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Restaurants Are At the Mercy of Tech Companies
The pandemic has put restaurants in an especially tough spot
Social distancing is pushing restaurants toward delivery-only models powered by tech platforms, writes OneZero writer Sarah Emerson.
The restaurant industry can be a brutal place, characterized by low wages and impossible hours with no guarantee of success. Even before the coronavirus landed, independent restaurants were seeking new ways to survive; in North America, thousands of ghost kitchens (also known as “dark kitchens”) and delivery apps promised new revenue streams. Uber founder Travis Kalanick last year launched the most visible of these, called CloudKitchens, a well-funded startup that flips undesirable real estate into commissary kitchens, or commercial cooking spaces shared by restaurants, caterers, and food and beverage businesses.
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