March 09, 2023
Rise of Mobile Ordering Sets Stage for Vending Machine Boom
With diners more accustomed than ever to grab-and-go options, next-generation vending machines are catching on. Shriya Gupta, CEO of Toronto-based vending machine artificial intelligence (AI) provider Daily Blends, which announced...
March 08, 2023
HelloFresh Seizes on Ready-to-Eat Growth Opportunity as Consumers Seek Immediacy
Meal kit providers are finding that many consumers prefer speedy convenience to cooking from scratch. Berlin-based multinational meal kit company HelloFresh said on a call with analysts Tuesday (March 7)...
March 07, 2023
How Independent Restaurants Can Avoid the Discount Trap
Times have been tough for owner-operator and other small business restaurants, even as hospitality sector employment bounces back from its pandemic-era crash. Inflation continues to drive consumers towards groceries over eating out, and PYMNTS’ research has...
March 06, 2023
Kroger Expands Home Chef as Consumers Cut Restaurant Spending
Kroger is growing its prepared food capabilities to meet consumers’ inflation-related demand for cheaper meals. The U.S. grocer’s meal kit and heat-and-eat meal subsidiary, Home Chef, announced Friday (March 3)...
March 03, 2023
Flybuy and Olo Partner on Restaurant Off-Premises Orders Management
Radius Network’s Flybuy and Olo have launched new integrations to help restaurants manage off-premise orders. The new integrations add features of Flybuy’s location-based customer experience platform to Olo’s open software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for restaurants...
March 02, 2023
Shef Opens Chef-to-Consumer Marketplace to Cooks Across US
Shef is expanding its chef-to-consumer marketplace across the United States. Cooks from anywhere in the country can now apply to sell their homemade food on the platform, Shef said in...
March 02, 2023
Instacart to Add Chatbot as Grocers Push Boundaries on Digital...
This week in grocery, Instacart taps AI as supermarkets test shoppable content and new formats. OpenAI, creator of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT, announced Wednesday (March 1) that developers are...
March 02, 2023
Kroger Gains Share From Restaurants as Consumers Rethink Food Spending
Kroger is leveraging consumers’ inflation anxieties to capture spending that would otherwise go to restaurants. The nation’s leading pure-play grocer said on a call with analysts Thursday (March 2) discussing...
March 01, 2023
Frozen Food Delivery Takes Off as Consumers Seek Restaurant Alternatives
As consumers seek affordable, convenient alternatives to restaurant dining, new prepared meals models are emerging. For instance, direct-to-consumer (D2C) frozen food delivery provider Yelloh, formerly known as Schwan’s Home Delivery,...