Who Wants to Eat Hospital Food? This Town, Maybe

Delivery is affecting industries, companies, and consumers in myriad ways. Just this morning, I got a notification from Amazon that my new headphones had been delivered, and it came with a picture of my package placement from the delivery guy. "He left it in the backyard? In the mud? Ugh. I wonder if the dog was concerned about some stranger being on his turf."

Think about it: These are the types of conversations we have with ourselves daily, thanks to e-commerce and our "new" digital world of delivery. Have you watched the Tom Hanks-directed docu-series "The 2000s" yet? I'm going to keep the word "new" here because, 2006-ish, the advent of the iPod a few years earlier, my obsession with the band No Doubt, still all seem somewhat fresh to me. (And hey, my alma mater basketball team just made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since that year ... which sadly does not feel like more than a decade ago.)

While I may get (only slightly) aggravated at work by how Amazon contractors deliver packages somewhat inconsistently, I know that those drivers work hard and have a million things to do in a day — and, I never have to go to the store again if I want something as simple as replacement headphones for the office within a day or two of my old ones crapping out. I can hear the sound of the last-mile delivery van every day, slamming its doors and zipping around my confusing apartment complex to make multiple stops. Last-mile fulfillment centers for delivery of goods, and third-party food delivery apps like DoorDash and Postmates, have changed our lives. (Though, a recent DoorDash driver could have stood to check out the apartment map by our mailboxes, like Amazon drivers do, to find my place so my dinner wasn't 45 minutes late.)

Food service contractors have even taken notice of the trend, and its opportunities, and are working to either boost their own delivery services or contract with third-party apps so they can better compete with restaurants and other dining options, even though restaurants themselves are having a tough time making money on delivery. When I was recently digging into an update on Dun & Bradstreet's industry profile on Food Service Contractors, I was surprised to discover that a hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which has served highly rated food to patients, guests, and hospital employees for half a century, is the first health care food service operation to use Waitr.

Wait. Hospital food? That people want to eat? Turns out, at Woman's Hospital, a cafeteria managed by Elior Group that earns $2.5 million per year, managers noticed that many customers from the community and area businesses would come to the hospital just to eat the food — so it decided to bring the food to them.

"As a matter of fact, the food is so good that the hospital administration has decided to participate in a program that will allow the community to place orders and have it delivered to their homes," Joey Vaughn, a VP for Elior subsidiary Valley Services, told Food Management magazine.

Delivery began in February. It is offered throughout the hospital campus as well, which is useful for employees who are too busy to grab food or want to take dinner home when they get off shift. While the delivery options mostly promote healthy eating, like veggie bowls and grilled fish, Woman's Hospital also put some of its popular comfort-food items on the menu, including New Orleans-style red beans and rice with sausage.

Aside from Elior, other food service contractors are getting in on the delivery game. Sodexo recently launched its first-ever delivery bot service, bringing 25 self-driving robots to George Mason University in Virginia. The fleet of 25 bots are integrated with the campus dining plan and can cross various terrain to deliver food and beverages to 40,000 students, faculty, and staff. Developed through Sodexo's new partnership with Starship Technologies (a company created by the people who founded Skype), the bots maneuver the conveniently large sidewalks on campus using ultrasonic sensors, multiple cameras, radar, and GPS. Orders come through a Starship Deliveries app, where users pay $1.99 per delivery and can charge their campus meal plan or a credit card to receive items from Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, the Sodexo-branded campus grocery store, and more.

This isn't the first bot-delivery story I've read about on a college campus — and of course Amazon is now rolling out its own bots to compete with Starship — but I certainly wish it existed back when I was in school.

Want a deeper dive into the proliferation of delivery? Take a look at the impact delivery is having on some of the 500 global industries D&B covers, and the related insight my team of super-smart editors provides:

1. Fast Food and Quick-Service Restaurants

Fast-food and quick-service restaurants will be spending more money to make more money in the coming years as the growth of mobile takeout and delivery necessitates technology and equipment upgrades. While integrating third-party delivery apps with tablets in store can result in multiple-system confusion, self-service kiosks and mobile form factors for POS devices should ease some of the pressure in a tight labor market. Pre-ordering on mobile devices for takeout also is growing in popularity, with about 20% of diners using a pre-order option, according to a recent study by BRP and Windstream Enterprise. This may prompt limited-service restaurants to invest in automation and multifunctional, space-saving equipment to increase speed and consistency.

2. Specialty Eateries

As competition over espresso and cold brew heats up, more specialty eateries may benefit from expanding their delivery options through third-party services. Starbucks recently partnered with UberEats on a delivery plan for 100 of its Miami stores, for example. It has been at least three years since the company expanded delivery options, and the refocus is part of Starbucks' plan to revive stagnant sales, especially in the afternoon, by improving digital relationships with customers, according to Nation's Restaurant News. Other coffee shops or restaurants serving coffee, including Dunkin', Panera Bread, and McDonald's, are increasing market competition by delivering to customers and experimenting with new products.

3. Beer, Wine & Liquor Stores

Beer, wine and liquor stores also face competition from a pretty nifty new service: alcohol delivery. The growing list of online players in the alcohol sales and delivery business include Blue Apron, which ships exclusive wines; alcohol delivery startups such as Drizly and Postmates; and Amazon. Amazon's 2017 purchase of Whole Foods Market increased the number of cities served by its Prime Now membership service, which delivers alcohol as well as groceries. Amazon's voice-activated assistant Alexa can even be used to order alcohol in some areas. Looking for a pint to go with your pizza? Some fast-food pizza chains have begun offering beer delivery as part of a larger effort to keep up with the increasingly large field of competitors that provide on-demand food delivery.

See also: How Millennials Are(n't) Killing the Bar Industry

4. Food Wholesalers

Delivery is pricey — even for those who have been in the "delivery" business a long time. Food wholesalers are beginning to rely more on automation and other ways of wringing costs from their supply chains as rising transportation and labor costs erode profit margins. According to Supply Chain Dive, US Foods plans to pilot warehouse picking technology, routing systems, and dynamic labor planning tools through 2020 to improve its supply chain efficiency. The ability to attract new customers is essential for food wholesalers, as existing clients may close, consolidate, or convert to self-distribution. Seeking out new service markets, such as meal-preparation kit delivery firms, can help expand a distributor's customer base.

How has delivery affected your life, your company, or the industry you work in? Your comments could help inform my work, so I'd love to hear them!

Amber Krosel is an editor at Dun & Bradstreet, where she reports on emerging trends in industries including food and beverage, education, and government. Follow Amber on Twitter.

D&B Editorial is an in-house team that creates indispensable company, industry, and IT reports found in D&B Hoovers, First Research, and other D&B products.