Skift Take
Instead of bowing out under pressure from national competition, local food delivery services in smaller markets across the U.S. are seeing sales lifts and renewed restaurant partnerships as Grubhub and Uber Eats show up on their scene.
When Sonya Ward left her part-time job as a blackjack dealer at the Hollywood Casino in Toledo, Ohio, she didn’t know that restaurant delivery entrepreneurship would be her next gig. She only knew that her son was hungry, she had just had surgery, and there were no food delivery options — outside of pizza — anywhere nearby.
The gap needed to be filled, and now, four years later, Ward is the owner of her own restaurant delivery company, Dine In Delivery Bedford - Toledo (D.I.D. for short). The company services a range of towns in the upper northeast corner of Ohio and across the border into Michigan, and currently has partnerships with 11 restaurants.
Ward went into the business knowing that, on a national scale, the competition was extreme. She recalled attending a restaurant delivery conference in Orlando two years ago, where conversation around Grubhub and Uber Eats’ market domination hung heavy over smaller delivery businesses.
“I was scared to death of those guys,” Ward told Skift Table. “I was petrified. It felt like, ‘Oh, here I go, I barely got off the ground and I’m over.’” But, instead of sinking, Ward’s sales have shot up by 30 percent since Uber Eats entered the Toledo market five months ago. On top of that, several restaurants have recently approached her about expansion and catering opportunities.
Ward attributes the rise to the advertising that Uber Eats has spent on her market, raising awareness for food delivery in general. “We’re getting a lot more popular,” Ward said. “And Uber Eats might be the one I should thank for that.”
Local food delivery companies that operate in smaller, more rural markets shared similar, cautiously optimistic sentiments about their competition. Uber Eats and Grubhub may have the funding and the reach, but smaller food delivery servi
