Winnipeg Restaurants

[buzzg]

Deliver-Eats just launched here (Calgary based IIRC) but is only fast food right now. Uber Eats launches here late August.

As of right now Skip has a stranglehold on all of Canada except Toronto, where Uber Eats is dominant. Skip has doing a huge push to get restaurants on Free Delivery (they split the delivery charge equally) as Uber Eats doesn’t charge a delivery fee. Will be interesting to see if that carries over here for Uber as they don’t have rideshare drivers existing already here. But that also could mean they’re gonna launch all services.

[pegcity]

I saw some job postings on Indeed for DoorDash for the Winnipeg area. Similar to Uber Eats and Skip.

I’ve only had one issue with Skip once, food came pretty late. Still ate it, wasn’t horrible. Skip Offered a 5 dollar credit. It’s just food, no one is making you use their service. You have other choices, make your own food, go to the restaurant. That’s all on you.

It’s just food.

[Pinus]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Deliver-Eats just launched here (Calgary based IIRC) but is only fast food right now. Uber Eats launches here late August.

As of right now Skip has a stranglehold on all of Canada except Toronto, where Uber Eats is dominant. Skip has doing a huge push to get restaurants on Free Delivery (they split the delivery charge equally) as Uber Eats doesn’t charge a delivery fee. Will be interesting to see if that carries over here for Uber as they don’t have rideshare drivers existing already here. But that also could mean they’re gonna launch all services.

How does Uber Eats enter a market where their basic ride-sharing service isn't even offered?

[The Unknown Poster]

Originally Posted by pegcity

I saw some job postings on Indeed for DoorDash for the Winnipeg area. Similar to Uber Eats and Skip.

I’ve only had one issue with Skip once, food came pretty late. Still ate it, wasn’t horrible. Skip Offered a 5 dollar credit. It’s just food, no one is making you use their service. You have other choices, make your own food, go to the restaurant. That’s all on you.

It’s just food.

Well the same can be said about anything. Yes, if they suck, we dont have to use them and thats what happens (we use them a lot less now). But if the service does suck they dont get a free ride just because "its just food".

I find their drivers to be very nice but they seem to struggle a lot with finding locations, taking weird routes etc. I assume they are from other parts of the city and not familiar with my area.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by Pinus

How does Uber Eats enter a market where their basic ride-sharing service isn't even offered?

maybe i can list myself as a restaurant on ubereats and be able to order an uber

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by Pinus

How does Uber Eats enter a market where their basic ride-sharing service isn't even offered?

Instead of delivering people, they're delivering food. They had issues with the insurance portion for delivering people. Of course delivering food is less risky.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Wolf13

As far as employees [of Skip the Dishes], is mistreatment documented? Or do people just expect their treatment to directly reflect Skip's success?

Considering the drivers are classified as "independent contractors" so Skip the Dishes can avoid paying incoming tax, CPP, EI, WCB, etc and offering any other benefits it is pretty well documented. There is a fair bit of less documented chatter that the drivers often earn less that minimum wage even without accounting for vehicle related expenses. Further, I have seen claims that a lot of their drivers are recent immigrants that are likely less aware of Canadian employment standards and often are a desperate to find any job that will earn them some money, even if it is less that minimum wage and well below a livable wage.

There is also the CBC article about Stella's ending their partnership with Skip the Dishes claiming that the restaurant was pressured into offering pricing similar to their eat-in menu prices while Skip the Dishes took an approximately 30% of the price paid for orders off the top and then often added penalties on top of for things like a driver needing to wait for an order. It was effectively costing Stella's money every time someone ordered from Skip the Dishes.

All that is of course happening while the more senior people in the company are likely making very generous compensation packages (ie salaries, stock options, etc) for their roles in the system.

--

Personally I would rather treat the people making my food and delivering it to me fairly and ensure they get well compensated by me.

