Restaurant Industry Traffic Trends
The Placer.AI data confirms what Knapp Track is reporting: traffic trends for the casual dining industry slowed significantly toward the end of May. Sales for QSR chains are holding up better. The top three worst-performing Casual Dining chains in the Placer database in the last week of May are Outback Steakhouse (-13%), Chili's (-5.3%), and The Cheesecake Factory (-1.6%). Chains with more California exposure (BJRI traffic +2.1%) are holding up better for the time being.
GRUB
Grubhub is teaming up with PayPal (PYPL) and Visa (V) to provide drivers with faster and more accessible payments. Specifically, Grubhub, through June, is rolling out a new payout option dubbed Instant Cashout, which Hyperwallet enables from PayPal and Visa Direct Visa's real-time money movement network. The payout feature comes via Direct to Debit, a payout management platform powered by Hyperwallet. Direct to Debit, which allows drivers to access their earnings immediately, uses Visa Direct to deposit payments to bank credit cards. "Visa Direct is looking to reshape the money movement to provide workers with faster, digital access to the money they've earned," said Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, senior vice president, North America head of Visa Direct. Grubhub introduced Instant Cashout through its partnership with JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in 2019, enabling drivers to cash out available earnings directly to their bank accounts instantly. At the beginning of June, PayPal let users send and receive bitcoin, ether, litecoin, and bitcoin cash.
A new Food delivery Start up
Wonder Distribution LLC, a new food delivery startup led by prominent e-commerce entrepreneur Marc Lore (Jet.com), has reportedly raised $350 million in funding at a $3.5 billion valuation. The investment was reported by the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Wonder is said to have raised the funding last month from a consortium led by Bain Capital Ventures. The startup is backed by several other major technology investors, including Accel, New Enterprise Associates, General Catalyst, and Forerunner Ventures. Wonder operates a network of truck-based restaurants from which consumers can order food through a mobile app. Wonder trucks drive to a location near the user's home and prepare an order on-site to ensure fresh deliveries. As of January, the startup reportedly operated 60 restaurants in four New Jersey towns. The Journal today reported that the startup's service is available to about 132,000 households in New Jersey. The startup will reportedly expand to additional parts of New Jersey this year and, in the long term, hopes to make its service available nationwide by 2035. Alongside its network of truck-based restaurants, Wonder operates a service called Envoy that enables users to order food from local restaurants. Envoy reportedly accounts for about a quarter of the startup's revenue. Including the $350 million investment reported today, Wonder has raised about $900 million in debt and equity financing since its launch. The startup has reportedly spent "hundreds of millions of dollars" to optimize recipes and reduce the time needed to prepare food in its trucks. In the future, the startup reportedly hopes to further increase chefs' productivity by redesigning its restaurant's kitchen layout and using software to identify the most efficient way of preparing a meal automatically. Wonder also plans to expand into new market segments. The startup hopes to eventually offer ready-to-heat meals and meal-preparation kits alongside its app's existing food delivery options.
