Another blow to the Yellow Pages

SkipTheDishes.ca presents a new phone call-free way to order food

Josh Simair (from left), Joël Cyr and Justin Brown of SkipTheDishes.ca stand with Element’s chef Aron Epp. Cam Skrypnyk

Food delivery and take-out is just a couple clicks away at SkipTheDishes.ca.

The website, which currently services Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Red Deer and soon, Regina, eliminates the awkward phone call and subsequent waiting on hold.

Just type in your postal code and you’ll find a list of restaurants in your area, complete with prices, delivery times and fees and, of course, full menus. Input your order online and Skip the Dishes sends you a confirmation email with an estimated time for delivery or pickup.

“It makes it easier for people to find restaurants and order from them,” says Joshua Simair, 25, founder of Skip the Dishes.

“For the restaurant to take an order, it takes about 15 seconds. It comes right to them on a tablet device that we’ve programmed. They just click accept and provide the wait time. What takes a couple minutes on the phone is down to 15 seconds.

“Currently, we’re doing thousands of hits a day, which for a prairie IT company is really significant.”

Since launching in Saskatoon in early September, Skip the Dishes has signed over 100 restaurants on to its service - over 40 of those in Winnipeg - and those numbers are increasing daily.

Beyond its easy-to-use, mobile device compatible website, Skip the Dishes’ popularity can be attributed to the fact that it charges neither the restaurant nor the customer for its service, taking only a small commission based on order volume.

In other words, it’s win-win-win.

“In addition to this free professional online marketing, it’s really levelling the playing field between the local guys and the Boston Pizzas and Dominos of the world,” Simair says. 

Speaking of playing field, much of Skip the Dishes’ staff, which also includes Simair’s brothers Chris and Dan, is made up of former Saskatchewan Huskies and Manitoba Bisons track and field team members.

“We all knew each other from competing at track meets and we know how hard athletes work because we see their results on the track,” says Simair, a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan.

“That hard work ethic is completely transferable to Skip the Dishes. It’s that understanding that a job needs to be done professionally.”
Elements, located in the University of Winnipeg’s Richardson College for the Environment and Science Complex, signed up with Skip the Dishes shortly after its Winnipeg launch in December.

Ben Kramer, executive chef at Diversity Food Services Inc., which includes Elements, says even though the restaurant hasn’t yet seen a ton of orders through Skip the Dishes, he sees the potential.

“There have been other similar services in the past, which I’ve dabbled in, but Skip the Dishes is the first one I’ve seen that is actually cohesive,” Kramer says.

“It’s super user friendly, that’s the main thing. Similar services I’ve used in the past were so cumbersome, and in addition to not being functional, they took a big chunk of money. Not only is this the easiest service to work with, it’s the most fair to the consumer and restaurateur.”

Published in Volume 67, Number 17 of The Uniter (January 23, 2013)

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