Take chives, a common vegetable in Chinese cuisine. In the U.S., common Asian vegetables and fruits are often grown by small farms specializing in the produce, sometimes meaning higher costs. For Chinese food enthusiasts, mainstream services like Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods often lack basic produce required for Chinese cooking, and the available items can be much pricier due to the supply chain. Many companies also quickly started to double down on grocery delivery, which has become another major source of revenue as shoppers stock up for quarantine. Similar platforms, such as Caviar, have struggled with fulfilling deliveries and meeting customer service requests due to an unprecedented number of orders. Chowbus started hiring as soon as early March and has since doubled its staff capacity to do deliveries, adding more than 3,000 drivers across the country. “We knew how serious it was in China,” Wen says.īeyond safety measures, many of these delivery apps predicted that demand for their services would dramatically spike and began seeking more staff fairly early. No-contact delivery became standard practice in mid-March.Īnd unlike many American organizations that followed early Center for Disease guidelines discouraging non-medical workers from wearing masks - guidance that some now criticize as counterproductive - many Chinese food delivery platforms encouraged and sometimes mandated employees to do so. YBB, an app popular among New York professionals for the lunches it delivers straight from Flushing, went further by providing protective suits and goggles, as well as the foldable tables and disinfectant sprays that couriers would use in front of the customer, according to CEO Paul Lang. Chowbus started buying masks and hand sanitizer for drivers and couriers in late February, when supply was still available, according to CEO Linxin Wen. The apps had to address safety concerns from all sides to ensure both the couriers and customers were comfortable. “When we saw the outbreak in China, we started planning because we felt it would come to the U.S. “There’s a lag of understanding,” says Hungry Panda’s Chen of the American preparation for the crisis. and New York, they were some of the first businesses to feel the impacts of the pandemic, especially when fear of the novel coronavirus mainly concerned Chinese communities. While they are essentially similar to UberEats and Grubhub, they tend to strike exclusive collaborations with select Asian restaurants, offer foods that are not on prominent English-language apps, and show menus in Chinese.įor many of these apps, a large percentage of the management, employees, and customers have Chinese backgrounds and became wary about COVID-19 when the pandemic broke out in China in January. In New York alone, there are multiple platforms, including Chowbus, Recipo, Hungry Panda, and YBB. Couriers at YBB spray the box with cleaner, currently using an alternative as they wait to restock disinfectant Gary He/Eaterįood delivery apps targeting Chinese immigrants have been on the rise over recent years, thanks to the robust growth of Chinese international students and workers from overseas.
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