© Emon Hassan for The New York Times
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A new food delivery service is taking aim at menu mark-ups — and some entrenched rivals
Restaurant ordering software company Olo is launching its own customer-focused app, it said on Tuesday. The app puts it in competition with more established delivery companies, such as DoorDash and Uber Eats.
On Olo's app, customers will see the same prices that restaurants charge in-person patrons, the company said. By contrast, third-party delivery services often charge customers higher menu prices than diners would get at a restaurant.
Offering in-store prices can save customers between 15% and 30%, Olo said.
"It's a better experience for consumers and a more sustainable model for restaurants, with no menu price inflation and no barriers standing between great brands and the people and communities they serve," Olo CEO and founder Noah Glass said.
Food delivery is one area where consumers continue to spend money, even as they cut back their budgets elsewhere. How much customers pay for delivery — and whether apps charge individuals different prices or the same order — can affect how often they order.
Olo is stepping into a competitive space. DoorDash and Uber Eats continue to grow, including by rearching into club deliveries and catering. And Walmart, which spent years building its own grocery-focused delivery service, started delivering restaurant orders earlier this year.
Olo got its start in 2005 with a service that let users text their orders to restaurants in the pre-smartphone era. Now, the company fields about 3.5 million orders daily through around 800 restaurant brands.
The company doesn't have its own team of delivery drivers. Instead, the company uses its own dispatch service to compare delivery options at other third-party services, such as Grubhub, and pick one based on factors like cost and speed.
Olo's delivery app will allow customers to order from about 250 restaurants, including Five Guys and Dave's Hot Chicken.
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A McDonald's in Paris was left ransacked and heavily damaged after cost-of-living protests exploded into riots and widespread looting that also targeted restaurants, cafés and grocery stores across the French capital — with the city now issuing curfews in two places, The Associated Press reported.
The McDonald's on Boulevard de Magenta near Gare de l'Est suffered smashed windows and extensive damage inside, according to Le Monde.
Computer screens were damaged — while an ice cream machine continued spilling vanilla onto a ketchup-covered floor, the outlet reported.
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Intruders even attempted to cook french fries before a man and his dog drove about 20 people from the restaurant, a security guard told the publication.
Fox News Digital reached out to McDonald's for comment about the vandalism.
The American-based fast-food chain was hardly the only food business to be caught up in the destruction.
A neighborhood café was burned out, a wine shop was destroyed and supermarkets were among the businesses targeted as unrest swept Paris.
Among the hardest hit was La Barrique, a neighborhood café near Place de la République that was burned out, according to Le Monde.
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The son of the café's owners told the outlet his mother was inside when the business was attacked and was later taken to a hospital with a head injury.
Grocery stores were hit hard as well.
The Franprix, Monoprix, Picard and Carrefour City locations were among the grocery retailers targeted during the unrest, according to French news agency AFP.
At a Franprix on Rue Beaurepaire near Place de la République, shelves were emptied and products were either stolen or crushed on the floor.
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Looters elsewhere were seen leaving supermarkets carrying bags filled with food, juice and alcohol, Le Monde reported.
An Intermarché Express on Boulevard de Magenta was also looted. A crew from Euronews said they were assaulted by masked individuals while reporting near the supermarket.
A Nicolas wine shop on Boulevard de Magenta was also destroyed — with shattered bottles and wine covering the area outside the store, according to Le Monde.
The destruction was part of widespread violence that followed demonstrations Saturday over the rising cost of living and other grievances.
French-born restaurateur Olivia Ostrow, who now operates Maison Ostrow in South Florida, told Fox News Digital the unrest reflects tensions extending far beyond the French capital.
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Ostrow, who was born in Paris and whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, expressed concern about what she described as rising antisemitism and the role of social media in fueling hostility.
She argued that some demonstrators have embraced political causes without fully understanding the history behind them.
"Those kids and most of those people couldn't point to Israel on the world map if it hit them in the face," she said.
Many on social media shared their dismay about what is happening in France.
"I have nothing but disgust for anyone trying to justify this," wrote one person. "Let me say it, the ones suffering the consequences are ordinary French people, not the government. It's ordinary citizens who will pay for this, whose cars were burned, whose businesses and homes were looted, and whose physical integrity were threatened."
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"These are not protests anymore," another person wrote.
Several European governments are now advising travelers to France to avoid large crowds and exercise caution during their stay, Reuters reported.
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