Today in Food Commerce: DoorDash Opens NYC Food Hall; Aggregators Face Roadblocks

Today in food commerce, DoorDash gets into on-premises dining with a new food hall, and Just Eat Takeaway.com takes a hit. Plus, Covahne Michaels, vice president of marketing at food service robotics company Blendid, talks hacking it in restaurant automation.

DoorDash Kitchens Opens Dine-in Food Hall in Brooklyn

DoorDash is continuing its play for on-premises restaurant sales, this time with the opening of a food hall in New York City. The Downtown Brooklyn location, part of the restaurant aggregator’s DoorDash Kitchens initiative, offers foods from five restaurant brands both local and national, the company announced Monday (May 2). The space includes a small seating area, and the food hall also fulfills pickup and delivery orders.

Food Delivery Aggregators’ Growth Hits a Snag With Consumers’ Return to Day-to-Day Life

While lockdowns and social distancing measures supercharged the food delivery aggregator space, the return to lives away from home is now revealing cracks in the model. Global food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com saw its stock fall 70% in 2021, according to a report Sunday (May 1) from The Wall Street Journal, which argued that the company’s search for a buyer for U.S. delivery service Grubhub may not be enough to save the company, given that the issues in the food delivery sector extend beyond the one aggregator.

Blue Apron Announces $70M in Investments, Refinancing

Meal kit service Blue Apron announced Monday (May 2) that it had received a $70.5 million capital infusion in the form of investments and refinancing. According to a company news release, Blue Apron will receive a $40 million private placement investment from RJB Partners LLC, which is an affiliate of long-time investor Joseph N. Sanberg. Meanwhile, company president and CEO Linda Findley will invest $500,000 of her own money in Blue Apron.

Restaurant Robotics Companies Face Learning Curve Bringing Tech to Market

“Food service operators are very much struggling post-COVID. Margins were low before, they had hiring challenges before, but the post-COVID situation has just blown them out of the water,” Covahne Michaels, vice president of marketing at foodservice robotics company Blendid, tells PYMNTS in an interview.