OrderUp Charlottesville, an online and mobile marketplace which allows individuals to order food from select local restaurants for delivery, expanded its pool of restaurants to include Bodo’s Bagels and Christian’s Pizza this past week. This expansion supplements OrderUp’s goal to offer service from a full range of restaurants enjoyed by both Charlottesville locals and students.
Though Bodo’s Bagels has agreed to work with OrderUp, the store has limited its delivery zone to a one mile radius until it can better gauge the number of orders made and test the logistics of delivery.
Bodo’s Bagels owner Scott Smith said that under this partnership, the Bodo’s on Emmett Street — the only location working with OrderUp at this time — will not change its overall model to accommodate delivery.
“[OrderUp is] not our service — they are an independent company [and] they operate in several cities already,” Smith said. “They [recently] approached us about making our menu more available.”
Smith said working at the typical level of efficiency of Bodo’s will remain crucial, and in-store orders will remain the priority — even though OrderUp’s goal is to deliver food to the customer within seven minutes.
As long as the new partnership does not interfere with the restaurant's in-store procedures, delivery availability is likely to expand, Smith said. The service currently runs from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
“For me, it’s about making the product available to the people we serve now, as long as we can do it without messing up what we do,” Smith said. “It’s important to know your limits.”
OrderUp is headquartered in Baltimore with 36 markets around the nation. Its Charlottesville website currently hosts 37 restaurants. Because each restaurant delivers to a limited area, the total number of restaurants offering delivery varies.
OrderUp Charlottesville Community Marketing Manager Leigh Gunnels said the company is growing rapidly, and expects significant expansion in coming years. Gunnels said this expansion would be measured, however, and that each market would be given thoughtful and personal attention.
“We’re [expanding] very intentionally, putting local teams in each markets,” Gunnels said. There are two OrderUp representatives currently working in Charlottesville, she said.
Gunnels said the company started at Penn State when the two co-founders were in college, and has since grown by targeting small cities and college towns.
“We target mid-sized cities and college towns because there is a lack of delivery options in those towns,” Gunnels said. “We target the towns that are limited to Chinese food and pizza. We want to bring better food.”
Christian’s Pizza declined to comment.
Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Leigh Gunnels' name as Leigh Gunnell.
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