Local for Merchants

What Is Local?

Local is a food delivery platform owned by the restaurants and drivers that use it. It is structured as a cooperative, with no corporation taking a percentage of your revenue in perpetuity. Investors help fund the buildout of each territory, but their returns are capped and time-limited. Once repaid, that stops forever.

From the outside, it looks and works like any other delivery app. Customers browse restaurants, place orders, and track deliveries in real time. The difference is structural. Local's cooperative model means the total commission is under 10%, covering all operational costs, transaction fees, and network maintenance. There is nothing hidden and nothing on top.

You are not renting space on someone else's platform. You are a co-owner of the platform itself. You see the books, you vote on decisions, and you control your own pricing, menus, and customer relationships. If you ever leave, you take your data with you.

Local is live in Malta and expanding to other regions. Each new market gets its own independent cooperative, owned by local businesses. The technology is shared across the network, but ownership and governance stay local.

How Much Does It Cost?

The commission

Your total commission is 9.63%. That single figure covers everything: cooperative operational costs, transaction processing fees, and the network brand fee. There are no service fees, marketing levies, or hidden charges on top.

For comparison, the major delivery platforms typically charge between 25% and 40% when you add up their various fees. Many merchants discover the true cost is higher than the headline rate once service charges, marketing fees, and payment processing are factored in.

What is included

The 9.63% covers:

Cooperative operations. The staff, systems, and infrastructure that run the platform in your region.
Transaction processing. All payment gateway fees (Stripe) are absorbed within the commission. You are not billed separately.
Network brand fee. A flat fee of €1 per day per merchant goes to Generation One (G1), the brand guardian that maintains international network operations and development. This comes out of the commission, not on top of it.

VAT is excluded in applicable countries and must be claimed back by the merchant, as with any business expense.

Where the money goes

During the investment period, a small percentage of operating costs goes to the investors who funded the buildout of the network. Once that capital is repaid, that stops forever. After that, every cent of the commission stays within the cooperative structure. There is no ongoing dividend, no perpetual royalty, and no equity stake that grows in value.

The cooperative operates on a non-profit basis: it covers costs and reinvests any surplus into improving the platform for its members.

What this means in practice

On €40,000 of monthly revenue with 75% operating expenses:

	Traditional platform (28%)	Traditional platform (23%)	Local (9.63%)
Revenue	€40,000	€40,000	€40,000
Operating expenses	€30,000	€30,000	€30,000
Platform fee	€11,200	€9,200	€3,852
Profit	-€1,200	€800	€6,148

The difference is not marginal. It is the difference between losing money and running a profitable business.

Will it go up?

No. Because you own the cooperative, you control the fees. There is no board of directors who will raise commissions next quarter to hit a profit target. The 9.63% is a ceiling, and the stated goal is to bring it lower as the network grows.

You Own It

This is not a figure of speech. When you join Local, you become a co-owner of the cooperative that runs the platform in your region. You have the same standing as every other member: one vote, full transparency, and equal say in how things operate.

What cooperative ownership means in practice

You see the books. The cooperative's finances, operational costs, and fee structure are fully transparent to all members. There is no commercial confidentiality being used to obscure how much money is being taken or where it goes.

You vote on decisions. Major decisions about fees, operations, and governance go to the membership. No single party, including the founders, can unilaterally change the terms under which you operate.

You control the fees. The commission rate is set by the cooperative, not imposed by an outside company. If the membership decides it should be lower, it goes lower.

You can leave. If you choose to leave the cooperative, you take your data, your customer relationships, and your order history with you. There is no lock-in, no penalty, and no contractual trap.

Context: Koperattivi Malta is the national apex body for cooperatives in Malta, and a key partner in the deployment of Local on the island. They offer merchants practical support on every aspect of cooperative membership -- from understanding what a cooperative is and how governance works, to accounting, legal guidance, and training through the Cooperative College. If you are in Malta and want help navigating cooperative ownership, they are the place to start. Contact them at info@cooperatives-malta.coop, on 2148 4835, or visit their offices at Triq L-Imdina, Ħal Qormi QRM 9011 (open 07:30–15:30).

How this differs from other platforms

On a traditional delivery platform, you are a supplier. The platform sets the terms, changes them when it suits, and you have no recourse. Fee increases, algorithm changes, and policy shifts happen without your input and often without notice.

