OpenTable Update Expands To Grocery Store Lines And Retail

OpenTable generally works with restaurants to allow reservations for tables. Now, with the latest update to OpenTable, users will be able to reserve times to shop at their favorite retail or grocery store. Not all supermarkets or other stores are onboard right out the gate, but a few certainly seem to be ready to take up with the collaboration. This update to OpenTable will be available soon – if not immediately.

Users will find that this update to OpenTable MIGHT be able to get them through the grocery line a bit faster than they'd otherwise move. "As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we see an opportunity to help our restaurant partners pivot to takeout, delivery and storefront business models, so we put a team of engineers together and built this in less than a week," said Joseph Essas in a statement with USA Today.

Joseph Essas is OpenTable's chief technology officer since the year 2012. He's also a Venture Partner at FirstMark Capital, and previously worked with Yahoo!, eHarmony, Overture, Idealab, and Tickets.com over the past couple of decades.

Above you'll see a presentation done by Joseph Essas back in the year 2015. It's there that he speaks about mining diner talk. Use this as a guide in your decision to use OpenTable if you've never used the service before. This might not be an easy decision if you're worried about your digital privacy.

The latest update to OpenTable may be a sign of things to come. Reservation times for shopping and reservation times for checkout at retail and supermarket businesses haven't exactly been necessary in the past. With a global pandemic covering our planet earth, things must change. This is the way – or at least one of the ways. Take a peek at the timeline below for other very recent updates on novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and the like.