How will Tariffs affect Restaurants? - with Guest Host Deborah Matteliano from AWS

This week, Carl is joined by Deborah Matteliano, the Global Head of Restaurants at AWS, for a wide-ranging conversation that covers everything from tariffs and avocados to AI strategy, Seamless’s surprising comeback, and the limits of restaurant robotics. Drawing from her experience at Uber Eats and now at Amazon, Deborah offers sharp insights on how data, delivery, and design are reshaping the restaurant landscape.

Topics include:

• 1m 15: How Chipotle’s avocado strategy is shielding it from tariff turbulence
• 9m: Why Grubhub's Revival of Seamless Could Be Wonder's Secret Weapon
• 16m 55: The real reason Kernel scrapped its robots
• 22m 20: The DoorDash + Domino’s partnership.
• 30m: Boston's permit requirements on the delivery companies.

If you're serious about restaurant tech and the off-premise channel, this one’s a must-listen.

Transcript

TDR 4-14-25

​[00:00:00] [00:00:05] 

Carl: Happy Monday. We are [00:00:10] back at the digital restaurants and I am very excited this week. I have to [00:00:15] say, I've been looking forward to this episode for a while because I'm joined by Deborah here. If you don't know [00:00:20] Deborah, she is the global head of restaurants for AWS. That's right. I've got a big hitter with me today, [00:00:25] so I'm gonna have to be on my best behavior.

I really, Deborah, thrilled to be able to spend some time with you. I know [00:00:30] you're at the epicenter of everything going on in our industry. I know you spent a lot of time with [00:00:35] executives at QSRs and the marketplaces, and probably a lot of the large technology brands as well. [00:00:40] But of course before your days at AWS, you are over at Uber Eats, helping them [00:00:45] develop themselves and their technologies globally.

So thrilled to have you here. I'm excited to [00:00:50] learn more about specifically what you're doing at a WSA little later. But my goodness, have we had a [00:00:55] busy week in the news. What do you think of what's been going on? It's been nuts, huh? 

Deborah: Everything from [00:01:00] avocados to wonder and seamless and coffee and regulations [00:01:05] in Boston.

So we are probably going to cover the full gamut today. And I think [00:01:10] let's buckle up. 

The impact of tariffs on restaurants - how to consider the situation

Carl: You've mentioned one of my favorite foods. Let's get into it. The first question, [00:01:15] tariffs, avocados, and the restaurant procurement world. Wow. What on earth are we [00:01:20] gonna talk about here? Tell us. 

Deborah: Well, avocados are taking center stage [00:01:25] right now.

Avocados are getting their moment between avocado toast and the [00:01:30] 2010s, and now this resurgence in the news. Avocados are famous again, and the [00:01:35] reason avocados are taking center stage is because they're central to Chipotle. [00:01:40] And there's this focus on how Chipotle has diversified its supply [00:01:45] chain going into these tariffs that were announced.

So we're seeing that Chipotle has been [00:01:50] able to ease some of the pressures that other large restaurant brands are facing because they've been able [00:01:55] to focus on domesticating some of their avocado supply. In fact, they [00:02:00] take about 90% of California's avocados. And here's what's interesting about [00:02:05] avocados.

Did you know that in the 1970s people ate less than one pound of [00:02:10] avocado per year? 

Carl: No, I did not. Wow. 

Deborah: How many do you think it is this year? [00:02:15] 

Carl: If it's like me, it's probably 20 x. That number 

Deborah: average in [00:02:20] US is nine. 

Carl: Wow. 

Deborah: So we've got an avocado [00:02:25] addiction, and this coverage from the Wall Street Journal outlines how Chipotle [00:02:30] has developed an avocado advantage.

As a result of that, they could be [00:02:35] in a very precarious point when you have these tariffs being announced, especially on Mexico [00:02:40] where. Avocados tend, tend to be the highest demand and best tasting. [00:02:45] Unfortunately, a lot of the foods that Americans like are not grown in America. Mm-hmm. We tend to [00:02:50] like foods like coffee and avocados that are grown in, dry [00:02:55] tropical environments that, that we simply don't possess.

