May 2020

Coming
Together
Chefs, culinary
leaders and personalities
from
across Canada
joined forces to
launch Takeout
Day to support the
restaurant industry
by encouraging
Canadians to order
takeout/delivery on
April 15 and every
Wednesday
following the
launch. The
campaign is
promoted by
#CanadaTakeOut
and includes the
canadatakeout.
com website, which
features a restaurant-finder
map
of participating
establishments.
Association, “in these challenging
times, all services who are working
with hospitality operations should
be accommodating in reducing their
prices. Delivery providers whose total
success rests on the existence of restaurants
must reduce their high commissions
as the industry is hurting.
When this crisis is over the industry
will remember those who were
flexible and compassionate.”
Some aggregators, such as
DoorDash, have implemented
various changes. For example, from
March 17 through the end of April,
it allowed independent restaurants
in Canada to join the platform for
free and pay zero commissions for 30
days. And then in April, the company
announced a 50-per-cent reduction
in commission fees for local restaurant
partners. In March, it had eliminated
commission fees on pickup
orders for existing DoorDash partners
and added “more than 100,000
independent restaurant partners”
across its network to its $0-delivery
subscription program DashPass.
These programs are currently set to
continue through the end of May.
DoorDash also launched a ‘Local-
Restaurant-Saturdays’ promotion,
which offers no delivery fee on orders
over $15 from local restaurants.
Additionally, the company committed
up to $20 million in merchantmarketing
programs. This included
the #OpenForDelivery multi-platform
campaign that launched
in the U.S. and Canada to
let consumers know restaurants
are open, delivery
is safe and restaurants
need patronage to weather
COVID-19. The campaign
also included the launch
of the openfordelivery.
com website.
SkipTheDishes
launched a 30-day support
package (on March
19) that includes an automatic
15-per-cent rebate
on commissions for all
orders through the platform. It also
introduced an option for customers
to leave a tip for restaurants through
their menus, with 100-per-cent of the
tip going directly to the restaurant.
SkipTheDishes has indicated it continues
to work on immediate and longterm
initiatives as COVID-19 evolves.
For its part, foodora has not introduced
sweeping measures to aid the
restaurant industry. However, in a
newsletter announcing an exclusive
free-delivery deal with the platform,
Toronto-based restaurant Salad King
stated: “We will continue to work
exclusively with [foodora] for delivery
because we believe good businesses
should support other good businesses.
Unfortunately, they don’t have the
deep pockets of the other companies
and can’t offer free delivery for all,
and we’re grateful that foodora is able
to work with us to present this offer
to our customers. Please continue to
support your favourite restaurants
and foodora — and not just the ones
who can afford free delivery.”
While it hasn’t announced broad
free-delivery offerings, foodora already
had a program in place where it partners
with a selection of top restaurants
in the cities it operates in — on a rotating,
month-long basis — to offer free
delivery. This program is still in place.
foodora’s parent company, Berlinbased
Delivery Hero, has stated it’s
“implementing measures according
to local need, including more
Suds
Delivery
for
Many provinces have made
regulatory changes amid
the COVID-19 crisis to allow
alcohol to be delivered with
restaurant takeout and delivery
orders. The provinces
allowing alcohol delivery
include Alberta, B.C. Ontario,
Manitoba, Nova Scotia and
Saskatchewan. Manitoba had
already introduced legislation
to allow the inclusion
of liquor with takeout and
delivery meals in December
2019, however the bill never
received a second or third
reading. After being pressured
by restaurants to allow
them to deliver alcohol,
the province put temporary
measures in place, in early
April, to allow alcohol with
meal orders.
frequent payment. For new restaurants
joining our platform, we aim to
onboard as fast as possible in order
to support them in maintaining
order levels as well as provide more
choice for our customers.” But there
is no indication of how or if this will
impact foodora Canada.
A report from Toronto-based
business-law firm, Osler, recommends
franchisors/operators
“research which services offer the
best value and consider negotiating a
commission waiver if none is
being offered.” FH
ISTOCK.COM/ ROCKDRIGO68 [UBER EATS] ISTOCK.COM/ MYSTERYSHOT [FOODORA]
28 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY MAY 2020 FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM