021

“The pandemic took restaurants into the digital age kicking and screaming. Pre-pandemic, a lot of them had resisted having online ordering and delivery, but they had no choice during the pandemic. All of a sudden, the third-party delivery apps were an easy way for them to start doing business.”
82 NOVEMBER 2021
SHARPMAGAZINE.COM
Y OU DON’T NEED
me to tell you that COVID-19 has led to an uptick in the use of third-party apps like DoorDash and UberEats. In April of 2019,
according to market research firm Ipsos, delivery made up nine per cent of full-ser- vice restaurant sales in Canada; a year later, that number had jumped by nearly 20 per cent. “Pre-pandemic, the delivery channel was around four per cent of the entire food service market,” Asad Amin, vice president at Ipsos, told market research website eMar- keter. “Through the pandemic, it doubled, growing to eight per cent because all the fo- cus was on off-premises, with dine-in closed. We saw a massive spike, especially early in the pandemic.”
After 18 months, industry analysts and restaurant owners across the world are still wondering whether these changes are here to stay or whether the demand for delivery will erode over time. The answer to those questions seems to hinge entirely on humans’ tendency to adapt.
“I think there will be a decline in deliv- ery numbers, but I don’t think it will go back to what it was pre-pandemic,” says James Shea, publisher of Food Delivery News. “It took 18 months for new buying habits to be established, and those aren’t going to go back to the way they were in early 2020 or 2019. People decided that they like the convenience of delivery.” But our obsession with convenience has obscured the working conditions of the people delivering our food.
“The pandemic took restaurants into the digital age kicking and screaming,” says Shea. “[Pre-pandemic], a lot of them had resisted having online ordering and delivery, but they
had no choice during the pandemic. All of a sudden, the third-party delivery apps were an easy way for them to start doing [business].”
The benefits of signing up for DoorDash or UberEats versus an in-house delivery sys- tem seem to outweigh the overall costs of the endeavour. If discoverable on an app, a restaurant will automatically have access to a larger pool of potential customers. Partic- ipating restaurants also don’t have to worry about delivery efficiency and the logistics of sending out a driver, since the apps have a built-in capability to map a driver’s route most efficiently. “It’s an operational aspect that restaurants don’t have to deal with,” says Shea.
The necessity of the apps, especially in a year that saw in-restaurant dining dis- appear almost entirely, isn’t lost on the app companies themselves. “To-go and delivery orders have provided Canadians with the ability to safely and conveniently access great local food options when and where they want it,” says a DoorDash spokesperson. “Restaurants were challenged to serve their customers in new ways. As an on-demand food platform, we worked closely with our restaurant partners to accommodate this demand while meeting top standards of quality and cleanliness.”
It’s true. According to a report by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) at Dalhousie University, 4.2 million more Canadians or- dered food online at least once a week in the second half of 2020 than before the pandemic.
Restaurant industry insiders are quick to notice the benefits that apps like UberEats provide. “Of course the third parties helped a lot, as no restaurant was ready to deliver [that many orders],” says Jérémie Assouline, a former Montreal restaurant manager. “But pretty quickly, eateries started complaining about costs, and a movement took place.”