Some downtown restaurants have an unexpected option for third-party delivery. Amazon is quietly running an ad hoc free restaurant delivery service using drivers and vehicles that are no longer shuttling its corporate employees around during the stay-at-home order.
So far, the pilot program has only been made available for restaurants housed in Amazon buildings, such as the Middle Eastern fast casual restaurant Mamnoon Street and Korean-Hawaiian taco specialist Marination. Mamnoon Street owner Wassef Hanoun tells Eater Seattle the service could be helpful in cutting down costs, although it’s still in its early stages and there’s a “learning curve” with the drivers, some of whom have never delivered food before. Marination co-owner Kamala Saxton says the restaurant received a survey about the delivery service via email, but did not sign on yet. As she continues to formulate a plan for the chain, Saxton will weigh Amazon as a delivery option. “At this point we will consider anything that might make sense to meet our guests needs while keeping our staff and guest as safe as possible,” she says.
For this service, Amazon pays the drivers, who work for a third-party company called MV Transportation that runs shuttle service for the tech giant. Deliveries are designed to be no contact — restaurants pack the food up on their own, place it in the trunk for the drivers, then the food is dropped off at the doorsteps of diners, who place orders directly from the restaurant’s website. From all accounts, this seems to be a temporary offering for local businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic and not, say, a precursor to a full-on Grubhub-like app.
Last week, Amazon sent a memo to its corporate employees, saying that they can work from home until October 2, if their roles allow them to do so. As a result, regardless of when dining rooms in the city reopen, any restaurants or bars within the vicinity of its campus could face even greater challenges. In early March, when Amazon and Microsoft issued work from home policies during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many that serve those tech hubs lost the majority of their revenue within days. Despite takeout and delivery as current options, quite a few of those restaurants remain closed.
Amazon launched a fund offering grants for small businesses in the downtown area, and has dispersed $10 million to applicants. It also offered rent relief through April for restaurant tenants of its buildings, including Mamnoon Street, although Hanoun says it’s unclear if that will continue. Any grant money will simply a stopgap as well, unlikely to keep restaurants who rely on daytime business traffic afloat for very long. Many restaurants and bars around the area, if they reopen at all, will need to expand their delivery service out as wide as possible and save every penny they can — but they will also need much greater assistance in general.