Restaurant Roundup: Jersey Mike’s Trials Drone Delivery; Grubhub Promises New Yorkers Free Lunch

Sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s Subs is taking its delivery routes to the skyways. The Manasquan, New Jersey-based chain announced Thursday (May 12) that it is partnering with drone delivery company Flytrex to launch five-minute backyard delivery in Holly Springs, North Carolina.

“Our goal is to ensure our customers get their authentic Jersey Mike’s sub sandwiches how they want them, when they want them,” Scott Scherer, chief information officer of Jersey Mike’s Franchise Systems, Inc., said in a statement. “Partnering with Flytrex, we’re thrilled our fans can enjoy the freshest sub sandwiches flown directly to their backyards – it truly is a sub from above.”

Moves such as these, automating the delivery journey and reducing the amount of time it takes to fulfill a customer’s order, can be especially valuable right now, as delivery driver shortages put pressure on the channel, making it difficult for restaurants to meet consumers’ desire for food on demand. Even some of the largest restaurant chains have been struggling with capacity constraints, leaving demand unmet.

Read more: Leading QSRs Are Unable to Meet Dining Demand

“We’re excited to team up with Jersey Mike’s to deliver subs throughout the skies of North Carolina and look forward to expanding our partnership everywhere they deliver their delicious food,” Yariv Bash, CEO and co-founder of Flytrex, said in a statement. “Drone delivery is accelerating quicker than anyone could have anticipated, and we are thrilled to be at the forefront of that movement.”

The announcement of this partnership comes after Brinker International, the parent company of Chili’s Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s Little Italy, announced in April that it was expanding its partnership with Flytrex to Texas, delivering outside the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Granbury.

See also: Drone Delivery Expands as Robots, Humans Race to Meet Consumers’ On-Demand Food Needs

Wendy’s Sees Loyalty Program Boost Cross-Demographic Engagement

Major quick-service restaurant (QSR) Wendy’s is seeing its loyalty program do just what it is meant to do: drive loyalty.

On a call with analysts Wednesday (May 11), Todd Pengor, the brand’s president and chief executive officer, discussed the success of the program across different consumer groups.

“What we’re really pleased with is the folks that become active users within our app, the frequency increased nicely for those folks during the course of the first quarter,” he said. “So, once we get folks into our loyalty program, they, as we would have expected, become a much more frequent customer, and that does cut across all demographics.”

Indeed, PYMNTS research finds that, while younger consumers are the most likely to use rewards programs, a significant share of consumers nonetheless engage with restaurants’ loyalty offerings in all age groups. Specifically, findings from PYMNTS’ January study Digital Divide: Minding The Loyal Gap, created in collaboration with Paytronix, which drew from a November census-balanced survey of more than 2,400 U.S. adults, found that 60% of Gen Zers, 54% of millennials, 50% of bridge millennials, 40% of Gen Xers and 30% of baby boomers and seniors use loyalty programs at quick-service restaurants (QSRs).

Related news: Restaurants Compete to Make Loyalty Programs Stand Out as Consumers Join Multiple Programs

“[The program] helps speed up the drive-thru, helps drive order accuracy, helps with quickness of payment and then ultimately provides a lot of benefit for us over time as we get all that information to better connect to our consumer on a one-to-one basis,” Pengor added.

Grubhub Tells NYC That There Is Actually Such Thing as Free Lunch

This coming Tuesday (May 17), lunch will be on Grubhub in New York City, according to an announcement from the aggregator Wednesday. Specifically, the company is promising customers in the city up to $15 off their order subtotal between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET that day with a set promo code.

The promotion is centered on findings from a Grubhub survey that 72% of full-time workers believe that lunch is the most important meal of the day, and 69% of those in the city say that they have skipped the meal because they are busy.

“As one of the most dynamic dining cities in the world, New Yorkers have so many delicious food options at their fingertips when it comes to ordering lunch,” Ariella Kurshan, Grubhub’s senior vice president of growth, said in a statement. “As the city’s premier food delivery service, this is just one small step in our larger mission to connect local restaurants with hungry diners.”

The move comes as aggregators seek out ways to drive the adoption of online ordering not only for dinner but for all meals of the day. Additionally, for Grubhub, encouraging New York City consumers to try out its offerings can go a long way, considering that restaurant customers in the Northeast prove disproportionately likely to purchase from the aggregator.

Research from the March/April edition of PYMNTS’ Digital Divide series, The Digital Divide: Regional Variations In US Food Ordering Trends And Digital Adoption, also created in collaboration with Paytronix, which drew from a survey of more than 2,500 United States adults in February, found that more than half of all Northeasterners had used Grubhub in the previous 30 days, compared to 41% of the national population.