October 2016 will be remembered as the month of food fights. Brexit chickens began coming home to roost as Unilever dealt a substantial blow to our hopes of not noticing the impending change to the passport queue, asking UK retailers to pay more for products. Tesco battled back, whilst last week Morrison’s passed that inflation onto customers.
Really, though, this is all a red herring, distracting us from where the real DMZ is. Far from the major supermarket shelves, there’s a digital conflict afoot, with several household names locked in potentially mortal combat in an attempt to exploit your deepest desire to eat in the most convenient way possible.
You might call it the hassle-free food PR wars. Or not.
Either way, here’s everything you might not have known about this tech driven revolution…
Uber is now offering food deliveries
Imaginatively dubbed Uber Eats, the taxi giant launched its standalone food delivery service in the UK in London this summer, starting with 150 restaurants across the capital. Already a staple in many global cities, some are bracing themselves for the beginning of surge pricing (charging more for the service during peak hours), and none of this would be possible without great app support.
Amazon will do the same
Around the same time as all that began, Amazon Fresh opened for business in the British capital too. Aimed at Amazon Prime subscribers, you can choose from 130,000 items in stock, and even pay a monthly fee for free deliveries over £40- the first time this has been offered outside the U.S.
Pizza Hut now lets you order via tattoo
The future, or just something to make you go WTAF? Pizza Hut UK has developed the world’s first slice-ordering tattoo. OK, so it’s not actually a real tattoo, but stick one of the temporary transfers to your skin, scan the QR code within, and it will take the information stored in the ink (your favourite pizza slice and toppings- you already submit this when ordering a tatt) and use that to dispatch a delivery to your door using GPS. What will they think of next?