The mall food court is coming directly to your door, courtesy of drones
Listen to this Article More info
0:00 / 2:18
The delivery app DoorDash and the Alphabet-owned drone company Wing are bringing mall food court favorites to select doorsteps as they expand their drone delivery program.
The companies recently announced that they were partnering with GoTo Foods, the parent company behind shopping mall brands like Auntie Anne's, Jamba, and Schlotzsky's, to deliver orders by drone to select areas in Frisco, Fort Worth, and Plano, Texas.
It's DoorDash's latest push into delivery by air after announcing in March it would launch a drone delivery pilot program with Wing for select Wendy's items in Christiansburg, Virginia, and also a sign that the company sees more room for growth. DoorDash said it began offering drone delivery for Papa Johns and The Brass Tap during limited hours of operation in parts of Little Elm and Frisco, Texas, in June, and now its partnership with GoTo Foods takes that pilot program further.
'As we continue scaling our drone operations, we remain focused on building a world-class logistics platform that enables partners like Wing to integrate seamlessly into our ecosystem; provides a smooth, reliable delivery experience for merchants; and offers consumers fast and affordable access to brands they love,' DoorDash's drone program head Harrison Shih said in a statement.
For now, drone delivery is limited to just a 4-mile radius of participating locations, but for those who live in the radius, DoorDash promises delivery within minutes of ordering.
The company has leaned into robotic delivery outside of drones with Coco, a delivery robot it began testing earlier this year in Los Angeles and Chicago. And in May, it bought the British delivery app Deliveroo for $3.9 billion. DoorDash reported more than $3 billion in quarterly revenue in the most recent quarter, up nearly 25% from the same time last year, according to PitchBook data.
For GoTo Foods, the partnership with DoorDash is a chance to take its brand out of the shopping mall and to reinvent it for a new generation at a time when malls are changing. Thanks to drones, food court pretzels could be more easily accessible to 'high-growth suburban areas' that are 'well beyond traditional mall locations,' the two companies said in a press release.
You used to go to the mall. The mall now comes to you.
The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Amazon's Latest Prime Grocery Move Is a Big 'Shot' at the Competition
Key Takeaways Amazon said Wednesday that it is expanding same-day grocery delivery by adding dairy, meat, produce and other perishables. The move comes after the company said it is building out its same-day and next-day delivery network in smaller towns and rural areas. Shares of Instacart, DoorDash, Walmart and other major supermarkets fell. Amazon is rolling out full-service grocery delivery. The news quickly ricocheted through the market, hitting shares of a range of competitors. Beginning Wednesday, the retailer will offer same-day delivery on thousands of grocery items, including dairy, meat, seafood and produce, in 1,000 locations, it said in a press release. Amazon (AMZN) aims to extend the service to a total of 2,300 towns and cities by the end of 2025, the company said. 'We're continuously innovating to make grocery shopping simpler, faster, and more affordable for our customers,' Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, said in a statement. Amazon is waiving the delivery fee Prime members pay orders over $25. Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) offer free same-day delivery to members when they spend $35 or more, according to their websites. (Amazon Prime members can get same-day delivery on smaller orders by paying $2.99, and all customers can access the service for $12.99, its press release said.) Amazon's announcement amounts to a 'shot heard 'round the warehouse,' Wedbush Securities wrote in a research note. The bank added that the move could weigh on delivery companies and retailers that have large grocery businesses. Shares of Grocery and Delivery Companies Sink Investors sold off shares of delivery and supermarket companies Wednesday. Instacart (CART) shares were recently down 12%, while DoorDash (DASH) shares fell some 5%, Kroger (KR) shares dropped 4%, Walmart and Albertsons Companies (ACI) shares dipped about 2%. 'Along comes Amazon with an existing nationwide network of fulfillment centers and delivery trucks, [and] seems to have finally figured out how to store and fulfill perishables in a way to support same-day efforts,' Wedbush analysts said. Amazon has struggled to break into the perishable space despite introducing a grocery-specific subscription option, analysts said. It also announced plans to offer same-day and next-day delivery in thousands of less populated areas, which Morgan Stanley described as seizing an opportunity to close the urban-rural gap in online food shopping. Amazon shares were recently up more than 1%. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NRG Energy Secures Loan for New Texas Natural Gas Power Plant
NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE:NRG) is one of the best performing S&P 500 stocks to buy now. On August 4, NRG Energy announced that it finalized a loan agreement with the Public Utility Commission of Texas/PUCT and received initial funding for a new natural gas generation project. The project involves the construction of 2 new natural gas units at the company's existing TH Wharton power plant in Houston, as part of the Texas Energy Fund/TEF Loan Program. The 2 units will have a combined capacity of 456 MW and are expected to begin operations by the summer of 2026 in the constrained Houston load zone. Total project costs are estimated to be less than $360 million, with the 20-year TEF loan providing up to $216 million at a 3% interest rate. The loan term runs from July 31 this year through July 30, 2045. This project is the second loan agreement finalized under the TEF's In-ERCOT Generation Loan Program. Close up image of an engineer inspecting the control panel of a modern power plant. The company is pursuing additional projects under the TEF program at its Cedar Bayou and Greens Bayou sites. These 2 projects are currently in the due diligence process. If all 3 projects are approved and completed, NRG's TEF projects would bring over 1.5 GW of new natural gas generation to Texas by 2028, which is enough capacity to power more than 1.5 million homes annually. NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE:NRG) is an energy and home services company in the US and Canada. While we acknowledge the potential of NRG as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the . READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Construction stress eases, but contractors remain cautious
This story was originally published on Construction Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Construction Dive newsletter. Good news broke ground for contractors in July as construction stress eased across the board. The rate of construction freezes and cancellations plummeted in July, according to the latest data from Cincinnati-based ConstructConnect. The Project Stress Index, a measure of construction projects that have been paused, abandoned or delayed, fell 24.3% between June and July. That decline offered some relief for builders facing rising material costs and elevated borrowing rates. A 37.1% drop in abandonments in July drove the overall decline in project stress. On-hold and bid delays fell too, by 15.5% and 4%, respectively, according to the data. Stress in the private sector eased most significantly in July. Private bid delays fell close to historic lows and on-hold activity dropped to around its long-term average, said Devin Bell, associate economist at ConstructConnect. But both private and public sector abandonment activity remain near historic highs. Even with the improvement in stress in July, the index sits 14.1% above the 2021 baseline, said Bell. Over the past year, overall stress is up 25.9%, he said. 'We typically see abandonment activity trail off after the first half of the year,' said Bell. 'July has broken this trend with both sector abandonments near historic highs as we enter the second half of the year.' In the public sector, abandonments remain near the index peak, up 76.7% year over year, despite the decline in July. At the same time, projects placed on hold in the public sector ticked up 2.1% compared to the same period in 2024, according to the data. Pittsfield, Massachusetts-based Unistress Corp. and its subsidiary, Berkshire Concrete Corp. laid off 233 workers, according to a Massachusetts Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification notice filed for the week ending June 27. Unistress CEO Perri Petricca said the decision stems from the delay of two major contracts following volatility in steel prices. Irving, Texas-based Fluor also recently reported delays and cancellations on its backlog due to cost escalation, trade policy shifts and interest rates, according to its second quarter earnings call. Its CEO Jim Breuer told investors the construction market has entered a period of 'short-term hesitation.' 'The volatile economic environment continues to weigh on the construction market,' said Bell. '[That's] potentially pushing some owners and developers toward abandonment.' Recommended Reading Private project abandonments hit record highs Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
