By Erica Scripa
Restaurant owners in the Towson area say that a new food-ordering app is boosting business because it markets to specific geographic areas, according to interviews conducted this week.
OrderUp, an online food delivery app that is currently available in 37 markets across the country, launched in Towson on Feb. 10.
Prospective customers can download the free app onto their phone, type in their address at the top of the page and view or select restaurants from the available list — all without getting up from the couch. There are currently 50 restaurants to choose, most of which do not offer their own independent delivery services.
The company’s Towson general manager, Jim Ashley, said the app had the best market launch to date.
“We are using a multi-faceted approach combining social media, street teams and restaurant partner promotions,” Ashley said. “Towson perfectly embodies the kind of market that OrderUp seeks. The strength of the universities, businesses and residents are all attractive qualities that we look for in a market.”
Chris Campitelli, the general manager at Seasons Pizza, said OrderUp has been the most popular delivery service yet, surpassing services like Eat24 and GrubHub.
“It’s been very popular among college students and is bringing in a lot of new customers,” Campitelli said.
Bill Bateman’s owner Tony Gebbia said he is happy with the food-delivery app. Gebbia said the app had a few hiccups in the beginning but were quickly ironed out. He said he prefers OrderUp’s system over other delivery services.
“OrderUp has an edge because they have an app, not just a website,” Gebbia said. “They focus delivery on a smaller geographic area while other services offer delivery to a broader area.”
Restaurant owners also like OrderUp because it is commission based so restaurants aren’t charged for offering the service.
Custom bakery La Cakerie only offered cake delivery before OrderUp came to town, but now it offers the whole menu, the bakery’s assistant manager, Brittany Daniels, said.
“We like it,” Daniels said. “We don’t get many orders yet, but when we do, people pick it up fast.”
Smoothie King in Towson will also be using OrderUp in the coming days, store manager Sean O’Neal said. He said the business just signed the papers and is eager to start offering it.
O’Neal said it can be hard to accommodate large orders because the company does not always have the staff available for delivery.
“OrderUp will be good for company orders with 20-plus people so they can stay at work,” O’Neal said. “We offer catering for businesses and work functions and OrderUp will provide the coolers and delivery services, which will be helpful.”
Towson students who were interviewed said they love the convenience of food delivery services like OrderUp, but don’t always like paying the service fee.
Towson senior Madeline Selick used OrderUp for the first time Wednesday night.
“I ordered from Batemans and got crab fries, which was awesome, but [OrderUp] charged a $4 delivery fee,” Selick said. “I would order again with more people to split the fee.”
Selick said she has used other food-delivery services because they offer coupons.
“I ordered Papa Johns through GrubHub with a coupon,” Selick said. “But they don’t have Batemans!”
Towson sophomore Meaghan Hursey does not agree that OrderUp has worked out their kinks on the customer end.
“It’s convenient but takes forever and is not a guaranteed order,” Hursey said. “I got a burger from Gino’s and they missed parts of my order.”
According to the National Restaurant Association, a majority of adults embrace the relationship between technology and restaurants. The association’s 2015 Restaurant Industry Forecast reported that 79 percent of adults agree that technology increases convenience, 70 percent agree that technology increases order accuracy and 70 percent say technology speeds up service.
However, the same study found that 50 percent of people believe the “human element is still important” when it comes to ordering food.