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In the past five years, food deliveries to office and multifamily buildings have grown by more than 500%. And no wonder.

With just a few taps on a phone, tenants can order virtually any type of food and have it brought to them. If you’re an asset or a property manager, you’re probably aware that food deliveries to your properties have increased significantly in recent years. But what you may not know is what those food deliveries are costing you. There are three hidden costs imposed on commercial properties by food deliveries: lost productivity; tenant satisfaction; and food safety risks.

Food deliveries are impacting building staff productivity and costing you more than you think

Let’s start with productivity costs. To illustrate, consider a multifamily property with 200 units. The number of food deliveries this property receives will depend on its location, the demographics of its residents, and other factors. But based on the data we’ve collected from managing hundreds of thousands of food deliveries, a good rule of thumb for estimating delivery volume is 1.5 deliveries per week per unit. Using that figure, this property would receive 300 deliveries a week, or about 40 a day. (If you manage an office building, you can expect 5-10% of your occupants will have food delivered on any given day, so 40 deliveries would correspond to a building with 400-800 occupants). What’s the impact of 40 food delivery workers coming through your front doors daily?

More than you might think. Unlike the Fedex and UPS couriers who deliver packages to the same buildings every day—and therefore know what to do when they get there—food delivery drivers are gig workers. And gig workers have high turnover, which means they’ve probably never been to the building before and will need help from the front desk staff to complete their deliveries. If the concierge is busy or away, the delivery worker may leave the food at the front desk and walk away. In addition to the amount of time the staff of our hypothetical multifamily property spends helping delivery workers, they also spend time figuring out which food goes to which tenants, contacting those tenants and arranging for them to collect their food, and dealing with complaints. Altogether we estimate that these tasks consume about 90 seconds per delivery on average. At 300 deliveries per week, that works out to 390 hours per year. A concierge who makes $25/hour might have a fully burdened cost of $50/hour, which means those 390 hours that are spent managing food deliveries cost our multifamily property $19,500 per year.

Now you might say, “Hold on. I have to hire the front desk person anyway, so you’re not really saving me any money.” That’s a hollow argument. Those 390 hours spent managing food deliveries are real hours, and you’re paying real money for them. Suppose the front desk staff didn’t need to manage food deliveries. In that case, those 390 hours could be spent on more important tasks, like serving (and delighting) residents, conducting property tours, and ensuring the security and cleanliness of the property. This means either those tasks aren’t being done or they’re being done by someone else. Either way, those hours come with a real cost.

Tenant satisfaction is one of your biggest assets for attracting new tenants

The second hidden cost of food delivery is harder to quantify but has a bigger impact on your bottom line—the cost of a poor tenant experience. In these days of Yelp reviews and viral TikTok videos, a negative food delivery experience shared on social media can, in a matter of hours, destroy a property’s reputation, which may have taken years to establish. When a friend asks a tenant whether they would recommend your property, do you want the tenant to be thinking about the unpleasant encounters they had with food delivery workers or the concierge who made them feel so welcome every time they walked through the front door? When a prospective tenant tours your property, do you want their first impression to be a lobby that smells like curry and is cluttered with takeout bags and pizza boxes? It may not be possible to assign a dollar cost to a poor tenant experience, but in today’s fiercely competitive market, no one can doubt that tenant experience impacts occupancy and lease rates.

Improper handling of delivered food and foodborne illness is no joke

There’s one other cost to consider. According to the Centers for Disease Control, cooked meals can make you sick if they sit out for more than two hours before being consumed. Considering that up to an hour may have elapsed between when the food was prepared and when it was dropped off at your property, the window for safe consumption could be as little as one hour. Unless your front desk staff is monitoring every delivery to ensure that it is picked up within an hour—a time-consuming and error-prone task—then your tenants face a food safety risk. This is not something to be taken lightly. Every year, foodborne illness affects 48 million people in the United States. Of those, 128,000 become sick enough to be hospitalized, and 3,000 die. Because of the rapid growth of food delivery and the risks it poses to consumers, the Food & Drug Administration is strengthening food safety protections for food ordered online. You don’t want to find out the hard way that foodborne illness lawsuits are costly.

