If there is one thing we can say about 2020 is that it made the idea of food delivery far more mainstream in this area than it had been. In the big cities they are as common as a cup of coffee. In this area, not so much.
Now there is a new locally operated company serving Hilton Head Island and Bluffton. Lee Lucier is one of the founders he tells us the goal here is to keep as much as the money being moved around here. That goes for restaurants, drivers and you the consumer.
My conversation with Lee about how this benefits you:
JB: Tells us how this came about?
Lee Lucier: We kind of came up with this over the past six months because delivery/takeout has become so prevalent during COVID. COOL is “Convenient Online Only Local” I think that explains it, right?
JB: I didn’t realize it was an acronym. Very cool. You know, one of the big stories last year was a lot of these national delivery services got bloodied up because they were gouging. There’s no other way to put it. Did that lead to you doing something?
Lee: When these services first started coming out, they sounded good. Business is going well, you are getting an extra 5-10 percent added to your business. But last year, people’s spending habits, eating habits and just leaving home habits all changed significantly, anywhere from 22-30% were going to these services. It has been destroying businesses.
Some municipalities have tried to limit the rates (that delivery services can charge) some have made them illegal. It’s just really killed the restaurant.
You can see headlines almost every day now with the issues with these 3rd party platforms. So we thought ‘how can we do this well and not make this a business model that destroys the local businesses?’
We are pleased that we can partner with local establishments at a great rate. And we are creating better jobs. That’s the part we don’t talk about.
Our drivers get 100% of delivery fees and 100% of the gratuities.
JB: Are you the only ones doing that?
Lee: Our drivers know they are getting a minimum of $5 per delivery plus any gratuity from the guest. We are not keeping any of that. It’s foreign to us that some of these companies are keeping money from the restaurant side and the driver side.
JB: Bottom line for this service. Fees go to drivers. How do you make any money?
Lee: Restaurants pay 10% to run the service. That largely covers our cost. This is not going to create a retirement fund. We just had to get a model that worked for us and the other local restaurants.
A lot of restaurants that didn’t want to do 3rd party are getting involved.
JB: Where’s the website we can find more information?
Lee: Itscooldelivery.com is our website and anyone interested in driving can look into that too right there on the website.
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