Feeding The Rebels

Where CloudKitchens and its peers rely on centralized processing and a flattened, undifferentiated business model, Tock starts from the assumption of distributed processing and a business model that differentiates on its prime costs: labor and ingredients.

In food, this other path of arming the rebels is being explored by a handful of upstarts. But the company that is most clearly meeting the moment during the coronavirus lockdown is Tock.

One path is exemplified by CloudKitchens. At its core, CloudKitchens is simple: Build commercial kitchen spaces in less-trafficked areas and rent them out to operators to run delivery-only food businesses.

The takeout and delivery business needs to be rethought. I see two new popular paths emerging. They represent diametrically opposing views of this space.

Customers still demand delivery but it’s now obvious that the existing delivery app business model is not sustainable for restaurant owners

The most important shift in restaurants in the past decade has been the rise of online ordering and delivery. UberEats, Postmates, Doordash, and a handful of other apps have been knife-fighting (in extremely uneconomical ways) for the privilege of becoming food delivery aggregators. Own enough customer demand, the thinking goes, and not only will r... See more