[bomberjet]

Delivery drivers being independent contractors is very common, so I'm not sure where the outrage is coming from. Some places you are an employee, and are required to clean, prep food, etc.

In my day, we'd be paid in cash daily for deliveries. You get paid per delivery and tips were a huge part of your income. Didn't do anything else but deliver. Sound like Skip pays weekly. So that may be a bit odd.

I also worked another place where we were paid by the hour, not per delivery. And like I mentioned, did dishes, mopped floors, cut veggies, etc.

I really don't see this as an issue at all.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by Pinus

How does Uber Eats enter a market where their basic ride-sharing service isn't even offered?

What I was hinting at is that means they are likely launching regular Uber service here. Lyft has publicly stated they were working with MPI on finding common ground for a rideshare insurance option, I'm sure Uber is in the conversation. There's probably not enough money to be made for Uber strictly off UberEats in a market the size of Winnipeg to warrant launching just Eats here. AFAIK they only operate UE in markets that already have Uber.

Originally Posted by CoryB

Considering the drivers are classified as "independent contractors" so Skip the Dishes can avoid paying incoming tax, CPP, EI, WCB, etc and offering any other benefits it is pretty well documented. There is a fair bit of less documented chatter that the drivers often earn less that minimum wage even without accounting for vehicle related expenses. Further, I have seen claims that a lot of their drivers are recent immigrants that are likely less aware of Canadian employment standards and often are a desperate to find any job that will earn them some money, even if it is less that minimum wage and well below a livable wage.

There is also the CBC article about Stella's ending their partnership with Skip the Dishes claiming that the restaurant was pressured into offering pricing similar to their eat-in menu prices while Skip the Dishes took an approximately 30% of the price paid for orders off the top and then often added penalties on top of for things like a driver needing to wait for an order. It was effectively costing Stella's money every time someone ordered from Skip the Dishes.

All that is of course happening while the more senior people in the company are likely making very generous compensation packages (ie salaries, stock options, etc) for their roles in the system.

Restaurants are required to have the same pricing on Skip as they do in the restaurants. If they are charging more on Skip, they get suspended until they submit accurate prices. Skip has a team that calls restaurants pretending to be customers to check, when they get reports of inconsistent pricing on the app vs. in house.

[tedtim]

I remember sitting in the Oakwood Cafe with about 5-6 other tables, the server apologized for the wait since it was super busy. I looked around then noticed the 8-9 Skip drivers waiting around the corner.

[Authentic_City]

Panago is pana gone!

A surprising fact from this article is that, apparently, Panago is the leading pizza chain in Western Canada. (did not know they were that popular) All franchises are closing and they are abandoning the Winnipeg market. Hopefully Winnipeg won't suffer a pizza shortage after the closure Seriously, how many pizza places can one city support???

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bu...490425461.html

[Urban recluse]

Used to love Panago 20 years ago; lately, I find it inferior.

[Wpg_Guy]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...hens-1.4774471

No dining room, no storefront, no problem: 'Ghost kitchens' making their way to Winnipeg
Virtual kitchens operate only through 3rd-party delivery companies
Aviva Jacob · CBC News · Posted: Aug 07, 2018 5:00 AM CT | Last Updated: August 7

Winnipeg is about to get a new kind of restaurant — but don't plan on making a visit. Instead, they'll be coming to you.

"Ghost kitchens," also known as "virtual kitchens," have been cropping up across the country and this fall, they'll be coming to Winnipeg.

Strolling down the street, you won't pass any storefront for these restaurants, because they don't have one.

Ghost kitchens are just that — kitchens and nothing more. They have no take-out counter and no dining area.

The only way to get their food? Third-party delivery companies like Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats and Just Eat.

Over the last few years, the rise in these companies has created a market for the virtual kitchens.

George Kottas, CEO of the Toronto-based Dekotas Group, operates dozens of these kitchens across the country. Now, he has his sights set on Winnipeg and says he plans to be operating in the city by September.

