Deliveroo Unveils World's Most Divisive Sandwich
McDonald's expands Ready on Arrival, Amazon offers unlimited grocery delivery, consumers go downmarket
How was everyone’s weekend? Anyone get a chance to bite into Deliveroo’s head and stomach turning new Christmas Sproutwich? We’ve also got a big tech update from Mickey D’s, new grocery delivery pricing from Amazon and some insights on how consumers are looking to pinch pennies.
This week’s edition is brought to you by RestoGPT.
Today:
Deliveroo Hopes You’ll Try The Christmas Sproutwich
McDonald’s Expands Geofencing Deployment
Chart Time | Penny Pinchers in the Grocery Aisle
Amazon Offers Unlimited Grocery Delivery for $9.99/mo
3PD | Only One Brand Makes the Christmas Sproutwich
The U.K.’s Deliveroo is unveiling a special sandwich, and we can’t decide if it’s the lovely color of Christmas, or a sickly homage to the Grinch. Called the Christmas Sproutwich, it’s intentionally meant to divide Britons, and it’s only available while supplies last in a few major cities. Evidently Brussels sprouts are driving the island nation towards a civil war: 31% of brits love them, 35% are “sprout haters,” 57% think Xmas isn’t complete without sprouts, and 51% think they are the worst part of a traditional holiday meal. And yet with 42% of consumers open to trying a new dish to change their minds about the foodstuff — perhaps this stunt food is just what the U.K. needs to heal its fractured nation.
The Big Picture: Priced at 99 pence (~70¢) this is obviously a promotional stunt, not a long-term new business line. And yet, delivery aficionados worldwide can learn from this. To prep the item, Deliveroo is making use of Editions, its first-party ghost kitchen arm. This promo drives not only consumer awareness of the division, but might help the service find some new site hosts as well. The sheer act of making such an inane dish not only grabs attention, it ensures that consumers fire up Deliveroo’s app to get it, since this isn’t available on Just Eat or Uber. We think 3PDs could take things even further — they have a richness of consumer data unavailable to any individual restaurant brand; instead of putting out annual infographics about how consumers like hot sauce and cinnamon twists, these deliverers should get their kitchens to work making the world’s first chipotle-seasoned churro (or something like that…)
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TECH | McDonald’s Expands Geofencing Rollout
McDonald’s is widening its deployment of Ready on Arrival to six countries by 2025, after piloting the geofencing alert technology domestically back in March. RoA enables workers to begin assembling a customer's mobile order prior to their arrival at the restaurant, to expedite service and elevate customer satisfaction; initial deployments resulted in a 62-second reduction in wait times for mobile pickup orderers. With digital sales in the company’s six largest markets representing $9 billion in revenue, that’s a whole lot of seconds shaved.
The Big Picture: Food being ready, and hot, as soon as a customer walks in helps drive “significantly higher customer satisfaction scores,” according to CEO Chris Kempczinski. That in turn means app users (“loyalty members”) order 15% more frequently, and spend almost twice as much, as non-users. While Mickey D’s has 150 million users (defined as active in the past 90 days,) the company is looking to push that to 250 million by 2027. The Golden Arches certainly has the heft that it could push RoA tech to its 3PD partners, but instead this is all a play to get more and more Hamburglers to use its first party ecosystem.
Bonus fact: At any given moment, McDonald’s is preparing and delivering 55,000 orders.
CHART TIME | Grocery Consumers Pinching Pennies
While inflation has cooled significantly, consumers are still looking for ways to save on groceries, as they respond to negative media sentiment. New data from PYMNTS shows some of the ways shoppers are responding, with consumers especially likely to head downmarket for housekeeping supplies, personal care products and snacks. We see Dash Mart and Gopuff team up for special product drops (like Gopuff x Pure Green Refreshers, launched last Thursday) but maybe the deliverers need to spend more time private label variants of basics like Windex, ChapSticks and Kleenex.
GROCERY | Amazon Pilots $9.99 Unlimited Fresh Deliveries
Amazon is testing yet another pricing tier for its grocery delivery, letting Prime members opt in to unlimited deliveries for $9.99 per month. The program covers groceries from both Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh, on orders over $35. Carts of any order value will also qualify for 30-minute pickup windows. The company is initially deploying this new option to Denver, CO; Sacramento, CA; and Columbus, OH. This option is only available to Amazon Prime members, the company’s $14.99/mo or $139/year loyalty service.
The Big Picture: After a good year or so of playing dead, Amazon is retooling its grocery ambitions. In the past month we’ve seen it resume store openings and partner with other markets like Save Mart and Bristol Farms. Now the company is showing its willing to pour money into grocery delivery once more, after having previously jacked prices way up to better cover costs. Originally any Prime member could get free grocery delivery on orders of $35, but the company raised that minimum up to $150 in January, before lowering it to $100 in October. It added a $9.99 service fee for Whole Foods orders back in 2021, leading to a drop in usage. For competitive comparison, Walmart+ ($98/yr) offers free deliveries on grocery orders of $35+, as does Instacart+ ($99/yr) and Shipt ($99/yr.)
A Few Good Links
Battery-swapping moped startup Vammo raises $30M. Grab beta tests family accounts. Delivery Hero managers pick up litter. Hello Fresh report shows consumers want brands to tackle food insecurity. Uber Eats follows DoorDash in moving tip to post-checkout in NYC. Wienerschnitzel expands to South America, we wonder what all the Germans that *strangely* moved there in the mid-1940s will think. Uber Eats partners with Austin icon Torchy’s Tacos. Hyundai reveals Kona Electric pricing — starts at $32,675 before tax credits. Former contractor sues FedEx Ground under RICO law. Kodiak Robotics talks autonomous F-150. 7.5 million Americans will fly for holidays. Amazon sues “international fraud organization” over faked returns. Amazon cuts referral fees for apparel. SBUX resumes talks with union organizers. Shake Shack CEO Garutti stepping down. Slideshow of next-gen fast food restos. Food Logistics honors DutchX. Habit Burger opening first mobile pickup lane. DoorDash partners with Gus’s Community Market, New Leaf Community Markets.
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