From driving people to delivering food
CORNER BROOK — When one door closes, another opens is definitely a saying that applies to Anthony Basha these days.
Basha, the owner of Birchy Cabs in Corner Brook, announced earlier this week that he was shutting down his taxi business and getting started on a new venture — food delivery. Basha has signed on with Island Eats, part of the Sydney, Nova Scotia-based Click2order’s third-party delivery service now serving restaurants in Corner Brook.
Basha has been involved in the taxi business since his teens, but lately things have not been good.
“There’s not really any money in the taxi business, because the cost to operate is really high now.”
He said the business was more or less gone before the COVID-19 pandemic started.
“But COVID just kind of took it out altogether.”
As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Basha pulled all his cars. He didn’t want the stigma that could come with it, wondering if people affected were riding in his cars. “It wasn’t worth that to me.” As he was making the decision to shut down the taxi business, he was presented with the opportunity to join Island Eats. With the cars and the company already bonded and with insurance in place, he thought, why not?
“If I didn’t jump on it someone else would.”
Subway owner Jamie Pelley was the first business to sign on to Island Eats and has been helping make the connections to get the service here.
Of his three stores in Corner Brook, the Union Street and Murphy Square locations are open, and the Broadway location has been closed due to COVID-19. He’s also had to close his store in Pasadena, while the Deer Lake and Stephenville locations are open.
In his 30 years in business,
Subway has never offered deliveries in this area, Pelley said.
“We’ve never really felt the need to get into that, but with COVID-19 and the change in the way things have been, we decided that we would work to try to find a delivery platform to come to this area.”
Pelley also has restaurants in Cape Breton and uses Click2order’s CB Eats delivery platform there. Because the franchise had already been approved to use a third-party delivery platform, Pelley said, it was going to be pretty easy to get it over here.
He’s been helping by contacting other restaurants that don’t currently have delivery to get them to join. Wing’n It will offer delivery through Island Eats when it reopens Friday, and others are in the process of joining.
Customers can go to islandeats.ca or use the Island Eats app for IOS or android to search for participating restaurants and place their orders. They can choose to pick up their order or choose a delivery time, and add instructions for what door to use or where to place the order.
The orders are received on a hand-held printer at the restaurant and then processed. Pelley said the orders can be very specific and if the store doesn’t have everything that’s needed, an employee can contact the customer and offer substitutions.
Subway started its deliveries last Thursday, and Pelley said things are going well and customers are pleased, and the number of deliveries is growing at a good rate.
“And we’re hoping as each new vendor gets on it will continue to grow.”
Click2order co-owner and co-founder Matt Stewart has been watching the numbers and is excited to see what will happen as more restaurants join.
Stewart said the company’s focus is on towns the size of Corner Brook and smaller. The service operates under different names in each of its locations — like CB Eats in Sydney and NB Eats in New Brunswick.
He said the company had been looking at a number of places for expansion in Atlantic Canada.
“The challenge for us usually getting started is identifying a fleet partner, someone who we can contract to do the delivery part of it.”
When looking for a fleet partner, Click2order is looking for someone who buys into the idea of what the company is doing and who wants to help the business grow. Stewart says Basha and his company fit that well.
While there’s no magic number of restaurants to make the service viable, similar markets see 10 to 20 restaurants on a platform. That number attracts people for different options and that puts more eyes on the site for the restaurants that are using it.
“You want options, different variety, so that people have lots of different choices,” said Stewart.\
Especially right now when people are mostly restricted to takeout and delivery.
Stewart said launching during the COVID-19 pandemic could help attract customers and, overall, the business has seen an increase in use among its different networks. Areas where things have slowed tend to be the university towns they service, as the student base is no longer there.
Depending on the growth, Stewart said Island Eats may expand to add restaurants from surrounding communities to the service.
For now, Basha plans to have three cars available for deliveries.
But he’s not ruling out a return to the taxi business.
“If the insurance rates drop on taxis, I still have my permits. I still have my phone numbers. I’m not getting rid of any of that. If I do come back with taxis, it’ll come back better and bigger next time. That’s my kind of hope.”