Meet Travis K's New Digital Food Court
DoorDash-Deliveroo deal dies, NYC Urban Freight Lab, kei truck imports on the rise
Ahh, nothing like starting the week with juicy acquisition rumors, an interesting new launch from everyone’s favorite mobility and delivery bad boy, a new collab out of NYC and some very cute lil trucks. Let’s get to it!
We’ll be off for the rest of the week for the holiday; next week, please join us on July 11th for our Culver City happy hour.
Today’s edition is brought to you by Locale.
Today:
Picnic — Travis K’s New Internet Food Court
DoorDash Backs Away from Deliveroo Acquisition
Chart Time | Japanese Kei Trucks Take Off
NYC Launches Urban Freight Lab
VIRTUAL RESTAURANTS | CloudKitchens Launches Picnic
CloudKitchens has launched its latest attempt to disrupt the delivery and ghost kitchens game: meet Picnic, a new “digital food court” aimed at downtown office workers. In a bid to combat fee-flation, Picnic’s model has zero fees and no tips involved, instead simplifying operations by bringing all orders to a centralized set of shelves, located in a workplace common area, between 12:15 and 12:30. So far the concept is live in three locations: Los Angeles, (featuring brands like Moonbowls, Sweetgreen, Mendocino Farms, and Umami Express) San Francisco and a slightly more public-facing iteration in Chicago (which features Take a Bao, Impossible Shop, Dog Haus and more.)
The Big Picture: Travis Kalanick is famously press shy, so it’s no surprise that Picnic’s roll out hasn’t been accompanied by much fanfare. In fact, some of its marketing materials even go so far as to eschew any mention of CloudKitchens or its City Storage Systems hold co. At this point, Travis and company have a number of new innovations glommed on to their burgeoning restaurant empire, including its food automation and robotics project Lab37, as well as order consolidator / POS Otter. Both those brands also bend over backwards to avoid mentioning a relationship to CloudKitchens.
PARTNER | Locale Reinvents Food Delivery
Microwave meals have long promised huge time savings but have always been a let down when it comes to quality. Locale is rethinking this and instead of making food in a factory, partners with California's top restaurants to create microwavable versions of their dishes. Meals are produced in restaurants, then packaged in special, airtight packaging so they stay fresh for a full week in a fridge. All meals are $11. They've attracted a lot of buzz, raising $14M from Andreessen Horowitz and serving thousands of busy Bay Area professionals. Turns out their CEO is a fan of this newsletter and agreed to give our subscribers a week of free lunch to try it out.
Go to shoplocale.com and use code: MODERNDELIVERYXLOCALE50 for $50 off.
ACQUISITIONS | DoorDash-Deliveroo Decide to Drop Deal
DoorDash and Deliveroo reportedly held undisclosed talks, with the American-based 3PD approaching its British competitor for a potential acquisition. Rumor has it that the deal has since fallen apart, as the two companies couldn’t agree on a mutually acceptable price for London-based Deliveroo. Deliveroo’s stock price has cratered by about two thirds since its 2021 IPO, falling from a high of £3.96 to £1.26 when news of this potential deal first leaked. Since then, the stock has tiptoed up to £1.31, valuing the company at about £2.2 billion ($2.78 billion)
The Big Picture: San Francisco-based DoorDash has a market cap of $45 billion and a healthy $4.5B of cash on hand, so they could certainly make this deal work if they wanted to, evidently Deliveroo’s just holding on for too sweet of a price. DD’s been on an international growth spurt as of late, as its acquisition of Wolt took it from operating in four countries (US, CAN, AUS & NZ) to 29 (with most of those new markets in Central and Northern Europe.) Deliveroo’s footprint is concentrated in Western Europe and the Middle East, meaning that while the deal would plant the DoorDash flag in some premiere markets (London, Paris…) it wouldn’t have the advantage of gobbling up a head-to-head rival and accruing the price-raising benefits of reduced competition.
CHART TIME | Japanese Mini Truck Imports Surge
Kei trucks, also known as Japanese mini trucks (“kei” means “light” in Japanese,) are having a big moment in the United States, with imports rising to about 70,000 last year. These trucks pack a big cab on a small body, making for improved maneuverability and fuel efficiency. That’s made them an awfully appealing proposition for everything from urban deliveries to running a coffee stand out of the back. To import one into the U.S., you usually need to pick a model that’s at least 25 years old, to avoid federal vehicle regulations. Sadly, instead of working to make it easier to certify newer models as compliant, some states are adding new rules to make it harder to operate one of these vehicles, preferring that Americans instead opt for gas-guzzling and child-maiming giant pickups.
POLICY | Feds Grant NYC $5.6M for Urban Freight Lab
A new Urban Freight Lab is headed to the Big Apple, thanks to the city receiving $5.6 million in USDOT RAISE grant funding. “With more than 90 percent of NYC’s freight moved by truck, this Urban Freight Collaborative is critical to foster public-private partnerships that will shift our freight distribution to more sustainable methods, delivering our blue highway, cargo bike deliveries, electric trucking, and future innovation” noted Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. This new institute is modeled after the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab; founder Dr. Anne Goodchild adds “We look forward to sharing insights with our partners in NYC and working together to develop urban freight systems that improve equity, tackle climate change, and improve livability in our cities.”
The Big Picture: Eagle-eyed readers will note some confusion in this press release, with the announcement bouncing between calling it an “Urban Freight Lab,” an “Urban Freight Collaborative” and an “Urban Freight Mobility Collaborative.” That confusion may be a good metaphor for the state of freight in NYC, where well-intentioned initiatives like a marine highway and improved rules for cargo bikes have been hampered by infighting at the new Department of Sustainable Delivery, and even more so by Governor Hochul’s recent beheading of congestion pricing. In other NYC mobility news, the city’s slow embrace of micromobility is gradually picking up steam, with Bird, Lime and Veo receiving permission to begin operations in Eastern Queens.
A Few Good Links
ICYMI: the state of drone delivery in 2024. Alcohol delivery comes to Maryland. DoorDash updates app to add fee clarity in California. CA lawmakers clarify that restaurants do *not* need to disclose junk fees (boo.) Sonic adds $1.99 value menu. Popeyes’ owner buys up Chinese licensee. KFC China launches 200th co-located coffee shop. La La Land Kind Cafe expands. Zomato debuts Restaurant Services Hub. Walmart GoLocal inks deal with sporting goods retailer Hibbett. Jersey Mike’s is eating Subway’s lunch. Ford opens EV dev center in Long Beach. JioMart pilots one hour grocery delivery. Chinese on-demand delivery player SF Intra-city expands to Hong Kong. Zeti closes Series A to accelerate clean fleet financing. Truckers still not allowed to drive high. Beep - barcodes turn fifty! Walgreens Boots Alliances loses exec. Makeup brand Elf plans Roblox shop. Redbox bankrupt. CC swipe fee settlement tossed. Meijer doubles discount on milk for SNAP participants. Progressive Grocer honors Shipt leadership. Pedestrian deaths inch down. Bangladesh looks to legalize electric rickshaws. Behind the scenes at a Waymo depot. Supreme Court rules President is a “king above the law.”
Got a tip, feedback, or just want to say hi? Reply back to this email.
Wonder where you got the Travis story?