Door Dashed

Can local food delivery co-ops take on the Big Tech apps?

- By Dean Kuipers

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

WHEN GRUBHUB came to lowa City in 2017, Jon Sewell got what he describes as a call to action. He owns a D.P. Dough franchise there and had been using a delivery service called OrderUp to get his calzones to college students. But then Grubhub bought out OrderUp and doubled the commission on orders to an astronomical 30 percent, plus fees. At those rates, Sewell says, he lost money on every order.

So in January 2018, Sewell joined forces with about 25 lowa City restaurant owners who chipped in to launch their own delivery co-op called Chomp. The business, which now employs five to seven people full time and about 100 independent drivers, caps commissions at 15 percent, redistributes profits to the co-op members, and offers local customer service, which Grubhub had outsourced.