The good news is that these hidden food delivery costs can be mitigated with a food delivery management (FDM) solution. A properly implemented FDM solution enforces a consistent and reliable process for dropping off and picking up food; tracks and monitors each delivery to ensure that the right food gets to the right tenant, and reminds tenants to pick up their food in a timely manner—and notifies front desk staff when they don’t. It eliminates constant food delivery interruptions, so your onsite teams can focus on more important duties, like serving tenants. It gives tenants peace of mind that their food won’t be taken or tampered with, which increases tenant satisfaction and referrals. And finally, it mitigates food safety risks.

Only about 2% of our meals are delivered today, but that number is growing fast. And as it grows, so will the hidden costs. Whether your property gets 10 or 100 food deliveries daily, an FDM solution will pay for itself many times over.

As the food delivery management solutions leader, Minnow understands how food delivery impacts commercial buildings. Our FDM solution, the Pickup Pod, is a cloud-connected smart food locker that manages and monitors every food delivery, easing the burden on onsite property teams while elevating tenants’ food delivery experience. By taking over the management of your building’s food deliveries, Minnow frees up your front desk staff to focus on more important duties, like serving tenants and achieving occupancy goals.

To see how a Minnow Pickup Pod can boost your staff’s productivity, enhance building security, eliminate unsightly clutter, and mitigate food safety risks while delighting your tenants, contact our sales team today to schedule a discovery call.

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Food deliveries to multifamily properties grew by 80% in 2020 – 2021. This impressive but not altogether surprising statistic signals a shift in how our country’s 40 million apartment renters approach the ritual of mealtime. 

As a result, the convenience of having restaurant-quality food brought to their home has become something that residents count on—and a key amenity that multifamily property owners need to provide for today’s renters and residents.  

That’s where a contactless Minnow Pickup Pod can play a huge role, and why it might just be one of the most important luxury amenities for multifamily building owners to provide for residents. 

Table of contents

• What are the benefits of contactless delivery for property managers?
• Why is secure food delivery important for residents?
• Why offer contactless food delivery for luxury residences?
• How does contactless food delivery for multifamily properties support building safety?
• Can delivery services use contactless delivery for multifamily properties?
• Why provide contactless food delivery for hotel guests?
• How does contactless food delivery work for college dorms?
• How should I get started with contactless food delivery in multifamily property?

What are the benefits of contactless delivery for property managers? 

Contactless meal delivery has become (and will continue to be) a staple in residents’ lives—and the volume of those orders is unlikely to decrease any time soon. These days, contactless food delivery has even become a matter of public safety. For some consumers, ordering in is less risky to health and wellbeing than going out. 

For anyone overseeing the operations and administration of a multifamily community, this means that the infrastructure and amenities surrounding food delivery to the building must be revised and revamped to reflect this new reality.  

In other words, the question is how—not if—to update their drop-off and delivery systems. 

How property managers can adapt to increased delivery volume 

Improvising a DIY drop-off area such as a series of shelves or cubbies will cost you time and resources and, in the end, wooden shelves will hardly be seen as an innovation in your residents’ eyes.  

That’s not even mentioning the fact that an exposed shelf is an uninsulated environment, and insulation is something that 70% of residents that we surveyed said they want in a food delivery solution.  

Based on these evolving needs, it’s clear that what managers must implement in 2022 and beyond is a standardized, professionally made application designed to ensure the quality and security of their residents’ orders. They need a plug-and-play product that takes all of the risk and uncertainty out of purchasing food online and replaces it with a predictable, reliable, and repeatable process.  

A modern solution to address evolving residential needs 

The reality is that many apartment renters in the next decade are likely to order food more frequently than they receive letters in the mail. Some might even order food more often than they do laundry.  

So, why not offer a reliable, standardized system for food delivery? It’s a smart and strategic move and soon – especially for larger buildings – it may be the only move. What was once a “nice-to-have” will, in the near future, become a “must-have.” 

Contact-free drop-off systems like the Minnow Pickup Pod offer two major benefits for residential property owners and, by extension, their residents: meeting residents’ needs, and protecting their property.  

