By Charles Lefebvre

Restaurants speak about impact of Skip The Dishes in city

Aug 24, 2018 | 5:33 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A few taps on your phone can bring a restaurant quality meal to your home.

Skip the Dishes is the country’s largest food delivery service, located in 100 cities across Canada, including Medicine Hat. The app allows people to use their phone to order everything from fast food to casual dining. More than 30 restaurants are on the app in Medicine Hat, but while one local restaurant has noticed an impact on their sales, another says being on the app caused headaches for them.

Trukker’s Restaurant in Redcliff was among the first restaurants to sign up for the app.

“We saw it as an opportunity,” said owner Deni Watson. “Young kids tend to want to order -while people in general -tend to want to order on their phones, online, they don’t want to phone in orders anymore. It was just an opportunity to bring in another group of people.”

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Watson says she was initially not sure what to expect, but says a year later, she’s noticed an increase in sales and orders through the app.

“Skip has increased our takeout, probably by a couple hundred per cent,” she said. “Like, we did do a lot of takeout before, which is kind of surprising, given the restaurant that we are, but this has increased it like a great deal, a lot.”

While some restaurants like Trukker’s have noticed a benefit from Skip The Dishes, at least one restaurant in Medicine Hat has left the restaurant.

Like Trukker’s, The Heartwood Cafe were among the first restaurants to join Skip the Dishes when it launched in Medicine Hat last September.

“We wanted people to be able to order our stuff,” said owner Meghan Bidinger. “We really liked that it was delivery already set up, and we felt there would be a demand for it.”

However, Bidinger says the restaurant ceased its partnership six weeks ago for multiple reasons, primarily due to the impact it was having on the restaurant.

“Primarily, we found that the orders would come through during our busiest times, and we found it difficult to fulfill them to the best quality, and also in a timely fashion,” she said.

Bidinger adds she found the company difficult to get a hold of when they had an issue, and added the rates Skip the Dishes was taking from the restaurant were also having an impact.

“Their rates are really high,” she said. “They take 25 per cent from our sale, and then they dock us, you know, if an order is five minutes late, then we pay for that as well.”

CHAT News reached out to Skip the Dishes for comment, but they did not make a representative available. Instead they sent a statement.

“Medicine Hat is one of SkipTheDishes best-established and high performing mid-sized Canadian markets,” the statement reads. “The people of Medicine Hat love the convenience and ease of ordering online delivery and pickup using the SkipTheDishes apps for iOs, Android, and the Skip website.”

Bidinger says the idea of a food ordering app such as Skip the Dishes is good for the consumer, and she adds the cafe continues to offer delivery, but adds Skip The Dishes sometimes isn’t beneficial for some restaurants.

“A lot of people were able to, you know, get lunch orders, and I think it’s cool that you can get coffee and baking delivered to your door,” she said. “For the consumer, I think it’s an awesome idea. It just the way the company is ran isn’t in the best interest of the business necessarily.”