After years of trying, it seems that Amazon is finally on the verge of breaking into the casual dining food delivery game. This comes thanks to its recent partnership with Olo, a digital platform that aims to provide customers with "better, faster, more personal service from the restaurants." According to Bloomberg, the partnership potentially gives Amazon the ability to deliver food from the over 200 restaurant chains that Olo works with, including Chipotle, Five Guys, and Wingstop.
With the announcement of the collaboration between the two companies, Amazon Restaurants, the new food ordering section of Amazon's website, will handle delivering the actual food to customers, and Olo will provide menus and handle the ordering process, simplifying the process for customers.
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Although Amazon teaming up with Olo has many customers excited about the prospect of getting Chipotle burritos delivered right to their front doors, so far the only chain that has confirmed it will be doing deliveries through Amazon is Buca di Beppo. That's because back in June, Gene Lee, the CEO of Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden, announced that Darden would begin testing delivery with Amazon Prime. Since Olive Garden and Buca di Beppo are both casual Italian food chains and competitors, the announcement that Amazon is now working with Buca Di Beppo is unexpected for anyone who's been keeping up with the e-commerce company's recent moves into food delivery.
Still, it's not at all unexpected that Amazon is trying to round out its involvement in the food industry. As Bloomberg points out, the United State's $1.5 million food market is split into two categories, groceries and restaurants. After Amazon's recent $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods, it makes perfect sense that the company would move toward conquering the another slice in food industry's pie.
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