So we've got Americans addicted to [00:03:00] these types of foods. And we have brands like Chipotle thinking ahead on how to diversify [00:03:05] supply chain so that they can es essentially lower their risk in this type of [00:03:10] environment. But you've got winners and losers on the tariffs so far. Even though there's a [00:03:15] pause, there's still so much uncertainty here.

So while Chipotle has come out as, maybe an, good [00:03:20] strategy to begin, we still don't know what's going to happen and we've got other brands like [00:03:25] Domino's and like Starbucks that you know, have a lot of potential pluses and [00:03:30] minuses to what's going to come next. 

Carl: It's interesting your looking at this in terms of the food supply [00:03:35] chain. What came to my mind immediately was steel, right? Or the [00:03:40] equipment that you need to have within restaurants, and to what degree is that manufactured [00:03:45] outside the US and the way in which even the raw materials are perhaps, produced outside of the US [00:03:50] as well.

And what effect that's gonna have. I mean, are our restaurants going to be more expensive to build as [00:03:55] a result of this?  

 If the supply chain is more attributed to the US, then maybe [00:04:00] we can actually build our restaurants a little faster, right?  

Deborah: I was curious, Carl, what you might think about [00:04:05] purchasing power. Obviously tariffs are affecting our restaurant brands but what do they do to the consumer's [00:04:10] wallet? We know that last year consumers pretty much had it on price increases for [00:04:15] restaurants. The summer had the most record number of promotions ever in summer [00:04:20] 2024.

So the value yield doesn't work. We don't know, but we know consumers are not willing to [00:04:25] tolerate anything other than, value in general in the equation. So what do you think that's [00:04:30] gonna do? 

Carl: The first piece that comes to mind is what does it mean for the [00:04:35] entire restaurant itself?

I think for the digital side, convenience still is king. We've seen that [00:04:40] all the way through the inflationary pressures over these last few years, that actually it's still held up pretty [00:04:45] well. And actually from the marketplace perspective, like you say, a lot more marketing, a lot more promotions. And so those [00:04:50] platforms have done pretty well as a result of the advertising revenues going through them.

But for the [00:04:55] restaurant themselves. Especially the smaller guy that perhaps doesn't have a huge digital [00:05:00] footprint. You've gotta wonder about whether those inflationary pressures are going to reduce trip count. And I think [00:05:05] that's where it comes back to, again, the themes around digital and how strong do you [00:05:10] have an understanding of who your consumer is?

 The smaller entities out there, I'm sure your favorite [00:05:15] restaurant's an independent mine certainly is. And when you think about what it is about that experience that [00:05:20] really works, it's because they know you. They know you well and they treat you like you are a member of the [00:05:25] family typically, right?

And so therefore, if we've got a better understanding of the digital [00:05:30] footprint of our customers, and we can know each of their names, each of their preferences, and start building our [00:05:35] technology in a way that can service them across all channels, not just through delivery channels, [00:05:40] then that can create a better experience.

And that better experience could hopefully give you a competitive edge against [00:05:45] those that cannot, because for sure inflation is probably gonna affect the industry at large when it comes to [00:05:50] trip visits. 

Deborah: I love what you said there and what you're really talking about is the [00:05:55] mid-market restaurant and even the mid-market consumer.

But when we talk about third party delivery, [00:06:00] what's going to happen to demand? To your point, it was pretty sturdy even after the [00:06:05] pandemic up. 95% since 2019 when folks thought it would go down in 2022 [00:06:10] after life returned to normal, whatever that means at this point. Yet, I [00:06:15] have to wonder, because if there's going to be some softness in [00:06:20] mid-market spenders or for mid-market restaurants, does that mean that the dash passes or the [00:06:25] Uber one spenders of the world continue to drive that spending? [00:06:30] 

Seamless returns 

Deborah: So we've got GrubHub reviving, seamless. Unexpected. [00:06:35] Tell us what happened. Tell us what you think it means. 

Carl: Yeah. Well they're bringing back Seamless, but [00:06:40] only in your neck of the woods in New York City. Right. And it's a may maybe for some, it's a move that [00:06:45] felt surprising at first, especially when you consider that just eat takeaway GrubHub's parent company before [00:06:50] Wonder retired the seamless brand less than a year ago.

