The Sault’s Steel City Delivery, formerly known as Flash Delivery, has been in business for 19 years.
“We deliver pharmaceuticals for pharmacies to their customers homes, we do grocery deliveries, deliver supplies to restaurants and deliver for the smaller pizza businesses, we deliver to hospitals, the Remand Centre, if a business has a luncheon we deliver the food,” Steel City owner Mike Rooney told SooToday, the company with 75 clients in total.
But, Rooney said, in recent months, larger restaurant chains with Sault locations have escalated their use of online delivery services such as Uber Eats and SkipThe Dishes.
“The big business chains like McDonald’s use their apps because they can afford it, but smaller local restaurants can’t, and the small ones that do are paying more to use these big companies and their apps to compete with the big chains,” Rooney said, he and wife Channa stating they and their clients are being ‘squeezed out.’
“The smaller business owners would have to pay more to use these big companies for delivery services. Not a lot of them are using them, but their hands might be forced some day to use them...and these big companies, like SkipThe Dishes, UberEats, Dine Or Dash, the money they make is going to leave the city.”
“I want to make it clear, I am not against technology (such as Uber’s ‘place an order’ app), I am not against them being here, but I’ve talked to a lot of restaurant owners who are telling me it’s costing them more. What I’m looking at is a healthy competition, to have the technology and the apps to do the same for local businesses like us and our clients so we can thrive too,” Rooney said.
Rooney said his business hasn’t suffered to any great extent (yet), adding he is looking into developing an app for Steel City Delivery to compete.
That said, Rooney told us he plans to approach city councillors to see if the city can provide some sort of help for local businesses such as Steel City Delivery and their clients, adding he has also had preliminary discussions with Sault MPP Ross Romano’s office regarding the matter.
“We’re looking for a grant for ourselves to do what we need to do, but regardless I’m going to go forward somehow, someway.”
“There are other local delivery companies, but we’ve been the main ‘local Uber Eats’ for 19 years,” Mike stated, the company employing a mix of 28 full-time and part-time delivery drivers.
All done in a low-profile manner, Channa added.
“The businesses know us, the customers know us, residents know us, but the city, meaning city council, doesn’t seem to realize or recognize what we do here, and now we have these big companies coming in,” Rooney said.
“I get a lot out of this business, personally, talking to our customers. It’s great. We are everywhere. We meet with some of our delivery clients every day. The people you meet, I go home every day a happy guy,” Rooney said, concerned big delivery company apps are elbowing him out of that local, personal touch to his business.