Eateries pinning hopes on Uber
The first Palmerston North restaurants to sign on to Uber Eats hope the delivery service will help to boost business as they recover from the coronavirus lockdown.
Uber Eats launched in the city this week, eight months after the rideshare giant picked up its first Palmerston North passenger.
Cafe Express head chef and manager Suzie Richards was keeping a close eye on her manager’s tablet, waiting for the first delivery order, after the app went live at 10am on Wednesday.
After taking a big hit from the lockdown, Richards hoped to get plenty of takers for the cafe’s new takeaway offerings. She said friends and customers were asking if Cafe Express would start doing deliveries, and now seemed like a good time to start.
The cafe lost more than amonth’s revenue before it could partially reopen under alert level 3, and business still hasn’t fully recovered.
Now that the Palmerston North City Council and surrounding office workers had switched back from working at home, Cafe Express was packed again around morning tea time, Richards said.
But the rest of the day was still fairly quiet compared with before lockdown.
The decision to join Uber Eats was already stirring interest, and
Tommy Giovanna Portofino owner
Uber arrived for a photo shoot last week.
It was a busy day for the staff, cooking examples of all 19 menu items featured on the app, as well as the normal orders.
Curious customers kept asking what Richards was going to do with the food after the photo shoot. But if they were angling for a free feed, they were out of luck.
‘‘Eat it ourselves, of course. It’s a good team bonding exercise,’’ she told them. It was also a reward for her staff’s extra hard work.
Portofino owner Tommy Giovanna said business was looking good post-lockdown, but like everyone else in the industry, the Italian restaurant was still rebuilding.
‘‘Not everything is back to normal, but it’s slowly getting there.’’
Giovanna said the restaurant recovered from a big disruption such as the lockdown in the same way they established a reputation when they opened – by concentrating on good food and service.
‘‘Not everything is back to normal, but it’s slowly getting there.’’