But you know, here we are, the relaunch is [00:06:55] happening and it's not just a name swap, it's a reawakening of a brand with deep roots in New [00:07:00] York. Right. The Seamless brand was founded all the way back in 1999. So [00:07:05] for anyone who's lived or worked in the city in the early two thousands, it was the way to get food [00:07:10] delivered, whether it was a salad at your desk in Midtown or something greasy or glorious of a after a night out.[00:07:15] 

And so when it merged with GrubHub in 2013, it kept its own brand. But [00:07:20] then as I mentioned in 23, just takeaway, made the call to fold it seamlessly into the GrubHub [00:07:25] ecosystem. And so now you've got GrubHub reviving Seamless, specifically for New York with [00:07:30] a bold yellow and black identity subway style design elements.

There's cheeky New York City [00:07:35] specific marketing, but it's under the hood. It's still GrubHub, so the same tech, the same driver network, the [00:07:40] same restaurant options, and it's essentially a front end brand layer, customized for a [00:07:45] hyper-local audience. This bucks the trend from what we've seen when it [00:07:50] comes to DoorDash, for instance, when it acquired Caviar in 2019, which is a brand known for its [00:07:55] premium upscale restaurant partners.

And over time, caviar's been slowly absorbed into [00:08:00] the DoorDash is broader platform. The app of course, still I think exists, but it's a shadow of what it once [00:08:05] was, and it's now more of a category inside of DoorDash than a brand with a standalone energy. [00:08:10] Same thing with Uber and Postmates, right after it was acquired in 2020, Uber, shut down the [00:08:15] Postmates driver operation and merge its infrastructure into Uber Eats.

And the Postmates [00:08:20] brand hung around briefly, but the focus shifted, I think, to consolidation again with the idea of [00:08:25] one app and one experience. So GrubHub's move was seamless flips that [00:08:30] logic on its head, instead of simplifying, they're actually re differentiating instead of [00:08:35] centralizing their localizing.

And that's where the story, I think, gets even more strategic. And I'm curious for your take in this, [00:08:40] because I don't think this is grub up acting on its own because of a company you mentioned [00:08:45] in your answer to the first question, of course. Wonder. I seem to mention Wonder every show right now, [00:08:50] but I don't think we can ignore their role in this too, because for those that haven't been [00:08:55] following the story, wonder is the high concept, high ambition food tech venture.

Founded by Mark Law, [00:09:00] the former eCommerce chief at Walmart that sold jet.com for $3 [00:09:05] billion and wonder started with a fleet of roving food trucks delivering [00:09:10] freshly. Curated meals to suburban driveways. It's since evolved into Ghost [00:09:15] Kitchens, delivery, first concepts, and this kind of brick and mortar hybrid, and he wants it to become known [00:09:20] as the Amazon of food.

I dunno whether you guys over Amazon think that's what you want it to be, but hey, that's his [00:09:25] big vision. Control of the ordering, the cooking, the delivery, the brand relationship, all in this one [00:09:30] closed loop ecosystem. But to do that, you need reach, you need logistics and most of [00:09:35] all, you need a customer facing channel that already has trust.

And that's where the GrubHub thing comes [00:09:40] in. That's why they probably acquired GrubHub because it gives them access to this national delivery network in millions of [00:09:45] users. But the weird thing about all of this is that wonder is still relatively [00:09:50] small in terms of brick and mortar locations, right? So reviving seamless [00:09:55] could be the key to unlocking that strategy, at least in New York because they've been talking about the [00:10:00] Northeast is gonna be the area where they see wonder grow in its footprint.

So [00:10:05] seamless, I think is more than just a nostalgia play. It's a, it's almost like a wedge. It's a trusted local brand that gives [00:10:10] wonder, a storefront to introduce new experiences, branded virtual restaurants, exclusive menus, [00:10:15] even pre-prepared meals as we've talked about in the past, or groceries delivered through this kind of micro kitchen [00:10:20] network.

And it may become. This kind of gateway for wonder to experiment with [00:10:25] premium delivery, ghost kitchen aggregation, maybe even loyalty programs tied to wonder's, broader food [00:10:30] ecosystem. And I think that's a smart move if that's really what's behind it. So, I don't know this, for [00:10:35] me, this isn't about reviving a logo or tapping into old loyalty.

