New food delivery service coming to Cape

Hungry Cape Girardeau residents are about to have another option for on-demand food delivery: Bite Squad.

It's an app-based service with more than 20 restaurants on the roster as of Thursday morning.

Liz Sniegocki, Bite Squad media relations manager, said Cape Girardeau was chosen as a location because it hits three targets the company looks for when expanding into a new market.

"First, we look for service selection," Sniegocki said. "Cape Girardeau has a great restaurant scene, and our business was built on the back of great restaurants."

And, she said, the company looks for a good population density, which Cape Girardeau has.

"We want to keep our drivers busy," Sniegocki said, adding that their delivery personnel are the company's third target.

Since delivery drivers are paid hourly, "we want to keep them busy," Sniegocki said.

"We usually open up with about 15 or 20 drivers in a new market, and that number grows as demand does," Sniegocki said. "I wouldn't be surprised to see 100 drivers within a year."

Cape Girardeau has a "great and growing dining scene," Sniegocki said, but many restaurants don't offer delivery.

"It's a real win-win because we bring them incremental sales they wouldn't have otherwise had," Sniegocki said.

Customers often decide they want delivery, then check to see what's available, she said, so if a restaurant is not on that list, "they're missing out on that business. This is a nice opportunity for them. It brings exposure to sometimes new customers, as well as allowing loyal customers to access them this way."

Delivery will be available in a seven-mile radius of each restaurant, and delivery fees start at $2.99.

Bite Squad was founded in 2012 in Minneapolis, and is in more than 300 cities across the country, according to a news release.

An existing on-demand service, carGO, expanded into food delivery in 2017, according to previous reporting. CarGO was launched in Cape Girardeau as a tech start-up ride-sharing service in 2016, and now offers a courier service in addition to food delivery and ride-sharing services.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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