Jobs Down Munchery Creek

Munchery Delivers Unappetizing Pink Slips to 30 Employees

Meal-delivery startup Munchery continues to make news for all the wrong reasons. The company, which has struggled both with with food waste and losses in the millions of dollars per month, recently announced that it would layoff 30 employees from its Mission District headquarters. The Chronicle reports that the company’s new CEO, James Beriker, refused to say which positions—driver, chef, or back office—had been cut but assured the paper that things are looking up. 

“We think there’s demand for our product across the whole U.S.,” Beriker told the paper. “We have no intention of making any further layoffs.”

As we previously reported, Munchery has long struggled with neighborhood relations—being called out by neighbors for idling trucks, blocking traffic, and dumping garbage on the street. What impact, if any, these layoffs will have on day-to-day company operations remains unclear.

Bloomberg was able to confirm that those let go will include members of the “company’s culinary team, research and development staff, photographers and business development employees.” What’s more, two of Munchery’s founders are set to depart this month—perhaps suggesting that Americans’ appetite for roasted half game hen isn’t as large as executives initially hoped. 

“As with all journeys, there have been highs and lows, but we went through it together,” one of the departing founders, Tri Tran, wrote in an email to employees. “Our hope is that we all became better for it. […] You either win or learn, never lose.”

Among the list of things learned? Not screaming at nearby residents and managing to properly dispose of food waste are hopefully near the top.

[Photo: Munchery’s Alabama Street location via tipster]

Comments (1)

After using Munchery once—Thai food was delivered nearly cold from ten blocks away—I decided against using it in the future. Mainly it was the harried expression of the elderly woman who delivered it.

The gig economy is surely a race to the bottom. If a restaurant’s website says it delivers, then I’ll go with it. Otherwise I’ll make the trek to eat in person. No more Munchery, Postmates, Task Rabbit, Uber Eats, etc. Let’s not enrich these parasitical corporations in the name of convenience.

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