ASAP.com Expands Office Delivery Amid Rising Battle for Workday Lunch

Emerging on-demand delivery service ASAP.com announced Thursday (Oct. 20) the launch of home and office delivery in New York City.

As workers return to their offices, many food and beverage (F&B) businesses are pivoting to workday lunch to create new occasions and revenue streams.

The delivery company also operates in several other cities across 14 states. The inclusion of office delivery brings the company into competition with other delivery services targeting workday spending, such as DoorDash for Work and Uber Eats for Business.

“The debut of home and office restaurant delivery in New York City marks an important step for ASAP as customers get more acquainted with the brand in the tri-state area,” Carl Grimstad, CEO and chairman of the board of ASAP, said in a statement.

The news comes as, counter to many back-to-office predictions, remote work appears to be on the rise. Research from PYMNTS’ September report, “The ConnectedEconomy Monthly Report: The Work-From-Anywhere Summer,” which drew from a July survey more than 2,700 United States consumers, found that 16% of employees worked online remotely daily from somewhere other than their homes in July — roughly 26 million more consumers than were doing so in November. In the same period, the share working remotely from home only dipped slightly from 29% to 26%.

Read more: 74M Employees Embraced ‘Work From Anywhere’ Trend in US This Summer

Yet, demand from employers to bring workers back to the office presents an opportunity for F&B brands, one that Nestlé is seizing on with its Freshly subsidiary’s FreshlyWell B2B arm, launched in August.

See more: Nestle’s New B2B Model Helps Companies Cater to Returning Workers

“Most all organizations are really focusing their efforts on getting folks back to work in some capacity,” FreshlyWell Vice President Tom Futch said in an interview with PYMNTS. “We’re seeing a major shift to that area now and serving their populations and trying to do that in both an innovative way but also meet the needs of their clientele. We see that continuing for quite a while. We’re hearing the interest both from the food contract service companies, as well as the clients.”

Indeed, many F&B brands are looking to capture some of this opportunity. For instance, last month, DoorDash unveiled new features for its DoorDash for Work program, which provides DashPass delivery subscriptions, expensed meals and gift cards for employees. Updates include self-serve onboarding for businesses to sign up more easily, a streamlined expensing solution in partnership with expense management company SAP Concur, a catering option and upgraded group ordering tools.

Read more: DoorDash, Restaurants Target Businesses as Office Workers Return

Plus, a report in March revealed that health-focused fast-casual brand Sweetgreen was bringing back its Outpost program by which companies set up pickup points in the office building for Sweetgreen orders, and employees can purchase meals to be dropped off without a delivery fee.

See more: Sweetgreen Revives Office Delivery Program as Consumers Return to In-Person Work