Chances are you already have numerous systems in place to do both. For mail, there’s a mailroom. For laundry, there’s a laundry room. For bikes, there’s a bike room. All these features are meant to keep the building running smoothly. To maintain order and avoid chaos.  

However, apartment living and everything else in the world has changed in recent years. Therefore, your amenities must evolve to address those changes.

How does contactless delivery benefit commercial real estate value?​ 

The oldest members of Gen Z are now graduating from college and flocking to the rental market.  

Studies show that young professionals consider apartment technology to be a deciding factor when picking a place to live. So, if you want to attract these newly minted postgrads and their newly minted paychecks to your building, it would be wise to increase your focus on tech and wellness.  

One way that property managers can capitalize on this young and tech-savvy wave of potential residents is by offering modern amenities such as contactless delivery solutions. 

You’ll also find increasing resident satisfaction scores to be an especially valuable investment among this group since, according to the same study, they are the most likely to check online reviews of apartment buildings. More positive online reviews win more rental applications and can enhance the value and reputation of your property. 

Why is secure food delivery important for residents? ​ 

As the novelty of meal delivery apps gradually wore off and became a permanent fixture in their lives, apartment residents have developed higher standards and expectations.  

When ordering food was an occasional luxury rather than a routine fact of life, it was easier for customers to overlook the small hiccups in the system. Now, since food delivery has become a weekly or even daily occurrence for apartment renters, the inconveniences are harder to excuse.  

Improving the residential meal delivery experience 

It’s no longer enough for the order to arrive on time. It needs to be A) the right food B) close enough to the right temperature, and C) placed in an area that’s safe and accessible.  

Gone are the days of scooping a delivery bag off the sidewalk in front of your building and just being grateful that some food came somewhat on time. Residents expect and deserve more, and products like the Minnow Pod provide that.  

Implementing a secure contactless delivery system improves the drop-off/delivery experience for everyone involved. For couriers, it takes the guesswork out of finding a place to leave the food; they know exactly where to put it. For residents, it takes the guesswork out of figuring out where and in what condition the food was left; they always know exactly where it is. 

How does contactless food delivery support security & safety in a multifamily property? 

These days, safety and security are also top of mind for residents when choosing where they will live, raise their family, and (often) do their work. Having a safe, easy-to-find hub through which all meal deliveries are dropped off and picked up improves building security.  

Keeping delivery couriers comfortably in the lobby is a net positive for resident security and helps to mitigate the chance of these deliverers finding themselves lost while searching for individual residences. 

A Minnow Pickup Pod provides a single, centralized place right in the lobby to drop off all food orders, so residents can safely pick up their food when it is most convenient for them. This helps safely contain deliverers in a dedicated spot in the building and gives residents an added sense of security when picking up their meals. 

Why offer contactless food delivery for luxury residences? 

For luxury apartments and 4- to 5-star multifamily buildings, amenities play a big role in keeping residents happy and satisfied with their living arrangements.  

After all, for these most exclusive of residents, it’s the little details that make the biggest impact—and ease of food delivery is no exception. 

Simply having food delivered to these luxury residences is no reason to sacrifice on safety or security for residents. That’s where a contactless Minnow Pickup Pod can help a residential property truly stand out. 

Simplifying healthy food delivery for luxury residents 

Wellness amenities are a major deciding factor for residents of luxury residences—but these days, that goes a lot further than simply having a good gym in the building. 

As more and more residents focus on an all-around, everyday healthy lifestyle, factors like healthy eating take on an especially critical importance. That’s where a contactless Minnow Pod can help the most, making it even easier and more efficient for these residents to get the healthy food they want without having to take precious time out of their daily routines to get it. 

The result: residents who use the Minnow Pickup Pod for their deliveries can eat healthier and maintain their wellness goals, all without having to step foot outside their building. 

Can delivery services use contactless delivery for multifamily properties? 

For the tens of millions of Americans who live in apartment buildings, there’s a big difference between their front door and the front door. Often, several stories worth of difference.  

As more and more delivery couriers have no choice but to bring food right up to residences directly, there’s increased likelihood for these couriers to be wandering around the building—sometimes with little clear direction or idea where they’re going.  

This wastes time for the courier and provides a substandard delivery experience for the resident. But with a centrally located, contactless Minnow Pickup Pod in the lobby, this can all change for the better. 

