Uber View on How America Eats and Food Waste Fighting App
7 Min Read By MRM Staff
#WednesdayWisdom in MRM’s Daily Bite comes from Uber Eats, Grubhub and The Cheesecake Factory, TripAdvisor and ReviewPush, goMkt and Kellogg’s® NYC Café.
Send news items to Barbara Castiglia at bcastiglia@modernrestaurantmanagement.com.
How America Eats
Uber Eats, Uber’s standalone meal delivery app, released findings from its first-ever “How America Eats” survey, capturing unique data and trends from U.S. adults across generations and regions. The survey reveals Americans’ changing — and unexpected — eating habits, food preferences and dislikes, guilt-inducing delivery attitudes, and more.
Key takeaways include:
- Brunch is Dying: What was once the trendy meal for Gen X is taking a major hit. Eating supper – a late night meal – at least once a week is now nearly twice as common as brunch
- At least half of U.S. adults have at some point eaten food that they know is expired (56 percent) or food that has fallen on the floor (50 percent)
- Nearly 90 percent of millennials (89 percent) admit to texting while dining out
- 43 percent of Americans say they are a picky eater
“The eating habits of Americans are ever-evolving, and we believe it’s important to just as constantly find ways to more deeply understand what, where, and when people eat, and ultimately why. If we better understand our eaters, we can better serve through products built with their needs in mind,” said Jeanette Mellinger, Head of Uber Eats User Research. “It’s clear that today’s everyday eating is a challenge for many, and we’re excited to build a product that is making eating easier, in 2018 and beyond.”
Additional findings from the study include:
Eating Habits
Parental Advisory: 60 percent of parents admit to eating their kids’ leftovers at least sometimes, with 26 percent do so always/often.
Who is the Pickiest? 43 percent of Americans say they are a picky eater. Half of Millennials describe themselves as picky, compared to a third of Baby Boomers.
Salty vs. Sweet: Generation X (28 percent) and Baby Boomers (27 percent) tend to prefer salty snacks, while Millennials (24 percent) tend to crave sweets.
Food Delivery Habits
Romance, Delivered?: Couples are twice as likely to order in delivery than singles. What would Ina and Jeffrey say?
Netflix and Binge: Forget binge watching – for more than half of adults, it’s about binge eating when watching TV (57 percent of all U.S. adults overeat at least sometimes when watching TV). TV-watching is the biggest overeating trigger for Millennials in particular (78 percent do it at least sometimes; including 38 percent who do so always/often) – even more than being alone (72 percent), sad (53 percent), or stressed (63 percent).
Keeping the Peace: About 1 in 4 couples who ever order delivery (23 percent) say they often argue over which restaurant to order from, and will at least sometimes order from two restaurants if they can’t resolve their differences (24 percent). Nearly 4 in 10 parents who ever order in delivery (36 percent) do the same, sometimes ordering from multiple restaurants just to keep the peace among their children. The same goes for cooking – 54 percent of parents and 28 percent of couples will at least sometimes cook multiple meals at once to accommodate different preferences.
Guilt Trip: More than two in five (43 percent) adults feel guilty when they order delivery. And the most popular time or occasion for people to order delivery is when there’s bad weather (33 percent). We get it – you gotta stay cozy!
Etiquette
Office Etiquette: One fifth of workers (21 percent) admit to sometimes stinky food at their desk, and 12 percent of the workforce admits to sometimes stealing a co-worker’s lunch (either accidentally or intentionally). These behaviors are most common with millennials, who are more than four times as likely to eat a stinky meal at their desk than their baby boomer counterparts (31 percent vs. 7 percent).
Dining Out
Pass on the Family-style: 27 percent of adults say they hate or dislike sharing food with others they’re dining with, and 22 percent say they hate or dislike dining in large groups. Furthermore, five percent of adults hate it if other people order the same dish as them when dining out at a restaurant.
Bills, Bills, Bills: The most common way to handle the bill while dining out with friends is to itemize it (i.e., each person only pays for the items they eat, 46 percent), followed by splitting it equally (36 percent). There also appears to be some regional differentiation, with those living in the Northeast (51 percent) more likely to split equally, while those in the Midwest (57 percent) and South (53 percent) more likely to itemize. Westerners are mixed in their opinion.
The survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Uber Eats within the United States between October 26 and November 6, 2017 among 1,019 US adults aged 18+.
Grubhub Expands Partnership with The Cheesecake Factory
Grubhub expanded its partnership with The Cheesecake Factory®. Grubhub is now offering delivery for The Cheesecake Factory in 18 different states across the country.
“We are so pleased to be working with Grubhub to deliver The Cheesecake Factory favorites to our guests across the country,” said David Gordon, president of The Cheesecake Factory. “Delivery provides an additional way for our guests to enjoy a Cheesecake Factory experience, and we are pleased to offer it from so many of our restaurants coast to coast.”
“We’re always looking to satisfy the cravings of our nearly 10 million diners by connecting them with the best local restaurants to order the food they love, at home or on the go,” said Stan Chia, chief operating officer at Grubhub. “Our diners will be delighted to see The Cheesecake Factory on Grubhub. We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with the much-loved chain to help them capitalize on incremental sales from delivery while maintaining their world-class guest experience.”
Delivery from Grubhub is now available at select The Cheesecake Factory locations in Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
TripAdvisor and ReviewPush Partner
“As an official TripAdvisor Partner, ReviewPush now has the ability to offer a more comprehensive and valuable solution to our customers,” said Lee McNiel, founder and CEO of ReviewPush. ”Another big benefit of the partnership is that our customers can now manage their Google, Facebook and TripAdvisor reviews in one place.”