It is, it's about building a new [00:10:40] kind of delivery ecosystem where Seamless is the skin, GrubHub is the engine. [00:10:45] And wonder is the ambition driving the whole thing forward. But you are the New Yorker, you tell me. What do you think? [00:10:50] 

Deborah: Well, that, that's beautifully put. And one thing that stood out is your mention of trust.

[00:10:55] Trust is important in New York and virtual brands. Historically, I. [00:11:00] Don't always develop trusted and durable relationships with [00:11:05] time. We've seen many start and fail, and we've seen quality be an issue at [00:11:10] scale with virtual brands. Yet, if you can connect your virtual brand to something that's [00:11:15] so trusted, does it help, build that up?

Do we say, okay, [00:11:20] seamless is so trusted that maybe. You are now willing to experiment on a brand you've never [00:11:25] seen before on the seamless storefront. That's a wonder brand. So I think maybe there's that [00:11:30] mix too, of regaining some trust in an environment where there's going to be questions and trust might be [00:11:35] precarious.

And I actually worked with a couple members of the Wonder Team back at Uber Eats to [00:11:40] launch our virtual restaurants practice. And consumer trust for virtual restaurants has [00:11:45] always been tricky. So what wonder's doing to diversify where the [00:11:50] consumers can come into. App and experience the wonder ecosystem and then meet the [00:11:55] consumer where they are.

Right? Which is the first step in building trust. So I, I'm loving I'm loving [00:12:00] this. I'm curious to see how it plays out.   

Doordash and Domino's Partner up

Carl: All right. Let's go on [00:12:05] the another big partnership. It seems like it's the year of partnerships on the latest one, DoorDash and [00:12:10] Dominoes. What are the great partnership look like here?

Deborah: DoorDash and Dominoes is a [00:12:15] huge partnership. And what's interesting here is that they are still gonna be [00:12:20] using Uber Eats, but they're no longer gonna be ex exclusive. And so for Dominoes and [00:12:25] for DoorDash, this is a good thing. This allows Dominoes drivers more avenues because they're still gonna [00:12:30] be.

Used even in this partnership scenario. And I think what's interesting [00:12:35] too is that Domino's has described Uber Eats as it's billion [00:12:40] dollar opportunity. And so what does it mean now that they have potentially another billion [00:12:45] dollar opportunity? Oh, 

Carl: as you didn't do the 2 billion. 

Deborah: [00:12:50] Exactly. So, I imagine there's some dollar signs there for dominoes, but we also know historically [00:12:55] that they've been cautious.

About investing in third party delivery. And back when I was at Uber [00:13:00] Eats, that was a pipe dream to get a brand like Domino's to join the platform. They've been [00:13:05] probably the latest adopter of any large QSR on earth to third party [00:13:10] delivery. But the beauty is that, and we talk about tariffs. When you're in an uncertain environment, [00:13:15] how do you control what you can control?

What you can control is that they've got a wonderful [00:13:20] fleet of drivers. Their quality and delivery tends to be incredible. So why not [00:13:25] add another channel when you're in that uncertain environment? I would say given their track [00:13:30] record, it would be a smart decision. What do you think? Any other insights?

Carl: The big thing for me is [00:13:35] what does it mean for their first party? Because their first party app is really cool. It's obviously they came up with the [00:13:40] all the tracker and everything like that, but what does it also mean for data, right?

If you are [00:13:45] having more of your data accessible and the customers are technically a DoorDash, one Uber Eats [00:13:50] customer, what does that mean for Domino's in terms of understanding who their customer is? . Knowing your customers [00:13:55] by different segments, how much of this might dilute

domino's own ability to [00:14:00] understand their customer well and perhaps because it is such a big brand, maybe there's come to some kind of [00:14:05] agreement there. But that I think is gonna be the big one, is that they wanna maintain such a huge [00:14:10] dominance of their first party traffic. You want to continue, as I've always said, use third parties is a great [00:14:15] way for you to be able to remind people of your brand, but you've gotta still have that platform to try and bring them [00:14:20] across and give them the right incentives to buy through the first party channels as well.

And that is [00:14:25] true for the dominoes of this world and the small mom and pubs.   