Simplifying food drop off for delivery services 

Upon delivery to the Minnow Pickup Pod, the courier scans a QR code on the Pickup Pod which alerts residents that their order has arrived.  

So, instead of receiving a text message that says, “This is your GrubHub driver Alex. I’ve left your food by the front door,” customers receive a notification on their phone that their food has been safely and securely placed in the contactless food locker in the lobby of their building.  

This means residents don’t have to wait for a text message and then rush down to the ground floor to grab their food before the bag gets moved, stolen, stepped on, or mistaken for trash. Or, if they’re out of the building, they don’t have to sprint home for fear that their food will become cold or spoiled if they take too long.  

With Minnow, customers can take their time and retrieve their food when it’s most convenient for them. The peace of mind that this provides makes the whole delivery experience more enjoyable and less stressful.  

Why provide contactless food delivery for hotel guests? 

Tech and wellness amenities are a great way to attract new residents to an apartment community. But they’re also a great way to attract guests to a hotel. It all comes down to offering an elevated residential experience and, above all, showing that you understand and care about guests’ needs.  

Improving the hotel guest experience with contactless food delivery

Like a luxury apartment building, a hotel is a place where things like unsightly clutter, food odors, and mixed-up deliveries are unacceptable. The success of the business depends on offering guests an escape from this sort of unpleasantness.  

A secure, temperature-controlled food locker is an elegant solution to this problem. It facilitates an organized delivery system, ensures that guests receive exactly what they ordered, and it avoids pungent delivery bags being littered around the lobby and front desk.  

How a luxury apartment building provides a luxury experience with Minnow Pickup Pods 

One luxury hotel-style apartment building, the Astoria at Central Park West, has been using a Minnow Pickup Pod for over a year now. In early 2021 they replaced their uninsulated “food drop-off table” with our system. Since then, the Minnow Pickup Pod has facilitated over 13,000 successful deliveries to happy Astoria residents. ​ 

How does contactless food delivery work for college dorms?  

Food delivery apps are incredibly popular on college campuses. So popular that some schools have partnered with delivery services to allow students to have meals from on-campus eateries delivered to their houses and dorms.  

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Students order off-campus food constantly. Whether they’re studying and don’t want to leave their residence hall, watching a football game and want gameday snacks delivered to them, or hosting a party and want to offer their guests something to eat. The list goes on and on.  

School administrators and resident advisors can corral this endless stream of orders by channeling them through an organized contactless delivery system. Otherwise, depending on the size of the dorm or house, things could quickly get out of hand. The last thing that anyone wants is a lobby full of mixed-up food orders that were left out overnight, especially on an urban campus where rodents are a concern. 

Give your residents the amenities they need with a Minnow Pickup Pod 

Change is never easy, but we don’t necessarily view implementing a contactless Minnow Pickup Pod as a change. Instead, we see Minnow as the natural next phase in the evolution of contactless delivery to your apartment building, hotel, or college campus.  

It’s leveraging the systems that you already have in place and optimizing them to improve your residents’ experience. Revising and revamping the way you handle meal delivery, not completely overhauling it.  

And as far as time and resources go, the whole Minnow unit can be installed in under 30 minutes which, when you consider the time that it would take to construct your own storage space, is no time at all.

If you’re interested in elevating and improving your contactless delivery system, we encourage you to contact us today to get the process started. In 2022 and beyond, you and your residents deserve a system that is safe, streamlined, and easy to manage.  

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As the real estate market enters a new period of volatility, multifamily building owners and asset managers are under more pressure than ever to maximize net operating income (NOI) by increasing dollars in while decreasing operational costs.

Keeping staffing costs low by maximizing employee retention can play an important role in doing just that.

That’s where a food delivery management (FDM) solution can make a big difference.

By simplifying and streamlining food delivery in multifamily buildings with one easy-to-use system, building owners and managers can help take some of the burden and responsibility off staff for this time-consuming (but important) element of the residential experience.

Here’s a look at how a proven FDM solution—along with the best practices for staff management that go with it, like clear communication and an easy-to-follow policy—can help keep your multifamily building staff with your teams well into the future.

