Delivery is Faster Fast Food and Finding Favor

Back in the day the Drive-Thru was a platform for a Quick Service Restaurants to drive sales and consumer convenience. It may be the reason why even today that of the 66 billion restaurant meals served in the United States last year 2/3’s of them sold at Quick Service Restaurants. 

Regular readers of this blog know we have documented McDonald’s successful delivery program in countries around the world. McDonald’s is particularly good at build, measure, learn and repeat and that template has become a pillar of success at the golden arches.   McDonald’s continues to test food delivery and will elevate food delivery as a platform of consumer choice to a new level when it rolls out delivery in the United States. 

Customer relevance driven by technology will enable food delivery to drive sales at all food outlets  much the way the drive-thru once did. The McDonald's delivery service, dubbed 'McDelivery', is one the fast food giant's latest strategies to remain customer relevant, on-trend, while expanding market share once again.  While “fast casual” restaurants have been credited with garnering market share from McDonald’s it’s the C-stores that have garner both customers and market share in the United States. 

This last year McDonalds began testing “McDelivery”  delivery in Australia, building on its successful food delivery program in Asia.  During the past year McDonald’s has expanded from its rollout in Sidney from one store delivering to four suburbs to seven stores delivering to 53 suburbs. 

Starbucks announced last October that it would begin delivery of both food and beverages in select markets in the United States and the test are under way.  Taco Bell recently revealed plans to test a delivery service sometime this year. Not to be left out Panera Bread Co. said it may will try delivery as an option. 

Burger King has been driving top line sales while expanding contemporized customer relevance with food delivery in the United States for three years in select markets largely without much competition. This year things are about to change. 

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. has begun offering delivery for online and mobile orders in 67 cities using the Postmates app. In search of customer relevance Olive Garden is considering delivery. Olive Garden has experienced a surge in to-go orders after introducing mobile and on-line ordering. Gene Lee, chief executive officer for Olive Garden’s stated: “This growth is very important as a check averages 30% higher when guests order on-line,”… “Takeout represents 8.6% of our total sales. Given the increasing trend for convenience, we believe we can drive takeout sales above 12% 

It is interesting to note that Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food is a global growth story.  In fact the Australian McDelivery test is going so well that Australian fast food giant Red Rooster is going into the meal delivery market. Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is driving rapid change within every sector of retail foodservice today.  

Starbucks, Burger King, and McDonalds all will be expanding points of distribution with delivery in the United States over the next three years.  Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ predicts that reinvented mobile app based delivery will become the NEXT BIG THING  in the restaurant sector creating unprecedented competition for Pizza chains and industry disequilibrium. 

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging marketing integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche and has been since 1991 Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us