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If you don’t want to go out for dinner but the cupboards are bare, your food options are no longer limited to restaurants that deliver. St. Louisans can now have just about any food delivered to their door, but it’s the behind the scenes jostling for market share that may be most interesting.
The following companies specialize in delivering from restaurants/retailers that either do not have in-house delivery or have limited delivery areas.
569-DINE has been delivering food in St. Louis County for 25 years. They currently deliver from about two dozen restaurants including both chains and local favorites. If you are in the mood for wings, for example, you can choose from Buffalo Wild Wings, Ice & Fuel, The Post, or St. Louis Wing Co. The basic delivery charge is $5.99 plus an expected tip for the driver.
Open since January 2012, Clayton-based GrubGo is "the largest restaurant delivery company in town," according to owner Peter Wheeler, delivering food from "well over 100" local restaurants. And that number is growing. Until recently, GrubGo had been delivering "river to river," Wheeler said, but once service begins next week in St. Charles, it will be more like "river to river to river." GrubGo also operates in Kansas and Wisconsin, as well as acts as a "last mile service" provider, meaning other companies (called portals) also funnel their orders through GrubGo, who in turn, pays the portal a sales commission. Large, national companies like EAT 24 (owned by Yelp) are also portals in GrubGo's network.
At the present time, GrubHub, a national company, is one of the aforementioned portals in the St. Louis market, its orders run through GrubGo. This year GrubHub has redesigned their website and launched their own delivery fleets in a dozen cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. No announcement has been made if/when such a fleet will move into St. Louis.
Two and a half years ago, Food Pedaler opened with the goal of bridging the delivery gap between restaurants and customers in the Central West End. Restaurants gained delivery business while customers paid a $3.99 delivery fee. The service has since expanded to University City and Clayton and has grown to employ a dozen Pedalers (all deliveries come by bicycle) delivering from 50 local restaurants.
Postmates, a national delivery service, recently moved into the St. Louis market. Offering everything from McDonald’s to Walgreens, a customer can have a Big Mac or cough syrup delivered to their door. A Postmates driver is more like an errand runner who will wait in line at the restaurant of your choice before delivering food. The driver is the responsible party for any incorrect items or delivery issues.
Amazon may also soon be in the game. It was recently announced that the delivery behemoth is testing one-hour delivery systems for Amazon Prime members and this includes restaurant deliveries in Seattle. As St. Louis has been so far behind the curve with Uber, there is no telling when UberEats makes it to St. Louis. This summer, however, the city participated in a worldwide ice cream delivery day where Uber drivers delivered sweet treats to users across the city.
There are other players in the market too. Several years ago, San Antonio-based The Bike Waiter bought out Griffin Delivery, a small St. Louis-based company. The Bike Waiter operates in South St. Louis City and expanded to Kansas City earlier this year.
Mr. Delivery is an Austin-based company that operates franchises in 21 cities – including St. Louis. Simply enter your address to determine what restaurants in your delivery area are currently open. Mr. Delivery's delivery fee is $3.99.
It’s too early to tell if any of these companies will take over the restaurant delivery market in St. Louis, but it appears there is room for big players as well as smaller local businesses.
“We, in fact, have completely opposite approaches,” Food Pedaler founder Timothy Kiefer told St. Louis Magazine when specifically speaking of Postmates. While the international companies are in the midst of a land grab across the world to beat their opponents into markets, Food Pedaler puts its energy into building relationships with local restaurants and creating loyal customers in a small geographic area. Keifer calls this approach “hyper-focused, hyper-local.” While its service may not soon be available to all St. Louis residents as it serves a small geographic area, Food Pedaler believes they can provide the fastest, cheapest and most personal service to customers in the Central West End, University City and Clayton.
Whichever service you use, it’s nice to know that you can order a Bailey’s Range burger when you have that irresistible craving, Pi Pizzeria when the big game is on, Randolfi’s when you want a romantic evening in, Starbucks when you are out of coffee, or comestibles from any other St. Louis restaurant on a whim. You don't even have to leave your couch.