Why focus on staff retention in a multifamily building?

Finding, hiring, and training new staff members for your buildings is an expensive process.

According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, directly replacing just one employee can cost as much as 50 percent of that same employee’s annual salary, with total costs of turnover even reaching up to double that employee’s salary.

Keep in mind: that’s per employee. That means that each employee who leaves your building staff represents added costs, and those can pile up quickly when attrition is high.

That’s where staff retention can play a huge role in keeping staffing costs stable and manageable. By keeping current staff on the team, multifamily building owners can reduce these turnover expenses and help to maximize NOI across their properties.

Staff retention starts with helping team members feel heard

Taking regular input from staff on processes can help them feel empowered and feel like they are being heard.

For some team members, that could be the difference between staying at their current position and leaving for a new opportunity.

For instance: in buildings where food delivery is a messy, disorganized process, staff may feel like they are spending too much time managing these deliveries when they should be focused on more productive, more profitable activities.

But while these activities may be tedious themselves, failure to hear these complaints (and failure to respond to them accordingly) could be the real wedge driving a gap between you and your staff members. When workers don’t feel heard, they feel less valuable to the team—and more motivated to find somewhere else to work.

One key way to approach this: allow your teams to have a say in how your food delivery policy is developed.

According to Harvard Business Review, simply inviting team members to have ownership of policy may be a smart way to enhance team solidarity. Plus, it may also help to strengthen internal adherence to policy among staff members themselves, as they begin to see that collaboration as a critical source of staff empowerment.

When building your multifamily building’s food delivery policy and integrating an FDM, be sure to ask your building teams for input. That way, they can feel like they are deeply involved in the process of improving the residential experience.

Provide a future-focused work environment with tech-friendly amenities

One of the biggest sources of tension driving employees to leave their current positions? That’s lack of adaptability in their workplace, and low flexibility to seek out new and better solutions to existing problems.

Here’s an example: a multifamily building staff is dealing with the same problems day after day, without any clear effort on management’s part to seek out new strategies to solve these problems.

This scenario can play out one of two ways: either the employer shows genuine interest in innovating, or employees find somewhere else to work.

For multifamily building food delivery, this is a real problem. As the ever-growing volume of food deliveries continues to put strain on building staff, there is more pressure than ever on building owners and managers to find new, effective solutions.

Introducing new features to help manage the flow of food deliveries (like an FDM or smart food locker) can help give staff a sense that they are working in a forward-thinking location with an eye toward the future.

For building owners, simply showing a willingness to adapt and evolve—and taking real action, like introducing new technology into the workplace to solve daily pain points—can go a long, long way toward keeping staff satisfied.

Make food delivery policy easy for new & existing staff to follow

If a multifamily building owner were trying to alienate building staff, they’d focus on reinforcing two factors that play a big role in getting employee to quit:

1. Not setting clear expectations for staff members, and
2. Relying on existing staff to train all new, incoming team members

Of course, for any employer focused on keeping staff members in their multifamily building, these lay out some crucial points to focus on.

For employees, not knowing what’s expected of them at work can lead to a major decline in worker engagement. This causes staff members to feel less motivated to perform their duties to the best of their abilities, and may increase the likelihood they’ll leave for another position.

Similarly, asking your existing staff members to train all new and incoming staff members can also lead to major problems. Not only does this reinforce bad habits among teams, but it also increases the risk that team members do not fully understand the expectations for their position.

For multifamily building owners focused on streamlining food delivery, this is especially important: without a clear, written food delivery policy that all staff can follow, there is a much greater likelihood that every food delivery will be handled differently—and that can lead to major dissatisfaction among both staff and residents.

By creating clear, streamlined, written processes for food delivery, building owners can simplify the day-to-day operations for building staff and keep them from feeling like time is wasted on low-value, repetitive tasks

Want to improve the resident experience? Start with the employee experience.

The fact is, keeping your staff members on board at your properties can have multiple beneficial effects on your multifamily building’s operations:

1. A happy staff encourages employee retention, helping to minimize staffing costs and maximize NOI potential
2. A motivated and engaged staff helps improve the resident experience across your properties in places where it really counts
3. Clearly written staff policies and practices help your business grow across all the properties in your portfolio

When it comes to meeting the needs of your staff to maximize retention, simplifying food delivery is an easy place to start.

