Boston Hospitality Review Viewpoint Delivering Food to the Front Door: A New, Or Very Old, Convenience? Christopher Muller, Ph.D. century of commercial competitive The First Home Delivery System A conflict between the grocery (food at home or “FAH”) and restaurant (food away The traditional practice was for a homemak- from home or “FAFH”) distribution chan- er to personally place an order with an inde- nels is now being fought on an unexpected pendent shopkeeper for staples such as flour, but previously contested battlefield: who butter, salt, sugar, coffee, tea, bacon or lard. will own the “convenience” of delivery in the As a convenience and sign of personalized consumer’s mind. service he would then select her items and Just one hundred years ago access to have the large bundles of provisions deliv- food across New England was very different ered to her home later in the day by a de- than what we know today. In 1915 the vast livery boy. Most women were accomplished majority of people would have bought the cooks, responsible for the planning and food they did not grow or raise themselves preparation of daily meals from these mostly at small, local, full-service general stores. basic raw materials. Working men (and yet In larger towns and cities independent spe- unregulated working children) ate the ma- cialty retailers such as butchers, bakers, del- jority of their meals, including at midday, at icatessens and the occasional green grocers home or when necessary brought a lunch supplemented the available product list. pail filled with home prepared items with 12 Boston Hospitality Review | Winter 2015 them to the workplace. throughout the Northeast. At the peak of The traditional restaurant fell into home delivery along with bread, bottled one of two distinct types a century ago, both milk and dairy items there were companies required dining on-the-premises. There providing everything from Fuller Brushes were full-service, “white tablecloth” estab- to tubs of Charles Potato Chips, from White lishments catering to the wealthy or the Rock soda pop to cases of Narragansett beer. middle class for special occasions. Alterna- tively there were limited service coffee shop- A Switch to Cash & Carry and the End style counter service places aiming to supply of Home Delivery everyday meals to a working or transient group who had no access to a home-cooked To compete with both the independent meal. Social and eating clubs were genteel shopkeeper and the delivery man in New substitutions used by the affluent profession- England, especially in Eastern Massachu- al requiring away from home meals both at setts, new choices were being offered to the lunch and dinner, while a roadhouse, small rapidly industrializing marketplace. In 1918 family owned “mom & pop” or diner provid- the Rabb family created the Economy Gro- ed the occasional prepared meal for those of cery Stores Company (which has evolved less means or with less time to dine. into today’s Stop & Shop corporation) a chain of stores which introduced the first Direct-to-Consumer Home Delivery self-service market to New England families. It was based on the A & P Economy Stores, With good reason, grocers rarely envisioned first opened in Jersey City, NJ in 1912. De- themselves as in head-to-head competition signed to offer a “Cash & Carry” no delivery with meals prepared away from home. If and low price system, shoppers for the first grocers and shopkeepers saw any compet- time were given the opportunity to wander itive threat, it was from the direct-to-con- the aisles and truly “shop.” Presented with sumer home delivery provided by the a widening selection of newly introduced growth of commercial dairy producers such brand name packaged foodstuffs, grocer- as H.P. Hood in Charlestown, MA or the ies and dry goods shoppers could choose expanding reach of large bakeries such as for themselves which brand, size or quan- Dugans as they moved from New York into tity they desired. The companies were able Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. to use cost savings from labor and quantity Following in the literal footsteps of itiner- purchasing to offer lower prices to a growing ant horse-cart tinkers and merchants, these consumer base. newly organized, wide ranging and efficient In the mid-1920’s the Independent “truck route” sales models delivered fresh Grocers Alliance (I.G.A.) and Red & White staples daily to the front doorsteps of homes Stores spread throughout the region, both “Retailers face competition not only from other retailers, such as mass merchandisers who offer groceries, but also from other retailers who sell substitutes for groceries. Because convenience is becoming more of an issue for American consumers, they are more likely to eat out than to cook at home. Therefore, another competitor for