Food delivery service in works for Washington

WASHINGTON — Washington resident Lane Wyrick hopes to kick off Snap Delivered services in Washington by Sept. 19. The app advertises itself as a lower-cost, less corporate alternative to platforms like Uber Eats and DoorDash.

Wyrick said food delivery options were lacking in Washington.

“The big apps don’t come to towns our size,” he said. “I want Washington, Iowa to be a template for what’s possible in small towns.”

Snap Delivered distinguishes itself from other restaurant delivery apps by charging a flat rate, rather than a percentage of an order’s cost. Every order charges the user a $5 delivery fee (waived for those paying a membership fee,) a minimum $3.50 fuel fee, a mandatory 10% tip to the driver, and a $2 charge to the restaurant itself, according to Wyrick.

For Wyrick, a world-traveling medical videographer, the project is side gig. While he’s not technically an employee of the company, (his official title is “independent business owner”) the business is designed for involvement by independent entrepreneurs who earn a small percentage from orders involving people, drivers or restaurants they refer.

“I’m managing the deployment of Snap Delivered here, I’m not hired by them, I’m just providing the opportunity,” he said. “Anyone could have done it, but … I just happened to be there on the ground floor, noticing the opportunity.”

Much of the work, therefore, is done by Wyrick, with limited support from the company itself. While the app is theoretically self-sustaining once it’s off the ground, the challenge is getting it there.

Wyrick is building the plane as he flies it. The preparation process has involved working with restaurants on logistical hurdles like ways to print orders, verify menus and keep the food warm. While he recently recruited a handful of interested delivery drivers, Wyrick is writing their orientation material himself.

"A lot of this is, I wake up, I think, ‘OK, here’s the things I need to do to make this work,’“ he said. ”It’s kind of like the Wild West right now, it’s open to anyone, someone in a different town is coming up with different things. They want us to do our best, but there’s not a lot of concrete instruction.“

The company uses a multilevel marketing (MLM) model. The controversial business tactic involves a sales force that makes commissions for their own sales, as well as those of people they refer. Another hallmark of the model is affiliates who personally plug the product, often on social media, rather than spending corporate funds on advertising and recruitment.

While the practice is legal, it has been likened to pyramid schemes, which make money exclusively from referrals and not from product sales.

Snap Delivered was one of over 1,100 businesses sent a Notice of Penalty Offenses for Money-Making Opportunities by the FTC last year. While the agency said that notice “does not in any way suggest that it has engaged in deceptive or unfair conduct,” it serves as a warning of plans to pursue civil action against the company if evidence does come to light.

Snap Delivered CEO Paul Mikel said the company sought to avoid the ethical issues often associated with an MLM structure.

“We use the structure, absolutely, because it’s one of the best ways to get the word out,” he said. “But that’s where it ends. Nobody has to buy anything. Nobody gets paid in our business unless someone does an order.”

Mikel said the food delivery service didn’t require affiliates to pay to get involved, a defining element of many MLMs that have turned out to be scams. Affiliate ranks are based instead on commissions of referrals, not directly on referral counts alone.

“The only way you move up in the company is through production,” he said. “If I recruit a bunch of people, and nobody ever orders anything, it really doesn’t matter … we don’t own the product, that’s the bottom line.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com