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| LaNova Pizzeria Assistant Manager Rob Santiago juggles |
By Gabrielle Kime and Conner
Wilson
It’s Sunday
and the Buffalo Bills game starts in a few hours, to beat the rush you go to
the pizza shop at 10 a.m. when it opens.
When you walk in, you see the kitchen is lined with tickets, the phones
are ringing off the hook, pizza dough tossed frantically in the air, pepperoni
and marinara is flying.
Bills
gamedays have always been busy for local pizzerias, but with the evolution of
third-party delivery services, they’ve become more hectic.
There’s
Grubhub, DoorDash, Postmates, Slice, UberEats, and surely more to come. With
the creation of these apps, food delivery has drastically changed.
In some
areas, these apps aren’t yet up and running, but on the West Side, they are
changing the food ordering and delivery culture.
Over the
past couple of years, local restaurants have seen an increase in sales with the
creation of these food delivery apps. With all of these different delivery
options, restaurants can reach customers they never could before, said Gina
DiLaura, assistant manager of LaNova Pizzeria, 371 W. Ferry St.
“It’s
increased it, in the area,” DiLaura said. “We’re such a busy restaurant here
that our delivery zone is kind of limited. So Doordash, Postmates will deliver
to places we usually don’t as far as like the Southtowns, Tonawanda, places
like that.”
Online
delivery services don’t only provide the consumer with another ordering method
but expand the delivery radius beyond the restaurant’s original borders. This
helps small restaurants to reach beyond the West Side.
“In the
past year, we’ve probably seen a 30% increase in sales and you can credit it to
Doordash,” Dilaura said.
According
to Upserve
Restaurant Insider, 60% of U.S. consumers order delivery or takeout once a
week. About 31% say that they use
third-party delivery services at least twice a week.
Allentown
Pizza, 94 Elmwood Ave., utilizes third-party delivery services.
Store Supervisor Nikki Moore said the business has expanded its customer thanks
to modern delivery services.
“Our
restaurant only delivers within two miles in Allentown,” Moore said. “So
anybody outside of that who wants can order so that’s great.”
A greater
delivery radius has also resulted in a greater income for establishments on the
West Side.
With these new
sources of delivery available, businesses are facing new challenges that they
hadn’t before. With the ability to reach more customers, the amount of work to
fulfill these orders can be overwhelming.
Orders used
to all come from one place: over the phone onto a pen and paper. Now,
restaurants have to juggle several accounts and screens relaying orders from
multiple apps.
LaNova Assistant Manager Gina Dilaura on receiving online
orders:
“It does
get a little stressful within the kitchen since you have all these tablets you
have to filter through lots of different orders so it does get stressful in the
kitchen to have so much stuff going on,” Moore said.
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| Another pizza goes out the door at LaNova |
A concern
businesses have with third-party delivery apps is handling and keeping the
quality of food. When an online delivery sends a driver, the restaurant has to
trust that the driver will handle the food with care and deliver in a timely
fashion.
“When the
drivers show up, we have to make sure they don’t turn the pizza sideways,”
Moore said. “They don’t understand, they don’t have the training so they’ll
just ruin the pizzas. We have to keep an eye on them all the time.”
La Nova
Pizzeria is in the heart of the West Side. DiLaura said the West Side location
sees a lot more business than the Williamsville location. They credit third-party
delivery services to what makes the region unique and profitable.
“In the
West Side, you know, you’re in the middle of it,” DiLaura said. “I think we
receive more orders here, but I think it’s because there are so many more
people on the West Side, more population in this area.”
