Have We Reached Peak Food Delivery Startup?
Food + technology is quickly becoming the buzziest space in technology. The ubiquity of technology has affected the way we choose, order, receive, and even pay for our food. From grocery delivery services to take-out delivery services to services that deliver the ingredients to make a chef-sanctioned meal, there are more ways than ever to get exactly what you want when you want to get it with a tap of of the smartphone.
After a year spent researching and writing my weekly Chefs+Tech newsletter, here’s my take on what’s happening.
A sampling of current offerings:
Kitchensurfing connects users to professional chefs who will come to their homes and cook for a special meal or event. Munchery, Sprig and SpoonRocket deliver chef-prepared meals to your door. Blue Apron delivers a few meals’ worth of fresh ingredients plus step-by-step directions to cook them on your own. Now ubiquitous Seamless/GrubHub and Eat 24 allow you to order take-out without calling a restaurant. Caviar offers delivery from top restaurants — the kind where you’d usually sit and spend 90 minutes on a meal, not the kind you’d associate with delivery. Use Goldbely to get regional specialties — like KC barbecue or a Philly cheesesteak — delivered in a day. And there are more, lots more, not to mention the myriad options for ratings and reviews and curated “lists” that help you choose a restaurant, make a reservation, choose a dish, and even pick up the tab.
Everyone eats.
Over time, thanks to busy schedules and convenience foods, we’ve spent less and less time sourcing, preparing and enjoying a meal. That doesn’t mean we enjoy a home-cooked dinner less than the heat-and-eat convenience of packaged food; it just means that sometimes convenience foods are the best option at the time. Technology makes delicious, well-made food convenient. These companies, apps and ideas solve real problems we’re all familiar with. Of course they’re seeing some serious investment interest.
These products represent a shift in how food fits into our lives. We don’t have to build our lives around food; tech allows it to fit in. Humans have been working on this for all of existence; finding better, more convenient ways to find, store, prepare, and enjoy food. This is the next wave: molding the modern-day food experience to fit into our lives precisely how we want it to. Sometimes that means opening an app to have dinner delivered in ten minutes; other times that means flying a cheesesteak across the country because it’s possible.
So what’s the problem?
A recent San Francisco Magazine article laments this sort of instant food gratification, making an example of the extreme option: “Goldbely perfectly illustrates the extent to which the average foodie’s “curated,” supposedly superior approach to eating has become synonymous with single-minded self-gratification, and how mundane so-called gourmet food can become in the process. When the holy land is made deliverable, its holiness starts to feel hollow.” There’s also a line in there about the “greater ill of tech bubble excess,” insinuating that the people who build and use these technologies have a list of silly needs that demand attention of the grandest scale.
Does food on demand disconnect us from the food experience? I’d argue the opposite. These companies exist because we’ve become accustomed to food of a higher quality or indicative of a specific experience. A fresh meal delivered in ten minutes means no prep, no cooking, no mess, no time-suck on a busy weeknight while still enjoying quality healthy foods. Likewise, eating Kansas City burnt ends at my San Francisco dining table isn’t the same as rolling into Oklahoma Joe’s and chowing down next to a gas pump. Why do we want these things at our fingertips? Because we have enjoyed them in the past and they make us happy. I’ve returned to San Francisco from New York with a bag full of bagels. I’ve flown 30 Laduree macarons from Paris in a carry-on for five friends who asked for them specifically. Have you ever been on a plane taking off from Portland? They contain enough pink boxes of Voodoo Donuts to make your teeth hurt from the sugar smell. Technology makes it easier to enjoy these things but doesn’t ruin the primal experience of enjoying good food.
Have we reached peak food delivery startup?
Not by a long shot. But we can take this moment of food-tech popularity to examine our relationship with food and start to plan how the next wave of tech could change the experience of eating. Besides, the Alameda-Weehawken burrito tunnel hasn’t happened yet.
