by Freedonia Industry Studies
September 29, 2020
On September 24, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2149 – the Fair Food Delivery Act. This law will bar last-mile delivery firms such as DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats from delivering food from restaurants without a signed agreement with the restaurant owner.
DoorDash has long used this tactic, claiming it’s a way to introduce new customers and show restaurants how DoorDash operations add value to their business. Others, such as Grubhub, have concentrated on “partnered” restaurants, only more recently adding “non-partnered” restaurants in areas where they have fewer partnered options to offer customers.
Independent restaurants have typically been more wary of participating with these delivery firms and have chafed against “non-partner” delivery operations. They note that they do not have control over the outcome of the delivery and the quality of the food upon arrival, but they would be blamed – rather than the app – if something were to go wrong. They also worry if prices and menu options are being accurately communicated to customers.
This is part of the continuing evolution of the relationship between last-mile delivery firms and the restaurants themselves. Restaurants are increasingly interested in keeping delivery operations in-house or having more control of the delivery experience in light of the business shift toward carryout and delivery during the coronavirus pandemic.
For more information and discussion of opportunities, see Packaged Facts’ food- and beverage-related reports, including Food Carryout & Delivery and the companion report with timely consumer insights from our in-house survey capabilities, as well as US Beverage Market Outlook 2020: Grocery Shopping & Personal Consumption in the Coronavirus Era and US Food Market Outlook 2020: Home Cooking, Grocery Shopping & Food Trends in the Age of Coronavirus.
The Freedonia Group’s extensive collection of off-the-shelf research provides a strong complement to packaged food industry analysis, including US Restaurant Reopening: COVID-19 Impact on Supplies, Global Foodservice, Surface Disinfecting Wipes, and Global Industrial & Institutional Disinfectants & Sanitizers, as well as packaging industry titles such as Foodservice Single-Use Products, Global Foodservice Single-Use Products, and Global Single-Use Packaging Regulations.
Freedonia Custom Research is also available for questions requiring tailored market intelligence.