Cactus Café takes food delivery into its own hands
A Sydney café has taken customer delivery matters into its own hands by shunning the likes of Door Dash, a move it believes will save customers money and increase its bottom line.
The move by the Brookvale venue, co-owned by Cedric le Page and Manu Marsan, will see it save 30 per cent of the cost of the food orders to the online delivery platforms.
The pair has been running the café for three years and are veterans in the hospitality arena. Part of their mission is to give back to the Brookvale community, so they did their sums and concluded they could retain more profits if they took on deliveries themselves.
The bottom line: more profit to deliver better service and lower costs. Customers can also expect deliveries within 30 minutes for a flat $3 delivery fee.
Le Page makes the deliveries on foot and is looking toward expansion so he can purchase an electric bike.
“I put on the delivery backpack and off I go,” he said.
Customers can also pick a delivery time between 9am and 1pm. The café is open for breakfast and lunch between 6am and 3pm, Monday to Friday.
“We have a wide range of dishes with a lot of grab and go orders as well,” le Page said.
The menu includes “breaky burrito”, bacon and egg roll “deluxe”, burgers, wraps, poke bowls and chicken salad with sides such as sweet potato chips.
“We try to have a wide range of food to accommodate everyone,” le Page said.
“A lot of people are too busy to come to a cafe and wait for their food.
“Then there is the big cost of using the delivery platforms that charge a very high delivery fee.”
Le Page is happy to put on the delivery hat, noting other venues have had to raise prices to compensate for the high delivery charges imposed by delivery platforms.
“So, if we took a $100 order for a takeaway delivery, we only received about $70. The rest went to the delivery platform,” he said.
“Then the customer also had to pay a delivery fee of about $7 as well.
“We charge a flat $3 delivery fee on orders with a minimum of $25.
“Our customers have been impressed with the initiative and we’re already making quite a few deliveries.”
Jonathan Jackson, 31st July 2024