“Ghost restaurants” opening in Australia
Delivery-only “ghost restaurants” are the latest trend in Australia.
Made possible by technology, these are eateries catering purely for the delivery market.
They have no chairs, no tables, but plenty of chefs working to fulfil orders, creating a a production line along with everyone else’s pizzas, burgers, salads and sushi.
They’re restaurants, just like any other restaurant. Except that they’re not. They are there for delivery only.
Take for example Sydney’s Indigo Double Bay restaurant which is open throughout the day for breakfast and lunch.
At night, everything changes.
The outlet at night caters to couriers, ready to drop off Modern Australian cuisine to hungry customers.
People can use smartphone apps to order. As a result, they get a variety of food from nearby locations at the touch of a button.
“It’s an exciting way to get great food delivered to the door,” Anthony Moustacas from Indigo told 9NEWS.
Deliveroo Australian manager Levi Aron says it has changed dining completely.
“It's really challenged the status quo of what delivery used to be. People like that. They want to track their food, where it's coming, how far away it is,” Aron told 9NEWS.
“This is something that we think will be growing for a very long time.”
The appetite for takeaway is growing.
Last year, grew ten times faster than for dining in. There were an estimated 333 million deliveries and pick-ups. Put another way, it’s an estimated 14 orders per person, per year.
The food delivery market is now valued at about $3.5 billion dollars, thanks in part to Deliveroo and UberEats.
Russell Zimmerman from the Australian Retailers Association said the takeaway food sector had enjoyed solid growth, peaking at around 11.5 percent between late last year and early this year.
He put it down to the sector’s “sensible business model”.
“Staffing remains the biggest issue facing the hospitality industry. Taking table service out of the equation, though, delivers a boost in revenue,” Mr Zimmerman told 9NEWS.
by Leon Gettler, July 5th 2017