The end of robots for Kernel

Deborah: [00:14:30] Let's move to robots. I think that's the only thing we haven't talked through yet. [00:14:35] As we talk through tariffs, one of the things that can come up when folks are talking tariffs is. [00:14:40] Well, if there's gonna be more pressure on cost of goods sold and margins, will we see [00:14:45] operators move more towards automation?

And the surprising piece about this news with [00:14:50] Colonel rebranding and turning the robots off is that they're doing exactly that. [00:14:55] So, Carl, what's your take on why that might have been the strategy? 

Carl: Yeah, Steve ELs, of [00:15:00] course, known for being the founder of Chipotle is pivoting again, right? His venture kernel, which had [00:15:05] positioned itself as a robotic plant-based food startup is scrapping its original plan.

[00:15:10] The robots are out, as you said, the automation's on hold, and now the company has rebranded itself under a new [00:15:15] name as well. And so let's let's talk about what's happening here because it's a fascinating case [00:15:20] study in ambition. Tech constraints and the very real challenges of reinventing fast food [00:15:25] from the ground up.

'cause when L'S launch Kernel, it was built as this visionary [00:15:30] concept, an automated restaurant with a 3D printed kitchen, minimal human labor and [00:15:35] menu centered around plant-based vegetable forward items. You know, the whole idea, Deborah, was to [00:15:40] rethink fast food using robotics to deliver high quality meals efficiently and at [00:15:45] scale.

In fact, I think El said his mission was to create a restaurant that could be twice as good at [00:15:50] half the price. Now that's a big promise, right? Especially in a market where labor and ingredient [00:15:55] costs are cons, constantly rising. And so where most automation solutions are still in [00:16:00] their infancy, I think this was something that everyone thought, wow, we're gonna keep an eye on this.[00:16:05] 

And the first location, open quietly again, everywhere you are in Manhattan, LA last fall, [00:16:10] and it was a single unit prototype. And the plan was to start small and then scale [00:16:15] quickly. But I think according to this latest update that the fully automated kitchen never [00:16:20] really quite came to life. And so the food was prepared by humans.

And I think [00:16:25] now what he's saying is we're gonna abandon all the robotics components altogether. And it [00:16:30] really sounds like the tech wasn't ready, or at least not ready to meet the brand's culinary and [00:16:35] operational expectations. And that's something we're seeing a lot right now. I think in the restaurant tech [00:16:40] space, right?

Ambitious AI this or robotics driven that running headfirst into [00:16:45] the limitations of what's actually feasible in a real kitchen environment. It's kind of like [00:16:50] the technologist trying to design the future of the restaurant industry, having never sit, sat foot in a [00:16:55] kitchen, but of course. ELs has. And so he saw this and so clearly I think he, to [00:17:00] his credit, has seen seemingly has seen and recognized the risk of just staying the course with a model that just [00:17:05] wasn't working well.

And rather than doubling down on the robotics, he's pulling back, renaming [00:17:10] the company to swell and shifting the focus to scaling the food and the brand and not the tech. And [00:17:15] that's an important pivot. Because, you know, I'm a big tech enthusiast and I get caught up [00:17:20] in the hype of automation and robots flipping burgers, and AI is taking orders and ghost kitchens running [00:17:25] 24 7.

I take that every single day. But the truth is, most [00:17:30] restaurant success stories are still grounded in great food. Great tight operations [00:17:35] and a clear customer proposition. And I think that's exactly what he did with Chipotle in turning that into [00:17:40] a cultural force by, by doing those types of things.

And I think the swell he might be signaling the a [00:17:45] return to those fundamentals. And the challenge now for him, and I'll be curious for [00:17:50] your take on this and whether you've even visited the location, is differentiation. Without [00:17:55] that robotic angle, it's entering a kind of crowded field of better for you concepts.

Right? Think, [00:18:00] dig, think sweet green, think just salad or tender Green, right? They've already built traction and in many [00:18:05] cases they're also building tech enabled experiences with, without necessary robot run [00:18:10] kitchens. So. The upside is he, he is still an incredibly well respected name in the [00:18:15] industry.

If he can deliver a product that meets its original promise, with that delicious vegetable forward meals [00:18:20] at a reasonable price, it still might find its place, but it certainly feels a bit more like Chipotle [00:18:25] 2.0 than the s sci-fi future that we thought it would be. But I'm curious have you been to Kernel?