Food deliveries represent a major source of tension for multifamily building staff, and without a clear system in place there is more demand and more responsibility placed on building staff. This is especially felt areas like building security, which can require a high level of hands-on participation from staff when a solid system is not in place.

By streamlining the food delivery process in multifamily buildings with a FDM like the Minnow Pickup Pod, building owners and managers can take more of the burden off building staff, all while providing a better overall experience for residents.

That’s a major win-win—and could go a long way toward keeping your staff happy, engaged, and on the team for years to come.

Want to learn more about the impact a Minnow Pickup Pod can have on your multifamily portfolio and on your building staff? Request a demo today and our experts will be happy to show you just how much of an impact a simplified food delivery process can help maximize your efficiency and keep your teams happy.

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As consumers become more conscious of sustainability and convenience, we can expect to see a focus on eco-friendly options, the continued rise of ghost kitchens, and the integration of AI and automation. These trends will make it easier and more convenient than ever for customers to enjoy their favorite meals at home.

Sticky habits like remote work and contactless delivery are, in all likelihood, not going anywhere soon. This combined with the overarching trends of inflation and shifting residential markets, means there is more pressure than ever on building owners and managers

So, as we move into 2024, there are a few top food delivery trends that building owners and property managers should watch closely. As far as contactless delivery is concerned, we have a few educated predictions.

Last-mile grocery delivery will continue to increase in demand and popularity

Advances in technology, an increased desire for personal distancing, and the ever-increasing population of cities have fueled a fundamental change in the way people buy groceries.

• The global market for online groceries grew from $285.7 billion in 2021 to $354.28 in 2022.
• At a predicted growth rate (CAGR) of 25.3%, the dollars generated from online grocery purchases alone would exceed $2.15 trillion by 2030.

The bottom line is even if the growth rate is more modest than experts predict, the market for grocery delivery will grow in 2023. More and more people are becoming familiar with (and subsequently developing a preference for) shopping for groceries via online channels—and when you consider the unparalleled convenience offered by these platforms, it’s not hard to see why.

Add to that the appeal from a health and safety perspective, and that 25% annual growth rate seems unsurprising.

Another interesting subset of online grocery delivery to keep an eye on is the market for subscription-based meal prep services.

• Industry analysts predict that – at a compounded annual growth rate of 13.9% – the market for prepared meal delivery will expand from $11.68 billion today to $19.64 billion by 2026.
• This market growth is largely being spurred on by consumers’ increased demand for subscription services.

The forces propelling the market for online grocery delivery to new heights are numerous and persistent. In 2023 and beyond, it’s more than safe to say that demand will not slow down, which is why it will become increasingly vital to implement systems for handling orders, helping workers, and satisfying customers.

What does this mean for building owners? More and more people want fresh, affordable foods delivered to their homes, and building owners need to offer an easy way for that to happen. A simple-to-use food delivery management (FDM) solution may be key to simplifying the grocery delivery process for residents and tenants today, and in the months (and years) to come.

1. Demand for delivery technology and food delivery management solutions will keep growing

The market for food delivery has grown, but it’s also experienced some growing pains. The explosive increase in the volume of online orders that buildings, businesses, and third-party services have had to handle has been challenging to say the least.

However, out of this adversity, a wave of innovation has occurred. New technologies have emerged to reduce the burden placed on drivers, restaurants, and the properties that they deliver to.

At first, there was a panicked scramble to set up new systems for handling delivery orders. But fortunately, over time, these DIY solutions have been refined and standardized to be more sustainable and efficient.

Smart food lockers have replaced shelves, restaurants have set up new kitchens exclusively for mobile orders and building managers have incorporated delivery service coordination into their employee training.

2. Data collection & optimization will be key for foodservice operators, property managers, and residents

As demand for food delivery continues to increase, these technological and operational innovations will continue to become more refined and advanced.

Many of these new tools come equipped with data-rich technologies that allow businesses to track and analyze customer trends and behaviors. This data can be used to improve and evolve the way that they operate.