Founded in 2011 in Austin, Texas; ReviewPush helps brands and businesses manage their customer feedback.
Tech to Combat Food Waste
With an estimated $200 billion of edible food going to waste each year, goMkt unveiled a food shopping platform designed to match hungry, deal-seeking New Yorkers with environmentally-conscious retailers offering delicious food that could otherwise go to waste. Through its discounted “flash sales,” goMkt helps combat a mounting societal problem while enabling businesses to recoup potentially lost revenue.
Available for download on Apple’s app store for iOS devices and on Google Play for Android devices, the goMkt app features an initial group of retailers including: Key Food, Oren’s Daily Roast, Butter Lane Bakery and By Suzette, among others.
“The United States spends more than $200 billion per year on food that is never consumed, an incredibly unfortunate – and unnecessary – phenomenon that has serious social, economic and environmental consequences,” said goMkt founder and tech entrepreneur Matthew Holtzman. “The growing problem of food waste is difficult to solve for myriad reasons including logistics, the complexities of perishable items and the lack of a formal market, which is what we are working to help solve – with a simple system for buyers and sellers of surplus inventory to connect and transact.”
goMkt’s first product, intended to be its initial foray into a broad range of solutions, is a direct-to-consumer platform created for retailers who can create exclusive and immediate “flash sale” offers to publish manually or on a recurring basis. Once an offer is published, goMkt users can then make a purchase before heading to the retailer to collect their items. Transactions are completed electronically, and thus seamlessly. Aside from the savings – and contributing to the reduction of food waste – consumers benefit from the app by connecting with their favorite stores to easily find discounts and specialty items, as well as discovering new locations.
“We’ve been waiting for something like this to come along for quite some time,” added Nidal Hassen, Store Manager, Key Food. “At a time when grocers and food retailers are facing the challenges of today’s shifting retail landscape, goMkt presents a very practical and invaluable tool designed to support our bottom line as well as our sustainability goals.”
The goMkt model relies on brokering transactions to recoup revenue and non-cash benefits for clients. goMkt will begin by focusing on a business-to-consumer model prior to moving onto business-to-business marketplace and alternative recycling channels.
Kellogg’s NYC Cafe is Back
Kellogg’s® NYC Café, top photo, is back tomorrow. Foodies and cereal lovers in New York City can join Tony the Tiger® at the new and improved café, located at 31 E. 17th St. Five times the size of its predecessor, the new Kellogg’s NYC Café offers new ways to explore the unexpected flavors of cereal – all day, every day.
Photo by Sara Jaye Weiss
The new 5,000-square-foot space boasts a brand new cereal-inspired menu, with a few returning fan favorites. The menu also features several items developed by designer, foodie and lifestyle expert Lauren Conrad, who has partnered with Kellogg’s® for the opening of the new café, including:
- Wake Me Up by Lauren Conrad: Frosted Flakes®, pumpkin spice, graham cracker crumble, gingersnaps
- #KumquatLife: Chocolate Frosted Flakes™, candied kumquats, pepitas, cardamom yogurt
- Bananas Foster: Special K™, Frosted Flakes®, cajeta, rum roasted bananas, candied cashews
In addition to the menu items for the café’s opening, Lauren Conrad has also designed a “secret” off-menu creation called Make Me Blush – a must-snap for every Instagrammer who enjoys taking photos of their food – especially cereal! She has also created several other seasonal items that will be incorporated into the menu in the upcoming months.
“Kellogg’s® NYC Café is the perfect place for people to think and dream bigger when it comes to cereal,” said Conrad. “I’m excited to share my tasty new creations and see what cereal tricks others who visit the café have up their sleeve.”
Photo by Mark Von Holden/AP Images for Kellogg’s
Additionally, the menu will include:
- Homemade Eggo® waffles, fresh off the griddle (a first in the waffle’s nearly 64-year history) with Corn Flakes® crusted chicken and maple butter (limited time only)
- DIY cereal bar, which will have more than 30 different ingredients on hand – such as nuts, jams, candied orange peel, matcha and espresso powder, date molasses tahini, yellow cake mix, seasonal fruits and more.
- Masala Time Snack Mix as a pre-packaged grab-and-go treat
- Pop-Tarts® ice cream sandwiches featuring OddFellows ice cream
- And many more cereal-centric surprises!
Open seating and an immersive kitchen welcome Kellogg’s® NYC Café guests, and an Instagram-friendly nook features lighting, props and angles for social-savvy cereal lovers to snap their picture-perfect bowl of cereal.
“We’re thrilled to open the doors to a bigger, more dynamic Kellogg’s® NYC Café tomorrow,” said Aleta Chase, Marketing Director for Kellogg’s®. “We are excited to bring even bigger ideas to life in our new home and create fun, unique cereal experiences that feed into foodie culture.”
Kellogg’s® has also teamed up with special collaborators like Misen, KitchenAid, The Inside, Crate & Barrel, MadeIn, Nintendo, and more to take the café experience to a new level.
“The first Kellogg’s® NYC Café was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of creative possibilities,” said Anthony Rudolf of Co.create. “This new space creates a hangout where guests can inspire and be inspired by how fun a bowl of cereal can be.”
The café will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“As a neighborhood that serves as an incubator for new food concepts, we are excited to welcome Kellogg’s® NYC Café to Union Square’s vibrant, ever-evolving culinary mix,” said Jennifer E. Falk, Executive Director of the Union Square Partnership. “Union Square is home to a variety of exceptional eateries, and the addition of Kellogg’s new cereal café will further enrich our community’s culinary scene.”