Today in Restaurant and Grocery Tech: Ultrafast Delivery Heats Up; Restaurants Rethink Digital Ordering

Today in restaurant and grocery tech news: Table-service restaurants scale back their off-premise businesses, while ultrafast grocery delivery services step it up. Plus, Rajat Suri, founder and CEO of Presto and co-founder of Lyft, speaks with PYMNTS about the data-powered future of the drive-thru.

Subscription Merchants Challenged to Create ‘Ideal Experience’ to Reduce Customer Churn

Consumers have certainly become more familiar with subscriptions. Amazon Prime has become a staple for many individuals and families — a lifeline for getting everything from weekly groceries to computer hardware for jerry-rigging their work-from-home spaces.

Table-Service Restaurants at Crossroads Over Use of Aggregators

While demand for delivery remains high, many restaurants are now in the difficult position of choosing between providing consumers with the convenience they have come to expect and running a profitable business. Yet, as the emergence of new coronavirus variants causes an increase in contagion concerns, and as the arrival of winter makes outdoor dining less feasible, shifting focus away from off-premise could prove short-sighted.

Ultrafast Grocery Delivery Services Compete Globally for On-Demand Loyalty

As the ultrafast grocery delivery space begins to see some consolidation, leading services are starting to expand their reach beyond the grocery category. Companies ranging from small, local players to those as large as Russian tech giant Yandex are making moves in the space.

Drive-Thrus Get a Long-Overdue Tech Upgrade for the 2020s

“We investigated drive-thrus a few years ago — we were surprised how antiquated they were. They’ve been operating the same way for 30, 40 years. There’s really been no innovation,” Rajat Suri, founder and CEO of Presto and co-founder of Lyft, told PYMNTS in an interview.