What [00:18:30] did you think and what do you think of his angle here? 

Deborah: I tried to go about a thousand times and it [00:18:35] was always about to open every time I went. So they, yeah, they've got that beautiful store [00:18:40] downtown. And you saw operations evolve the past couple of years too. There's been [00:18:45] talks of, hey, we're actually doing a little bit more human labor than we planned to.

So I guess it's not totally [00:18:50] surprising, but what you said about joining the ranks of other [00:18:55] better for you. I think is dead on E. Either the food has to taste better or [00:19:00] it's gotta be faster and more accurate. And if we can't do it faster with automation, maybe [00:19:05] we've gotta make it taste better and so much.

I think there was one piece of that article that talks about [00:19:10] seasoning. Having the staff members just have a bit more discretion on seasoning, and this is what I love about the [00:19:15] restaurant industry. The all of these strategic moves can come down to something as simple as [00:19:20] salt, that a robot isn't good at salt.

No one's [00:19:25] been able to develop that. You've got. Miso Robotics, which works really [00:19:30] well from an automated perspective with organizations like their biggest com customer white [00:19:35] Castle, where you're not doing that seasoning at every level of the make line to [00:19:40] ensure the final product is there. We find that the automatics are a lot better with some of the [00:19:45] rote tasks that don't involve that human judgment on seasoning.

And in fact, when [00:19:50] Miso Robotics went to build Chippy for Chipotle. Figure out how to [00:19:55] do the chip frying automatically. One of the reasons Chipotle didn't move forward with that pilot [00:20:00] was because they preferred how the chips tasted when they were seasoned by [00:20:05] humans.

Sometimes you get a chip that's a salt bomb, sometimes you get one that's gotten on it. [00:20:10] And that's actually the beauty of getting through your bag and having that dynamic experience. [00:20:15] Yeah, so that's really what struck me there is, where automation helps and [00:20:20] when in what context and where does that human touch, that's so critical that goes into taste and [00:20:25] differentiation, just not have a place for automation.

Carl: I [00:20:30] totally agree. I think this is the real fantasy when it comes to robotics in general, is that yes, for [00:20:35] sure they're gonna be able to help you when it comes to efficiency. Yes, there's an experiential part to it. When [00:20:40] I went to Sweet Green's Infinite Kitchen, I thought it was great, lots of fun, the experience [00:20:45] has to also be efficient. The consumer is still interested in [00:20:50] convenience they want great food, they want great convenience, and yes, the novelty will be interesting to them, [00:20:55] but if you still take a long time around that in the food environment, I don't know.

I think we're gonna [00:21:00] be running into problems when it comes to robotics in that regard, and I think that was probably what [00:21:05] ELs was starting to notice was that whatever robotic elements they had into the plan, if it couldn't [00:21:10] replicate the efficiency of a human made order. Probably wasn't the right fit.[00:21:15] 

What does recent permitting laws in Boston mean for the rest of the country? 

Carl: All right, well let's finish it up this week. Maybe not on the level of fun [00:21:20] and exoticness when it comes to robotics, but regulatory legislation, all those things, we try and [00:21:25] remind people about what's going on.

And in Boston some new permit requests might be [00:21:30] impacting delivery companies. And I guess the question for you here is what is happening in Boston [00:21:35] and what does that perhaps mean for elsewhere in the country? 

Deborah: Well, we could take this right back to [00:21:40] robotics, Carl, because will Boston end up taxing DoorDash robotics [00:21:45] once we have autonomous delivery?

So what are the extents of some of these laws? Might be questions we'll [00:21:50] ask in the the next five years, but as of now, this is only for human deliveries. [00:21:55] Boston has initially proposed. An extra tax and [00:22:00] fee on orders for the sake of safety measures being taken in a city like Boston, [00:22:05] which is very crowded and where deliveries can be very precarious at scale.

So an effort to [00:22:10] not end danger. Even companies like DoorDash. Want to be able to work with cities [00:22:15] like Boston to ensure they're, running operations in a way that's safe and effective. [00:22:20] Obviously, DoorDash lobbied against having that extra surcharge, and you can imagine [00:22:25] why they've done that many times historically, especially in California.

