Take-Out Takes Off Technology Drives Disruption Once Again

Competition for customers heats up as home cooked meals go on-line for or sale. Chefs are now able to cook from home, sell meals, watch the kids, pay the bills all while cooking dinner for the family! Technology continues to ratchet-up the competition in the retail food space empowering chefs to build a reputation one customer at a time without the expense of opening a restaurant. Better yet business travelers can get a home cooked meal.

In Copenhagen there is a website that is turning private homes into Take-Out restaurants. It lets users advertise what they are cooking, when and for what price.  The site, Dinnersurfer.dk, is referred to as a restaurant version of the popular lodging site Airbnb, on which homeowners make their spare rooms or unoccupied dwellings available to paying lodgers for a fee.

Airbnb, is a big hit with consumers and Wall Street.  With its last round of funding Airbnb was valued at $ 10 Billion Dollars. There is no doubt Airbnb will enter the home cooking niche as well.

The advantages for consumers they in most cases pay less than if they had gone to a restaurant with the added benefit that many of the homemade dishes may be healthier than the greasy high calorie fare typically available at take-out counters.

Ana Teresa Salas, a 32-year-old consultant from Copenhagen offers meals on Dinnersufer.dk and said
"Sometimes I only put one serving up for sale, sometimes up to 20. It depends on what I'm making and how much time I have," …"It sounded exciting. I make food for my family every day anyway, and I always make too much," said Salas, who sells her food on the website two to three times a week.”

"On weekdays I try to make food that's healthy, without too much starch and fat," she added…"When I make healthy dishes it's mostly women, and when it's pasta and so on it's mostly men," she said.

The retail food space is evolving fast.  Drug stores, Liquor stores, Home Chef’s, and internet star-ups are all targeting the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food space.  Airbnb, JustEat, and a plethora of others are creating new points of distribution.  Is your company asking the right questions when developing your five year plan? Do you need out-side eyes?

 
For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us  Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. www.FoodserviceSolutions.us