Food delivery app plans January start (the daily Astorian)

Akshay Dua

The North Coast could soon have a dedicated food delivery service.

Candy Yiu, a software engineer at Intel, owns Near the Pier Guesthouse on Franklin Avenue and the Portland restaurant Malka with her husband, Akshay Dua. Over the summer, the couple started Slurpalicious, a free online and smartphone ordering platform for the North Coast, and has added several food carts.

Yiu and Dua recruited several drivers, including themselves, and plan to start deliveries in mid-January. Yiu said the service will initially cost restaurateurs up to $50 a month.

“Our model is we will only charge 10% to the restaurant for every order to go out,” Yiu said. “But once it hits $50, then we stop, so restaurants don’t have to pay more than $50” a month.

Malka can earn between $1,200 and $1,600 a week through DoorDash, Yiu said, but the delivery service takes up to 30% of the profits. Slurpalicious is part of the couple’s effort to help local restaurants afford deliveries, especially when the coronavirus pandemic has limited indoor dining.

The state Legislature capped third-party delivery fees at 15% and online ordering commissions at 5% during the pandemic. Portland capped delivery fees at 10%, although restaurateurs have reported some larger companies violating the ordinance.[Read More]