So [00:22:30] no, no idea yet on what these permits are going to cost. Will they be needed on a driver by driver basis?[00:22:35] 

Probably, and that's not going to be great for onboarding [00:22:40] new drivers in a delivery marketplace where you've got a lot of turnover. So you think of how [00:22:45] many new drivers you need to be hiring and onboarding, how quickly you want them to be able to get started after they [00:22:50] sign up. If there's now a permit process on top of that's likely going to strain [00:22:55] operations, yet, I would argue it's still probably better than a surcharge, which would directly [00:23:00] hit the p and l of the third party delivery marketplace equation. 

Carl: I've got a [00:23:05] question for you before we leave.

AWS for Restaurants

Carl: What does the global Head of Restaurants do for AWS I didn't, I didn't [00:23:10] think you guys had a restaurant. What, what's going on? 

Deborah: We no longer [00:23:15] operate in the the prepared foods away from home restaurant space, although we do have [00:23:20] Amazon Fresh it's pretty different.

This is AWS for restaurants. Think of me [00:23:25] as where AI applications, data and french fries. Meat [00:23:30] in the center. That is where I spend most of my time thinking about customer experience and [00:23:35] operational efficiency for restaurants. But how do we solve that with the data infrastructure that makes that [00:23:40] possible?

So when you look at, I think you and Bernadette talked the other week about Nvidia and Yum Brands. [00:23:45] I think you also talked about it last week too, the infrastructure behind [00:23:50] those AI use cases to deploy them and in a connected way. All [00:23:55] starts on AWS So we work with 90% of the world's top QSRs [00:24:00] and we're very proud of all the innovation we've been driving in restaurants and you're, you'll hear us.

Events in the weeks ahead

Deborah: Next week we'll [00:24:05] be at Restaurant Leadership Conference, actually speaking with Yum's VP of Tech at Taco [00:24:10] Bell to understand how they built Bite by Yum and how they used AWS. 

Carl: Nice with Vadim. [00:24:15] Awesome. And of course, if you are not tired of Deborah and I talking, you'll see us [00:24:20] together at food on Demand in early May, where we're gonna be talking about those very subjects as well.

So if [00:24:25] you haven't got your tickets for Food on Demand or RLC, go see it and you'll be able to meet Deborah there. Deborah one [00:24:30] last question. How do people get in touch if they want to learn more about AWS and how it can help their [00:24:35] restaurant? 

Deborah: You can contact me through LinkedIn. That's usually the easiest [00:24:40] way.

Most restaurants or restaurant tech providers have account managers and on-demand [00:24:45] support available through AWS, and I will gladly either work with you directly or find you the right [00:24:50] person. We are here a hundred percent to make the restaurant industry more customer centric. [00:24:55] Just like Amazon's doing this for the retail space, we're here to do it for restaurants.

So we [00:25:00] are around the clock looking to help restaurants succeed. 

Carl: Awesome. Well, I [00:25:05] also want to say a thank you to your colleagues from afar with regards to their help on amazon.com [00:25:10] with the sale of these two books behind me. I always appreciate what Amazon did to make it easier for me as an author and [00:25:15] Audible as well.

So if you haven't got a copy of the two books, feel free to go to amazon.com and you'll be able [00:25:20] to find those there. Deborah, lovely to speak to you. Really thrilled to be able to have you on the show. It's a [00:25:25] real treat. Really appreciate all your insights and thank you as always for listening into the show as well.

Really, [00:25:30] made me feel great to hear that you've been listening over these last few years to the show. 

Deborah: I mean, the, your book's on my [00:25:35] bookshelf, it's, it's table stakes reading for this industry. So if you haven't bought it I would also [00:25:40] second that call to action. 

Carl: Wonderful. Alright, well I'll see you in a few weeks and thanks again for today.[00:25:45] 

Deborah: Sounds good, Carl. Bye everyone.

The Digital Restaurant Podcast is available for [00:25:50] you to follow and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. Watch us, rate [00:25:55] us and subscribe to the digital restaurant on YouTube and follow along on all our social [00:26:00] media digital restaurant channels. Thanks for [00:26:05] listening.