"My goal is to have a store every four kilometres across the major population in Winnipeg," says Kottas.

But it's not just Winnipeg. Kottas says the four-kilometre goal is for all of North America. He already has operations in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and in four U.S. states.

The restaurants will follow regulations for each individual province or state around licensing and inspections, he said.

1 kitchen, several restaurants
As a franchise consultant and business owner, this type of food service is desirable for Kottas. All he has to do is staff a kitchen. The customer service and delivery are handled by the third-party company.

And those delivery companies exist in abundance. Kottas has partnerships with Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats, Door Dash, Foodora and Just Eat.

Since there are no physical customers coming to the kitchen's location, Kottas has even set up multiple restaurants working out of the same space.

While one customer may select a burrito place on an app and another orders from a pizza place — advertised as different businesses — both may get their food from the same kitchen.

That's another benefit of partnering with a company like Skip the Dishes, Kottas says — he gets insight into the market and can decide which of his concepts each kitchen should be making.

"[The companies] give me the demographics for the area — what they're looking for and the search engine results," he said.

"Like if in one area, people are searching for vegan or Indian food, I'll take whatever concepts I have and put them in that area."

"We've created over 30 menus — 30 different brands with different concepts and different names."

Kottas doesn't just operate kitchens using this model. He also runs virtual retail stores — many of which sell groceries.

He says it's similar to sites like Amazon, but the main difference is that you can have the goods delivered to you within the hour — just like you would with take-out food.

It's more than a fad, he believes.

"It's the future," says Kottas. "Every company out there is trying to get into the online business."

He's expecting the growth to be fast, and thinks he'll have area developers in every major city in North America by Christmas, with over 1,000 operating stores by the end of next year.

Brick-and-mortar restaurants not going anywhere
Kottas predicts that more and more restaurants will be closing their doors and opting for this model in the future.

But not everyone agrees.

Talia Syrie, owner of the Tallest Poppy on Sherbrook Street in Winnipeg, says that a delivery-only restaurant is a completely different experience.

"There's a big difference between looking at art on the wall and looking at art on a computer screen," says Syrie. The walls of her restaurant itself are covered with artwork, and it even hosts an artist residency program.

Syrie says that while there is always going to be concern over competition in the business, she sees ghost kitchens as being in a different category than restaurants and she expects the dine-in experience to be around for a long time to come.

"When I go out for dinner, I'm going out because I want access to the wine list and access to the service. I don't think eating on my couch out of a take-out box even remotely resembles it."

[wags_in_the_peg]

Infernos on Academy is closing midAugust, StB location staying open

[buzzg]

Virtual kitchens will affect quick-service and fast food places more than full-service restaurants. It's all about experience – and most people go to a restaurant to make it an event, meet friends, etc. If there's one category of full-service that gets hit, it'll be the low-end chains like Kelsey's, Perkins, Swiss Chalet.

[buzzg]

As mentioned in Village thread... Gong Cha Tea House is opening end of August on Osborne, IIRC above After Dark. It's a bubble tea and beverage franchise from China that recently came to Canada.

Apparently it's amazing, and unlike pretty much every other one here, they use real juices and tapioca, as opposed to the standard powdered teas here.

[h0twired]

Originally Posted by Urban recluse

Used to love Panago 20 years ago; lately, I find it inferior.

I liked Panago when I lived in Calgary 10 years ago.

I can't say I ever ordered from them in Winnipeg. With the number of local pizza joints and even smaller chains coupled with the juggernauts of BP and Pizza Hotline... Panago didn't stand much of a chance with their limited number of locations.

[The Unknown Poster]

Panago is good. We eat it when the gf wants Pizza because they make vegan.

[tvor202]

Looks like the Thom Bargen Coffee shop will be opening very soon under Portage and Main! Really small location though.

[Ando]

I know are mostly into fast food here, but the Oxbow and Passero have made the Air Canada Enroute list of best restaurants.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ar...490568641.html