PC hoops legend Hanson takes shot on new ‘Middleman’ delivery service – Commonwealth Journal’s History
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With the NCAA Men’s Final Four starting this weekend, it’s not hard to think of basketball icons from the past, and around Pulaski County, perhaps none stand taller than Reggie Hanson.
But while Hanson’s greatest exploits to date might be on the court, he’s also got a mind for business — and is working to launch a service that will give restaurants a big assist in the food delivery game.
Hanson, a former basketball star at Pulaski County High School and the University of Kentucky, has created Mid-Serv, a business that capitalizes on ever-growing interest in having a third party deliver food to customers, but seeks to fix what Hanson sees as a significant problem in the industry.
“I’m an entrepreneur, so I’m always looking at different ways to try to create different types of businesses,” said Hanson. “I’ve talked to different people in the food delivery industry, and I started doing some research on it, and saw that there is a niche there. The delivery business is going to be growing (by) billions and billions of dollars in the next eight to 10 years. It’s not going anywhere.
“The big delivery companies … charge these restaurants up to like 30 percent per order they deliver for them,” he continued. “That’s a big chunk out of a restaurant’s profit margin. And so it hurts local restaurants more than it does chain restaurants … The local restaurants in these communities, it hurts their profits and their bottom line more, but a lot of them don’t realize there are options, and I’m one of those options that charges a lower commission so they can make money and not (struggle) to get by.”
In recent years, Hanson has been working as a life coach, particular with younger people, living in the Tampa, Fla., area, but locals will remember him from leading the Maroons to the 1986 Kentucky state high school basketball championship. He went on to play for the University of Kentucky Wildcats, the Boston Celtics, and professionally in Japan, and returned to Kentucky in 2000 as an assistant coach under Tubby Smith, later coaching under Stan Heath at South Florida.
But in a way, Hanson is returning to the spirit of his days as the big man in the middle for his basketball squads, becoming a “middleman” between restaurants and delivery customers with his new business — hence the “Mid” in the name Mid-Serv, short for “Middleman Delivery Service.”
“(Restaurants) use three or four different (services) because you’ve gotta have a delivery service in this day and age,” he said. “My thing is to come on as an additional delivery partner with lower commissions to allow them to really make a profit and not just come out even or in the negative.”
As for Mid-Serv’s commissions, Hanson said that it differs based on the restaurant — “but I’ll tell you this, it’s below 20 percent,” he noted. “… That’s for sure.”
Hanson said the business is built to operate anywhere in the country, with a focus on local restaurants in a given community.
Another difference between Mid-Serv and other delivery companies, said Hanson, is that the latter “control the entire customer experience.” When a customer makes an order, it goes through the company to the restaurant, he said; “If there’s any type of issues, the restaurant is out of the loop. The customer calls (the delivery company) and if the customer has a problem, (the delivery service) will refund the money to the customer and this restaurant has no control over it. So now they’re out of the money (that was refunded) and they’re out of the money form the labor that they had to pay to make the food.”
Alternatively, Mid-Serv works to directly connect the customer and the restaurant, said Hanson.
“I’m a true middleman,” said Hanson. “I’m serving in the middle, I’m serving both sides, but they are the ones that are connecting. For instance, on my platform, when a customer makes their order to a restaurant and after they pay for their order, a call button will come up where they can call the restaurant directly if they want to tell them anything about their order.
“On the restaurant side, when a restaurant receives a couple of orders, the customer’s contact information will come up, the customer’s previous orders will come up … so now the restaurant sees all the orders that they’ve had, so now they have a great idea of how this customer wants their order and if they have a question, they can just contact the customer themselves to make sure everything’s okay,” he added. “At the end of the day, if the customer wants a refund, they contact the restaurant, and then the restaurant makes that decision on whether they want to give a refund or not.”
Hanson said that he was inspired to create the business after talking to individuals at different restaurants and listening to the issues that they were having with the delivery process.
“That’s when I had the ‘a-ha’ moment,” he said. “… (Restaurants) don’t feel like there are options out there, so that’s why I created this, so they have an option.”
Hanson said he created the company last April, which was followed by building the app for it and taking care of legal considerations. He was able to actually get underway in December, currently active in Palm Harbor around Tampa. But he’s in the process of expanding and signing on restaurants — and is interested in those located in Somerset and Pulaski County to take part also.
“I’ve got people that I’ve contacted in different cities throughout the country to help me to build,” said Hanson. “The way I look at it, (Somerset) is my hometown, obviously. I know that place has really grown, and there are a lot of local restaurants that are just in Somerset now. So I want to be able to obviously help my hometown (and) help those restaurants be able to thrive and make some money.”
Mid-Serv doesn’t have to focus entirely on food either. Hanson said that anyone that sells a retail product can do so on his platform, or a service that they sell.
“I call it a ‘one-stop shop,’” said Hanson. “Let’s say you get all the restaurants, the local retail stores … all on my platform, right there in Somerset, now your consumers just have to go to one place. They can order their dinner, make a reservation to get their nails done, buy their kids’ clothes. They can do everything in one place.”
Businesses interested in signing up with Mid-Serv can do so at www.middlemandeliveryservice.com/merchant-registration. You can also visit “Middleman Delivery Service” on Facebook, mid_serv_ds on Instagram, or mid-serv on TikTok, or the home address at middlemandeliveryservice.com. Interested parties may also call 727-899-7242 or email ow***@**********************ce.com.
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