Tag Archives: grub

Amazon Expands Food Fight, Adds New York, Dallas To Deliveries

In a continuation of the food delivery wars, Amazon.com ( AMZN ) has extended its service to New York and Dallas, available to Amazon Prime members. In New York, the food delivery service — called Amazon Restaurants — is available from more than 350 local restaurants spanning 40 cuisine types across Manhattan, Amazon said in the announcement. Once an order is placed, Amazon’s partners deliver the food in an hour or less. Amazon initially launched its food delivery service in Seattle eight months ago. Coverage areas also currently include San Francisco; Los Angeles; San Diego; Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; Baltimore and Chicago. The expansion puts additional pressure on food delivery service providers such as GrubHub ( GRUB ), UberEats and Postmates. Amazon shares were near 704, down 1%, in early trading in the stock market today . Amazon stock, though, has been on a roll. It hit an all-time high of 722.45 on May 12, but it’s 17% extended from a 603.34 buy point out of a cup-with-handle base, touched on April 11. GrubHub stock was down 3% early Tuesday, near 24.50. What’s the short-term outlook on Amazon? Take a look at IBD’s SwingTrader .

Personal Chef Booking Platform Kitchit Shuts Down

Personal chef booking platform Kitchit has announced that it will cease operations Friday. IBD first reported the impending closure on April 22 . At the time, CEO Brendan Marshall denied that the company had plans to close. When asked about shut down, Marshall referred IBD to remarks on the company’s website but declined further comment. According to the website statement, Kitchit was earning 30% to 40% gross profit margins, and monthly growth was 30%. The company said that it served 100,000 customers. Kitchit competed with the fast-growing swath of food-related tech companies, which offer a range of services including on-demand restaurant delivery and ready-to-be-cooked meals. The company had raised over $8 million from investors such as Javelin Venture Partners, which could not be immediately reached for comment. E-commerce leader  Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and its Prime Now unit have a restaurant delivery service that has been slowly rolling out across the U.S. Digital cash register and payments processor Square ( SQ ) offers a competing service, Caviar. GrubHub ( GRUB ) and Yelp ( YELP ) also have food delivery services. Food tech companies have been struggling of late. Startups such as SpoonRocket, Dinner Lab and Kitchensurfing have all shut their doors in recent months.

Amazon Food Rival Kitchit Shutting Down Wednesday, Source Says

Personal chef booking platform Kitchit  will soon run out of funding and will cease operations on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the situation at the startup. But Kitchit CEO Brendan Marshall denied any decision to shut down has been made. “Like many startups in our proximity, Kitchit is navigating turbulent times,” Marshall told IBD via email. “That said, no such decision has been reached and we continue to be actively engaged in fundraising conversations. We recently served our 100,000th customer and hope to serve many multiples of that number in the future.” But a source told IBD that Marshall announced the decision to close up shop. Also, Kitchit’s website is not currently accepting bookings. The company has raised $8.1 million in two funding rounds, according to CrunchBase , from more than 20 individual investors, but the vast majority of the funding came from Javelin Venture Partners, which chipped in $7.5 million. The news of Kitchit’s possible closure comes hot on the heels of New York-based Kitchensurfing, a similar firm, shutting down , and might signal trouble in the food delivery sector. Kitchit began as an online marketplace where diners can find and hire personal chefs with custom menus. But the company discontinued that service  in August to focus on its less-expensive service Kitchit Tonight. Kitchit Tonight offers pre-prepared food that’s assembled at a customer’s home by a chef for $39 per person. Launched in San Francisco four years ago, Kitchit expanded to Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. The company does business in a fiercely competitive market that includes well-funded startups such as DoorDash — which delivers meals prepared at restaurants — as well as e-commerce leader  Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and GrubHub ( GRUB ). Amazon offers food delivery through its Amazon Restaurants business . Yelp ( YELP ) and Square ( SQ ) also have food delivery businesses. Noah Doyle, the managing director at Javelin who oversees Kitchit, did not immediately return a request for comment.