Today In Food Tech: Chick-fil-A Struggle Closes Dining Rooms; Clover Integrates With Grubhub

Today in restaurant and grocery tech news, Sweetgreen invests in automation, and Clover integrates with meal delivery providers. Plus, a major convenience store business is expanding, even as external factors threaten the sector.

Albertsons Debuts Instacart Service At 40 Southwest Stores

Grocery store company Albertsons will be testing Instacart pilots in six major cities, including Dallas, Houston, Austin, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver, Supermarket News reported. The company said on Tuesday (Aug. 24) that it will roll out the features in 40 stores in those cities.

Circle K Parent Expands As Threats To Convenience Stores Grow

Couche-Tard, a company that operates over 14,000 stores across 26 countries and territories, including convenience store brands Circle K, INGO brand and its flagship Couche-Tard, announced on Tuesday (Aug. 24) that it has acquired 35 locations from the Porter’s convenience store brand. This growth comes even as short- and long-term factors cast a shadow on its future. 

Restaurants Adapt For Workforce With Fewer Humans, More Robots

The restaurant labor shortage does not appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. The underlying issues that have caused the crisis — low wages, poor benefits, unpredictable hours — remain largely in place, as restaurants struggle to come up with a financially feasible option to address would-be workers’ concerns. Now, reports are coming in that several Chick-fil-A restaurants are closing their dining rooms, unable to meet demand, as Sweetgreen turns to automation to ease its labor challenges.

Clover’s Grubhub Integration Alleviates Friction For Restaurant Operators

With the acceleration of the digital shift touching every part of the restaurant business, many operators find themselves juggling a suite of incompatible tools and solutions. Providers that can offer restaurants an opportunity to consolidate their digital presence and keep previously disparate systems in communication with one another have the opportunity to seize this demand for a streamlined solution. That is just what Fiserv’s Clover point-of-sale (POS) platform is doing.