Knowing what times of the day are busiest, what menu items are most popular, and how long it typically takes a delivery to be completed are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to utilizing user data.

As technologies become more advanced, so will the quality and variety of the insights that they provide. And it’s yet another reason for building owners and managers to invest in technological amenities that have the capacity to provide data.

3. Consumers will continue to opt for hyperlocal food options

Ordering food online can feel slightly impersonal. The experience of patronizing a local establishment is hard to replicate via a mobile app. That’s why, for consumers who want the convenience of contactless delivery but still want to support their neighborhood eateries, the ability to support hyperlocal ordering will be key.

They may not feel like leaving their apartment, but they can still get their familiar favorites delivered. This way, they get the satisfaction of supporting businesses in their community while staying safe and comfortable at home.

For this same reason, more FSOs may explore and opt for direct-restaurant delivery, either in combination with or as an alternative to third-party delivery services. Giving as much business as they can to the restaurant itself will provide a similar sense of local comradery and cohesion.

That’s why it’s crucial for building owners to adapt their food delivery management policies to accommodate a wide variety of delivery services and processes. Without a single, streamlined way to collect and hold these deliveries for consumers to retrieve, there’s a big risk that every delivery will be handled a little differently—and that could have negative consequences.

With a single, simple-to-use FDM solution in place, building owners can feel confident that residents and tenants can order food from their favorite local spots with minimal mess or confusion.

4. Rising food costs will push consumers to seek out more affordable food options 

Thanks to inflation, groceries and restaurant meals have become more expensive.

• Today, supermarket purchases cost 12.4% more than they did last year, and restaurant food is 8.6% pricier.
• This is markedly higher than past year-over-year increases, causing concern among consumers which has led to frugality.

We can’t know if the rate of these price hikes will persist into 2023, but we do know that the current state of the market has caused people to seek out more affordable options where they can find them and cut down on impulsive spending.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that people will order less food, but it may influence the nature of what they order. For example, households worried about frivolous spending may order less from restaurants, but they may instead order groceries in bulk for delivery.

Either way, building owners need to be able to accommodate shifting habits and preferences among resident and tenants. With a smart FDM solution in place, property owners and managers can move forward with confidence knowing residents can choose more affordable and healthier food options without running the risk of a worse food delivery experience.

5. Specialty diets and food preferences will continue to dominate 

Nutritional science is hot right now, and it doesn’t show any signs of cooling down. The fact that 44% of American consumers consider the ingredients in their food “a lot” is one strong indicator.

The precise reason for this rise in nutritional awareness is hard to pinpoint, but a general increase in health consciousness is certainly at play.

• During the pandemic, one survey found that 34% of American consumers were seeking out more foods that provided health benefits or strengthened their immune systems.
• One key indicator of the popularity of “specialty diets” can be found in a 2022 study that showed that only 4% of American adults avoid gluten because they medically need to while 13% avoid it simply because they want to.
• Additionally, 38% of young adults (18-24) said that they were interested in starting a gluten free diet. The most surprising finding from this study was the fact that adults who avoid gluten for non-medical reasons were actually more likely to stick to the diet than those who actually had celiac disease.

The key takeaway of all this is that the modern consumer, eater, and resident is highly cognizant of their diet. For building owners, that means there is more pressure than ever to provide food delivery processes (and FDM solutions) that cater to their specific needs. Those who chose to ignore the trend may find residents simply choosing elsewhere to live in the years to come.

Is your property ready for what 2023 has in store for food delivery?

For most building and property owners, these emerging industry trends will not have come as a surprise. In most cases, they probably witness them firsthand every day.

An increased demand for online ordering options and an enduring desire for contactless delivery have been a part of the residential experience equation for years now.

The paradigm shifts in the way that consumers buy food and approach the ritual of mealtime post-2020 are unlikely to be reversed any time soon. If anything, these sticky habits will only burrow deeper into residents’ preferences and needs in 2023.

So, if you’re interested in joining the community of innovators and leaders who are getting out ahead of these changes and implementing systems to handle them more efficiently, the MinnowPod may be exactly what you’re looking for.

Get in touch with our team to learn more about how our smart FDM solution can help meet the needs of residents and tenants today, tomorrow, and through whatever the future has in store.

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