For 10 years, Food Pedaler has brought food to the doors of people in the Central West End and downtown via bike. The RFT caught up with owner Alex Ward as his company celebrates its decade anniversary. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How has the business changed over the years?
We are still focusing on restaurants in and around the Central West End and downtown. We deliver anywhere in between there and then a little bit outside of that. I really want to just focus on continuing to offer high-quality service and maximize the amount of people we can reach within those areas. Once we're at a maximum point within those two neighborhoods, then we can see from there where we go, if we expand geographically or what.
How has the rise of Postmates, Uber Eats, GrubHub and other corporations affected you?
It's interesting because Food Pedalers started before the rise of these massive corporations. I would still say we just have to focus on what sets us apart –– and that is, again, we're committed to being environmentally friendly, as well as committed to supporting local. Uber Eats and DoorDash have billions of dollars in venture capital funding that they can use for advertising and offering huge incentives. At one point, they were offering like $100 of food credit for new users. ... That's put pressure on us, too, to offer lower prices and everything like that. But again, we're just differentiating ourselves in the best way we can.
How do you differentiate yourself?
I'm a local guy. I live in the Central West End. One example would be –– if [a restaurant] has an issue with an order or they have to close for the night, instead of going through a help-desk phone call or messaging service that may take forever to respond, they can just text us, and we are very quick to respond. Secondly, since I am local, I can just go places in person, and they have that face-to-face interaction with me as opposed to our competitors. The CEO of Uber is never going to stop by Pickles Deli to chat.
How long do delivery drivers ride on the bike per shift?
Three and a half hours. It would be lunch or dinner. [During] a busy time [a delivery driver] would probably [bike] an estimated 10 miles.
What are the next steps?
Tower Grove has always been in our sights. A couple of years ago, I was working on [moving into] Tower Grove, but it was honestly just difficult to find the workforce. I dialed back a little bit and decided to focus just on our current offerings. But yeah, Tower Grove, University City and Clayton would certainly be the first three areas we would like to expand to.
Coming soon: Riverfront Times Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting St. Louis stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
