WASHINGTON — With many restaurants still relying on takeout and curbside pickup for orders, delivery apps around the District have been keeping busy. In an effort to support Black-owned businesses across the DMV, UberEats waived delivery fees for Black-owned restaurants starting May 30.
In the past two weeks, those restaurants have seen a surge in business, with more than a 105% increase in delivery sales, according to data released by Uber Friday.
The initiative is aimed at encouraging customers to focus on supporting Black-owned businesses, and Uber said it will continue waiving fees through the end of 2020.
According to Uber, The top Black-owned restaurants D.C. eaters are ordering delivery from include:
- Roaming Rooster
- Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant
- Habesha Market & Carry-Out
- Po Boy Jim
- Milk and Honey
“We are committed to using Uber Eats to promote black-owned restaurants while making it easier for customers to support them,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on Friday.
RELATED: Black-owned bookstores see surge in sales as people search for anti-racist reading materials
Beyond delivery for Black-owned restaurants around D.C., other Black-owned businesses, like bookstores, have seen a rise in sales in the last two weeks.
Hannah Oliver Depp owns Loyalty Bookstore in Petworth. Since mid-March, the business has been steady after physically closing and moving to online orders because of coronavirus. In the last two weeks, those sales at Loyalty Bookstores have tripled.
"Suddenly, the floodgates opened," Depp said. "A lot of books focusing on anti-racism were already hot sellers for us so at first, we didn't quite notice what was happening."
