Fish Food

How do you rethink the shopping bag?

When The Wall Street Journal recently reported that former Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick, had been buying up warehouses, closed restaurants, and other properties across the country for more than $130 million to be used for CloudKitchens, a new ghost kitchen startup, the industry took notice.

When offices around the world began closing back in the early days of the pandemic, we had little idea how radically COVID-19 would reshape workplace culture. 

We’re pleased to announce that Minnow has won the sixth annual Smart Kitchen Summit’s Startup Showcase.

For anyone living in a single-family home, the food delivery experience is relatively straightforward. Consumers place an order via an app, and then less than an hour later the food magically shows up on their doorstep.

But for the 20% of Americans who live in apartments, it’s a slightly different story.

One of the most exciting aspects of being a startup in the food tech space is the exchange of ideas and seeing which solutions are being explored by others deep in the trenches—oh, and being nominated for awards.

In part one of our Minnow consumer survey series, we learned that despite a solid preference for picking up food from a self-service locker—over one-third of consumers chose that option—old habits die hard.

At Minnow, we have more than a few thoughts about how the restaurant pickup experience can be better, so we conducted a consumer survey in July 2020 to gauge interest levels in new forms of getting food from restaurant to customer, safely and securely. 

Whatever you call it—click and collect; buy online, pickup in-store; curbside pickup; or drive-up pickup—omnichannel methods of online ordering and receiving the goods in-person have flourished as retailers have committed to improving the customer experience. 

Remember business lunches—or even running out for a salad? 

Now we meet virtually or make do with food from our own fridges. Takeout and delivery have replaced dining-in as eating out has become more fraught.