美国国家公共电台 NPR Uber's Online-Only Restaurants: The Future, Or The End Of Dining Out?

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Uber, the ride-hailing app, is in business with hundreds of virtual restaurants. These are restaurants that exist mainly online delivering food to your house via a service called Uber Eats. Uber says it is helping¹ restaurants grow their businesses and providing a service to customers. NPR's Jasmine Garsd reports on how it works and why it's such a divisive issue in the food industry.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE²: It's a chilly³ autumn afternoon. But inside a little Brooklyn bakery, it's hot and busy. La Gran Via Bakery, founded in 1978, makes typical Latin goodies - coquito, tres leches and homemade dulce de leche and cakes. As I walk in, one customer is ordering for a birthday.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish) - happy birthday, Roni (ph).

GARSD: Behind the pastry⁴ counter in a corner, there's a little grill⁵ with meat patties sizzling.

(SOUNDBITE OF MEAT SIZZLING)

GARSD: A few months ago, Uber Eats approached the bakery with a proposition that sounded bizarre to owner Betsy Leyva - why don't you set up a virtual restaurant?

BETSY LEYVA: I was like, are you crazy? Like, what do you mean? Like, what are you talking about? Like...

GARSD: A restaurant that exists solely⁶ online. Uber Eats suggested they serve burgers, nachos. But Leyva decided⁷ to give it a shot. That's how Brooklyn Burger House was born. Leyva says it might be virtual, but the profits are real.

LEYVA: We've increased our sales by about 30 percent, so it's very exciting. It is very exciting.

GARSD: Elyse Propis leads virtual restaurants at Uber. She explains that people use Uber Eats to search for food.

ELYSE PROPIS: And when we see people searching for something but not finding it, that signals to us that there is an opportunity and there's unmet demand.

GARSD: Then Uber eats approaches an eatery and suggests they create a virtual side restaurant with the dishes that people are looking for but can't find enough of. Daniela Galarza is a senior editor of Eater Magazine, a publication about the industry. She says in the restaurant biz, the delivery part has always been a headache.

DANIELA GALARZA: Where they have to pay somebody - they have to figure out if they need to insure them. You know, they have to figure out the delivery distance. Do they need to provide them with a vehicle, a car, a bike, whatever it may be? Whereas Uber - it's already built into that platform.

GARSD: Not everyone sees Uber Eats and the virtual restaurant as a good thing.

JAY JERRIER: You know, I haven't had the stones to say, all right, cut them off. I mean, although many, many people would love to just tell Uber to go, you know, jump off a bridge.

GARSD: Jay Jerrier owns Cane⁸ Rosso, wood-fired pizzerias in Texas. They specialize in thin crust. You know what else is thin, he says? Profits on any restaurant, and Uber Eats is taking a big slice.

JERRIER: You know, because they charge us between 30 and 35 percent of whatever the bill is. And then the customer pays anywhere from, you know, 2 bucks⁹ to 6 bucks for the delivery plus a service fee plus credit card fees. So you know, it's nuts.

GARSD: Uber Eats wouldn't provide specifics on how much it charges restaurants. It says it varies by location. Jerrier says for all the promises of expanding a customer base, delivery is just never as profitable as someone dining in. And it's not just that.

JERRIER: You know, when I was growing up, it's, like, I loved, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday because I knew there was a chance - just a chance - that we may be going out to, like, the neighborhood restaurant.

GARSD: He wonders, are we losing that? But Jerrier still uses Uber Eats to deliver his pizzas. He feels he can't say no because, for better or worse, big tech has staked its fork deep into America's dish.

Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF SCHWARZ AND FUNK'S "BONJOUR IBIZA")

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 chilly   

adj.凉快的，寒冷的

参考例句：

• I feel chilly without a coat.我由于没有穿大衣而感到凉飕飕的。
• I grew chilly when the fire went out.炉火熄灭后，寒气逼人。

4 pastry   

n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点

参考例句：

• The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry.厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
• The pastry crust was always underdone.馅饼的壳皮常常烤得不透。

5 grill   

n.烤架，铁格子，烤肉；v.烧，烤，严加盘问

参考例句：

• Put it under the grill for a minute to brown the top.放在烤架下烤一分钟把上面烤成金黄色。
• I'll grill you some mutton.我来给你烤一些羊肉吃。

6 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

9 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》