It’s 10 o’clock on a weeknight, and you have a craving. You get out of bed, unlock your phone, and launch a delivery app to browse a collection of buffets in your home clothes. You see a listing from a restaurant called “XYZ” that promises tasty fast food, seafood, and more. Although you are unaware of the brand, the photos of the delicious food will make you want to go there. You order the fried fish in two pieces and French fries for $12.95. An alert appears with the following text: Estimated delivery time is 15-30 minutes.
Whether you order from any of the fried seafood brands, you will get the prepared food in the same style kitchen by the trained crew on time.
As a result of the convenience of food delivery apps, many new businesses are opening up that operate entirely online and do away with the traditional restaurant’s dining area and wait for staff.
In 2018, an economic research organization, UBS, predicted that the global meal delivery market would increase by 13.5 percent annually for the foreseeable future, beating the restaurant industry’s 3 percent annual growth rate. This was before the pandemic even began. That shows that the “ghost-kitchen economy” will remain.
Currently, American restaurants are worth $863 billion, but food delivery startups like Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub are starting to change that. The apps are altering the core of running a restaurant because more customers are using them to order food for takeout and because delivery times are decreasing.
Eatery owners no longer need to lease space for a dining area. A kitchen, or even just a portion of one, would be enough to get by. They can then set up shop inside a food delivery app to advertise their wares to a captive audience without worrying about staffing or inventory.
The trend has made two sorts of virtual restaurants near me more common. There are “virtual restaurants” extensions of physical eateries that serve food made especially for delivery requests. On the other hand, ghost kitchens don’t have a physical location and only prepare food for delivery.
Alex Canter, the founder of Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles, said that the convenience of online shopping is a good thing in and of itself. “It’s the most exciting potential in the restaurant sector right now.”
Although many delivery-only businesses are just getting started, they can have a significant impact by encouraging more consumers to choose takeout over dining out or cooking at home.
Uber and other companies are leading the responsibility for change and allowing the gig economy benefits for entrepreneurs. With the support of restaurateurs, Uber has launched 4,000 virtual eateries on its Uber Eats app since 2017.
Uber Eats’ North American business head, Janelle Sallenave, said that the company uses sales data from neighborhoods to determine which cuisines are in high demand but are currently underserved. Then it contacts eateries that use the apps and proposes to launch a virtual establishment to cater to the increased demand.
In Europe, the food delivery startup Deliveroo has begun conducting “ghost kitchen” tests. In some unexpected places, like a deserted parking lot in East London, it set up metal cooking constructions called Rooboxes. Last Year, Deliveroo launched a “ghost kitchen in the warehouse in Paris, where Uber Eats has tested delivery-only facilities.
However, China’s highly crowded megacities have seen the rise of “ghost kitchens” due to the popularity of online food delivery apps. According to market research firm iResearch, in 2017, meal delivery orders in China totaled a staggering $70 billion.
The opportunities for profitable restaurant business ideas have been advanced. The food delivery services business was projected to rise from $43 billion in 2017 to $467 billion in 2025, and now it is anticipated to reach $1 trillion by 2030, even before COVID-19. Ghost kitchens are springing up everywhere and altering how we view the conventional restaurant business model to a ghost kitchen business model.
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