Money, Mansions, And $125 In Mexican Food: A Night Out With Mr. Delivery

What you can learn about the delivery business—and the way it may come to shape franchising—by tagging along with a driver for the night.

- Jason Daley

Someone in Madison, Wisc., has conjured Greek food. They went to MrDelivery.com, picked their local Greek restaurant, and made their order. That information then zipped off to a centralized data center in South Africa (long story, hang on), which acted like a control tower. It notified the Madison restaurant, then located the closest delivery driver, calculated a guaranteed delivery time for the customer, and sent directions to the driver’s phone. And then the driver picked up the food, zoomed toward the customer’s house, and ran into a problem no algorithm can solve: The addresses on some older houses are small and often hidden in shadows.

That’s why Emin Buzhunashvili, owner of the local Mr. Delivery franchise, is now leaning out the window of his Jeep Cherokee in single-digit temperatures on a winter night, shining an LED flashlight at the Victorians along Terrace Avenue, trying not to beam anyone’s windows. He gives up, pulls over, and calls the customer—because, wouldn’t you know it, sometimes a ring from a block away is more efficient than a global data operation. The woman who answers directs him (and her Greek salad and gyro) to a large mansion divided into apartments. Its driveway faces a different street. Problem explained.

A former professional soccer player and men’s clothing boutique owner in his native country of Azerbaijan, Buzhunashvili moved to America as a refugee in 1996. Now he is middle-aged and a bit paunchy, but he still carries himself like an athlete, with a quick measured pace. He steps out into the cold and hands over the food, briefly chitchats about the weather, then hustles back to the car. “See, see, I talk to the customers a little bit, they get to know me,” he says. “Then they call again.”