Landshark Delivery: Big Fish In A Little Pond
Since opening in spring of 2015, Landshark Delivery, a restaurant delivery service in Oxford, MS, has grown and expanded exponentially. The Oxford community has given nothing but positive feedback and ongoing support of this local business.
Owned by Robert Bettis and Tanner Thompson, Landshark Delivery brings the various tastes of Oxford right to your door with the click of a button. While few of Oxford’s restaurants such as Pita Pit, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John’s, and Jimmy John’s already offer delivery options, Landshark has added many more choices for customers to choose from, including South Depot Taco Shop, Old Venice Pizza Company, Southern Craft Stove and Tap, and many more.
Landshark has given both students and residents local restaurant options without having to leave home. Not only does this benefit the locals, but the restaurants as well, allowing them to offer delivery without the need for additional resources and funding, such as hiring drivers and paying more employees. It is also a great marketing tool, allowing restaurants partnered with Landshark to get their names and their menus out there.
Bettis and Thompson are no strangers to the delivery industry. Before opening Landshark in 2015, they managed Crimson2Go, a similar company located in Tuscaloosa, AL along with a few other locations. They decided to bring the concept to Oxford when they realized it was the perfect market.
“We love the SEC, and we wanted to expand to a market which is comparable to our four other affiliated companies in Athens, Auburn, Tuscaloosa, and Manhatten,” Bettis said in an interview with hottytoddy.com.
With similar competing companies like UberEats and GrubHub, mainly found in larger cities, Landshark has done exceptionally well in Oxford.
“All of [our] companies have very popular followings, I would say even more popular than the big chains,” Bettis said in hottytoddy.com’s article. “People love local food being delivered way more than the big chains.”
Landshark has grown and expanded from Bettis and Thompson making the deliveries to a team of over 20 drivers, with more and more restaurants being added to the choices each year since 2015. Thompson credits their success to the customers and residents of Oxford.
“Oxford has honestly been amazing, and our customer base is so supportive and wonderful,” Thompson told hottytoddy.com. “We never expected to grow as fast as we have, and it has to do with how wonderful our customers are.”
Mitchell Wilder is a loyal Landshark customer who orders from them about once a week.
“Pretty much every weekend, I order my favorite meal from my favorite restaurant, The Blind Pig,” Wilder said. “It’s so nice to not have to go get in the car and pick it up.”
Wilder was not even aware that Oxford has UberEats, a similar option to Landshark.
“I have never used UberEats and probably never will,” Wilder said. “I didn’t even know that was a thing here. Landshark has great restaurant options and it’s local, so I feel like they get the most support because of that. Locals love to support local businesses.”
Kewan Shaw, a current Landshark Delivery driver, has been working with the company for about three months and says his biggest pool of customers is Ole Miss students.
“We get a ton of students as customers,” Shaw said. “It’s probably 80 percent students and 20 percent other people.”
When asked if he thought they had any competition from UberEats, he laughed.
“Shoot, no,” Shaw said. “Landshark is where it’s at!”
Shaw gets orders from various restaurants throughout Oxford, but says the most come from South Depot Taco Shop, located on the Square.
Thompson agrees. According to hottytoddy.com, South Depot produces the highest volume of orders.
“We have done over 3,200 orders with them since we opened,” Thompson said in his 2015 interview with hottytoddy.com.
As of now, Landshark delivers for 67 restaurants in Oxford, a huge jump from the mere 19 in 2015. This is a company that is constantly growing and continuing to excel, especially in a place like Oxford.
“We want to grow as much as possible and work with every restaurant we can work with for as long as we can,” Thompson said in his 2015 interview with hottytoddy.com. “We want to be the staple for delivery in Oxford and provide the best delivery experience for our customers each and every day.”
Landshark Delivery has certainly done that. Four years later, they are still the big fish in the little pond of Oxford.