Dealing with a craving for egg and cheese on a croissant has gotten a little easier for those in the East End who don’t want to leave the house.
Giant Eagle’s GetGo convenience store on Baum Boulevard has joined the meal delivery service, Grubhub.
The new feature is part of GetGo’s plan to emphasize its meal options — and get in on the growing delivery app space. And O’Hara-based Giant Eagle is adding other tech enhancements, revamping its own mobile app.
“Our kitchen has been evolving over the last year,” said Jon Cox, director of fresh food for GetGo. “We want to be seen as a restaurant first. Grubhub seemed to be a great evolution for us.”
GetGo isn’t alone in the delivery space. Altoona-based Sheetz partnered with another app, OrderUp, which eventually became part of Grubhub in 2016 at its State College and Morgantown, W.Va., locations. In December, Sheetz also added voice-activated ordering through Amazon’s Alexa.
GetGo joined Grubhub in a soft rollout of the service a week ago. The service is only offered at the Baum Boulevard location at this time.
The convenience store chain selected Grubhub because of the app’s popularity in the Pittsburgh market. But it plans to try out delivery app rival UberEats at a GetGo location in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Cox said. Each order includes a $3 fee.
In the first 24 hours, the first four orders would have made Ron Swanson happy — each order included at least one breakfast item as the character from the TV show “Parks and Recreation” preferred. Some staples, like milk and bread, also can be ordered.
The convenience store space is competitive. While having a lower gas price once might have been enough to draw in drivers, more consumers now are choosing a store based on the quality of food, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores, based in Alexandria, Va.
“More than two in three convenience retailers [69 percent] said that food service sales increased last year, and 61 percent said that sales of better-for-you items (i.e., fruits/vegetables, yogurt, nuts, health bars) experienced sales gains,” according to NACS in a survey in January. “By comparison, only 7 percent said that food service sales were down and only 3 percent said that sales of better-for-you items decreased.”
The survey cited one Bethlehem, Pa., store owner who said she expected new programs for home delivery would grow in 2018.
As for Giant Eagle’s app, the revamp combines several of the company’s mobile apps into one. The grocery store chain had one, as did the convenience store chain plus another just for the pharmacy.
The new app launched about two months ago, but the company didn’t start marketing it until this month, according to Dan Donovan, director of corporate communications for Giant Eagle. Among the app’s features is an order-ahead option at GetGo locations.
The use of mobile apps and online ordering to get a meal from a restaurant or other retailer grew 18 percent last year and now accounts for 1.9 billion food service visits, according to a report in March by the NPD Group, a consulting firm in Port Washington, N.Y.
While more orders are placed using websites, orders placed with a mobile app are growing at a faster pace, according to NPD.
“Digital ordering is now really all about the mobile app,” says Bonnie Riggs, NPD restaurant industry analyst. “Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable using mobile apps. If restaurants or food service operators don’t have a mobile app, consumers may very well choose a restaurant that does.”
Stephanie Ritenbaugh: sritenbaugh@post-gazette.com; 412-263-4910; Twitter: @StephanieRit.
First Published: April 17, 2018, 12:49 p.m.