grocery stores is fast-food restaurants. To respond to this threat, supermarkets have added large prepared food sections to their deli de- partment.” Barbara Kahn, Grocery Revolution, 1997 Winter 2015 | Boston Hospitality Review 13 “Same-day delivery not just for city clickers: grocery shopping goes by a single product delivery man on a route 24/7: Online grocery shopping and delivery has become a crowd- truck selling commodities such as bread or ed space, with a host of services competing for consumer attention. milk became a high priced relic of a time This trend allows everyone who sells food and beverages to be in the gone by. The convenience of home delivery same-day delivery business without having to add additional opera- couldn’t overcome the search for lower pric- tional infrastructure. Look for Uber and Google Shopping Express to es or the need to save time. put every supermarket in the same day delivery business and change consumer behavior to shop daily for prepared foods and recipe driven Declining Dominance of the Food Dol- meal kits that contain all the ingredients and be delivered to homes lar Expenditure By Grocers and offices.” Phil Lempert, “The Supermarket Guru”, Nov. 2014 As they had for decades grocers still rarely envisioned themselves as in head-to-head were created to counter the spread of the competition with new restaurant offerings. conglomerates and their new buying power. Even so restaurateurs and grocers have al- Soon the chaining of markets became the ways been vying for the dominant share of competitive model, many with thousands of the total food dollar. The grocers captured stores under these and other branded corpo- more than $7 out of every $10 consumers rate names. Competition was fierce among spent on food purchases well past the Sec- these enterprises, each contesting by stock- ond World War and into the 1960’s (see ing new national consumer products as well chart below). as their own private label offerings. By the In New England as the evolution end of the 1930’s a new larger store, the “su- from full-serve to self-service was happen- permarket,” was introduced with an increase ing to the grocery channel, a similar process in national branded grocery products on the was also beginning to emerge in the food shelves and bringing the previously inde- away from home channel. When dining out pendent specialty shops (butchers, bakery, there were established restaurants in hotels, green grocer) all under one roof. traditional taverns in country inns through- At the close of WWII and as the out the region, and historic restaurants such suburbs grew across the country, hundreds as the Union Oyster House or Jacob Wirth in of supermarkets were built to serve the ex- cities like Boston. There was also ice cream. panding needs of families and their chang- In 1914 the Durand family opened an ice ing lifestyles. Convenience for the home cream stand in Post Office Square, which be- cook evolved into finding a broad product came the original unit of the Brigham’s chain choice at a store near home usually with free of stores by the mid-1920’s. Nearby the parking. It was convenient to have complete Bickford family also got their start in the ear- control over the entire purchase process, ly 1920’s. Both became iconic New England including the total time it took to complete family restaurant businesses. At this time the the shopping experience. As the pace of dai- true innovator was the iconoclastic Howard ly life quickened and homemakers found D. Johnson of Quincy, Ma. In 1925 he cre- themselves increasingly busy during the day, ated an eponymous chain of restaurants, timing of store-provided delivery became which had been built on his efforts to create inconvenient. In the mid-1960’s supermar- a more flavorful ice cream out of the neces- ket companies continuously sought to drive sity to save his family’s business from bank- costs down and become the low-price leader. ruptcy. Surviving both the Great Depression In comparison the value proposition offered and World War Two, by the middle of the 14 Boston Hospitality Review | Winter 2015 1960’s Howard Johnson’s was to become the world’s largest foodservice company. The Early Days of Chain Restaurants: A Choice of Eat-In or Take-Out What is important for the nature of food service competition with the grocery indus- try is that each of these restaurant chains, as the very definition of food away from home, were built in large part on a “take away” model. Howard Johnson’s in particular was created to cater to the traveling public, with the majority of his restaurants opened along highways and on busy traffic circles. The ear- ly roadside menu featured proprietary fla- vors of ice cream, with additional items such the traveling businessman these roadside as “frankforts” and fried clam rolls.