ShopRite & Phononic Unveil Space-Saving Delivery Tech
Millennials' favorite QSRs, December 3PD market share, new truck charging
We’re capping the week off with some interesting new delivery hardware showing up at New York grocers, data on millennial dining habits and 3PD market share, plus some good news for truckers.
P.S. - this is a low ticket alert for Curbivore! Our Early Bird VIP discounted passes are almost all gone!
Today:
ShopRite Unveils New Delivery Infrastucture
Where Millennials Wanna Munch
Chart Time | December Market Share Unchanged
New Truck Charging & Parking Coming Soon
GROCERY | ShopRite Rolls Out New Delivery Infrastructure
Northeastern area grocer ShopRite is upping its delivery game, as it rolls out temperature-controlled totes for its delivery and pickup services. Powered by Phononic’s 2nd Generation Active Cooling Solutions, the freezer / fridge totes assist with picking, storing and staging orders, while cutting down on space and refrigerants. “The recent launch of the Phononic 2nd Generation ACS totes allowed us to create an Order. Pickup. Deliver. department in a store with a smaller building footprint,” said Steve Savas, President, Shop-Rite Supermarkets, Inc.
The Big Picture: ShopRite’s parent co. Wakefern (which also operates brands like Fairway Market and The Fresh Grocer) is the country’s 29th largest grocer, but given the group’s concentration in the Northeast, many of its stores are older and smaller. This space-saving solution lets Wakefern finally offer delivery at markets that previously lacked the capacity. Phononic estimates its internet-connected totes cut down staging footprints by 50% and overall time to curb by 70%.
CURBIVORE | Tickets Going Fast!
We’re about two months away from Curbivore 2024, and tickets are going quickly! We only have 3 Early Bird VIP tickets left, letting lucky ticket holders save $600 on early, guaranteed access to workshops and side events, curated introductions to industry leaders and other high-touch goodies.
Regular tickets are going fast as well; we’re building something special for March 28 & 29 — we hope you’ll join us!
RESTOS | Millennials’ Favorite Quick Service Restaurants
New Technomic data offers a peak into Millennials’ consumption habits; their favorite quick service restaurants are particularly interesting. By order of satisfaction they are: Smoothie King, Dutch Bros Coffee, Jollibee, Sweetgreen, Zaxby’s, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Chick-fil-A, Cold Stone Creamery, Newk’s Eatery and Cinnabon.
The Big Picture: Millennials aren’t a bunch of babies any more; this generation, born between ‘81 and ‘96, is now the country’s largest cohort, and they’ve got the spending power to prove it. (Although we will say that their apparent love for creamy beverages does seem a tad toddler like…) Looking at these restaurants systemically, you can see that they’re all very delivery-friendly brands, besides Cold Stone. Smoothies and iced coffees stay tasty while being shuttled to the customer, as do those sandwiches. And Sweetgreen, with its recent bet on automation, is all in on off-premises orders as well.
CHART TIME | December Food Delivery Market Share Update
Another month, another Second Measure look at food delivery market share. In some ways, everyone was a winner, with each brand logging a nice holiday-related jump to sales, as compared to November. With those gains spread around evenly, actual share of market remained unchanged. DashPass retention was 59% at the one month mark, 29% at six months and 25% at a year.
INFRASTRUCTURE | Trucks & Truckers Get Places to Recharge
Good news for America’s weary truckers, and the planet’s weary lungs! The Feds just announced almost $5 billion in new transportation funding. And while hundreds of millions go to things like rebuilding aging bridges and upgrading ports, the folks moving America’s goods are likely especially happy to hear that hundreds of millions are going in to building new truck parking spots, letting truckers rest when necessary. I-5, the Lehigh Valley area, Central Florida, Missouri and Wisconsin look to be particularly big beneficiaries.
The Big Picture: Currently the country only has one one proper parking spot for every 13 truck drivers, meaning haulers may waste an hour on the highway cruising for an open berth. But it’s not just truck drivers that can reenergize, electric trucks are getting new charging stations as well. Long Beach-based WattEV just scored $75.6 million to build out 100s of new truck-friendly chargers near California’s highways. Hydrogen-powered trucking is looking good too, with Hyzon announcing new customers for its FCEV trucks.
A Few Good Links
Craveworthy Brands acquires Dirty Dough. Postmates’ Founder Bastian Lehmann opens up about new startup, TipTop. OpenAI teases new models, lower prices. Warehouse employment dips. Jack in the Box plans growth in new markets. Starbucks growth slows. Boston Market unveils unusual plan to return to growth. Update to JET’s plans in France, it now appears to be a retrenchment as opposed to a full pull-out, as it culls courier employees in Paris.
Got a tip, feedback, or just want to say hi? Reply back to this email.