{"id":43551,"date":"2021-11-27T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-food-delivery-business-hopes-to-survive-under-new-ownership\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:14:06","slug":"cortez-food-delivery-business-hopes-to-survive-under-new-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-food-delivery-business-hopes-to-survive-under-new-ownership\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez food delivery business hopes to survive under new ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Loungin\u2019 Lizard is one of the 11 businesses participating in Cortez Eatz.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Almost a year after its conception, new owners are hoping to revive Cortez Eatz, a local food delivery service that aims to slice the costs associated with national competitors like Door Dash, said owner Travis Turner.<\/p>\n

Turner and his wife, Molly, took over the company around July after it cycled through three previous owners.<\/p>\n

Molly has heard that a $15 meal can climb to $25 because of the fees associated with larger delivery brands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s terrible; that\u2019s not us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, the platform-to-consumer food delivery industry generated just over $70 million in revenue in 2020 \u2013 and that number is projected to keep increasing, according to data from Statista<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cortez\u2019s local installation of that industry is struggling to stay afloat, though.<\/p>\n

The Turners expanded the informal business, increasing its operating hours and days and adding Walmart grocery delivery to its services. Now, Montezuma County residents can order food for delivery Monday through Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Cortez Eatz is struggling to generate and retain customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of interest in the service, but nobody actually using it,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

In the last week, no orders have been placed, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest problem right now is most people probably think that Cortez Eatz is dead, and they don\u2019t know that we\u2019re trying to resurrect it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If the company doesn\u2019t see a turnaround by March or April, it will shut down, he said.<\/p>\n

To place an order, hungry residents can call a local eatery and mention that they want their food delivered with Cortez Eatz<\/a>. The customer pays for their food and delivery fee over the phone, and the restaurant calls Cortez Eatz with the customer information.<\/p>\n

A $5 delivery fee applies to any residence within a 5-mile radius of Cortez. For $8 to $10, Cortez Eatz will supply local cuisine to any address within 15 miles of Cortez, from the Dolores Food Market to the Ute Mountain Ute Casino. For grocery delivery, costs range from $10 to $20, and residents can complete online ordering on Walmart\u2019s website and provide Cortez Eatz with the order number and name.<\/p>\n

Cortez Eatz doesn\u2019t charge restaurants anything to be included on its delivery roster, Turner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCortez Eatz doesn\u2019t make a penny itself,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only person that makes anything is whoever delivers the meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tips aren\u2019t required, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of elderly and disabled who are stuck in their homes and can\u2019t get out and get a good meal. Or because they can\u2019t afford a tip, they go without ordering the meal they want,\u201d Turner said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re trying to be there for them \u2013 for everybody \u2013 without gouging wallets. COVID has completely destroyed our economy, and delivery services charging an arm and a leg, we don\u2019t feel is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participating business include Lotsa Pasta, Coldstone Creamery, Ocean Pearl, J. Fargo\u2019s, Blondie\u2019s Trophy Room, Loungin\u2019 Lizard, La Casita, Mi Mexico, The Wigglin\u2019 Pig, Gustavo\u2019s Mexican Restaurant, Mona Makes, Bourque\u2019s Cajun Country Store and Cow Camp Coffee.<\/p>\n

While these are the restaurants that keep printed Cortez Eatz tickets with space for customer name, address and phone number, Turner said he\u2019s willing to deliver food from others establishments, and Cortez Eatz would simply collect the delivery fee directly from the customer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not any restaurants that we refuse to work with. There\u2019s not any customers we refuse to work with. We\u2019re just trying to make something of a service that we feel is is needed and necessary here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The new owners have the community in mind, and are planning a way to donate delivery services for Christmas meals provided by a local church, Molly said.<\/p>\n

Customers are encouraged to call or text 970-797-3367 for more distant orders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

hoping to quell shortage in orders for year-old business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,28,167,29,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-headlines","tag-local-news-lead","tag-newsletter","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85749,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43551\/revisions\/85749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43551"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}