On Local, the platform cannot act against your interests because you are the platform. The cooperative exists solely to serve its members. Investors help fund the initial buildout, but their returns are capped and time-limited -- once repaid, no outside party takes a cut. There is no incentive to squeeze you for more revenue.

The brand and the cooperative are separate

The Local brand and technology are maintained by Generation One (G1), the brand guardian responsible for international network operations and development. G1 sets a small number of non-negotiable standards: do not harm customers, do not commit fraud, do not sabotage other cooperatives. Beyond those minimum standards, your cooperative is fully autonomous. G1 does not run deliveries, set prices, resolve disputes, or control operations.

If a cooperative violates the basic standards, the only consequence is losing the right to trade under the Local brand. The cooperative keeps its technology, data, and customer relationships. This means the brand has just enough authority to maintain trust, but not enough to become the kind of controlling entity it was designed to replace.

Your Customers, Your Data

On traditional platforms, the platform owns the customer relationship. You prepare the food, they own the data. You cannot see who ordered, you cannot contact them directly, and if you leave the platform, you leave your customers behind.

Local reverses this completely.

Full customer and sales data

As a co-owner of the cooperative, you have full access to your customer data, order history, and sales analytics. This is your data, generated by your business, and you have unrestricted access to it.

You can see who your customers are, what they order, how often they return, and how your business is performing over time. This is basic information that any business should have, and that traditional platforms deliberately withhold to maintain dependency.

Direct customer communication

You can communicate directly with your customers. There is no platform sitting between you and the people who buy your food. You can run your own promotions, build loyalty, and develop relationships without asking permission or paying for the privilege.

No lock-in

If you ever decide to leave Local, your data goes with you. Customer information, order history, sales records, financial data: all of it. There is no export fee, no restricted format, and no artificial barrier to leaving.

This is possible because Local has no incentive to trap you. The platform makes money from a small commission on orders. It does not make money by holding your data hostage or making it difficult to leave. A cooperative that merchants choose to stay in is stronger than one they are forced to remain in.

No data harvesting

Local does not collect merchant data for resale, profiling, or advertising. The cooperative stores order data solely to resolve operational issues, and strict rules govern how that data is handled. Customer information is linked to cryptographic keys rather than central profiles, and nothing is sold to a third party.

Aggregate market data (total sales in a region, number of active restaurants) is shared publicly for the benefit of all. Individual merchant performance is never disclosed.

On traditional platforms, your pricing is not entirely in your hands. Algorithms influence visibility, promotional tools come with conditions, and the platform can change the rules at any time. Some merchants find themselves pressured into discounts or promotions that erode their margins just to maintain their listing position.

Local gives you complete control.

You set your own prices

You decide what every item on your menu costs. There is no algorithmic adjustment, no suggested pricing, and no pressure to match or undercut other restaurants. Your prices are your prices.

Because Local's commission is under 10% (compared to 25-40% on traditional platforms), you can price your menu 20 to 30 per cent lower than on other apps and still make significantly more profit. Or you can keep prices the same and take the full margin improvement. The choice is yours.

You control promotions and discounts

If you want to run a special offer, you do it on your terms. There is no platform taking a cut of your promotion or requiring you to fund discounts that primarily benefit the platform's customer acquisition strategy. Every euro you spend on marketing goes directly to engaging your own customers.

Fair visibility

Listings on Local are based on relevance and availability. No restaurant can pay for preferential placement. There are no promoted listings, no bidding for position, and no algorithm that buries you because you did not opt into a paid programme.

This levels the playing field. A small independent restaurant has the same visibility as a large chain, based on what customers are actually looking for rather than who spent the most on advertising.

The Merchant Operator dashboard gives you full control over your menu: items, descriptions, images, categories, availability, and pricing. Changes are immediate. You do not need to submit requests or wait for approval from a platform team.

The Platform

Local provides a full suite of tools for running your delivery business. The software is yours: you own it as part of the cooperative, and you will eventually be able to customise it to suit your needs.

Merchant Operator

Merchant Operator is the web-based dashboard for managing your restaurant on Local. It covers:

Dashboard and analytics. An overview of your business performance, order volumes, revenue, and trends.
Menu management. Create and edit products, set prices, manage categories, upload images, and control availability.
Order processing. View incoming orders, track their status, and manage fulfilment.
Restaurant settings. Configure your business details, delivery radius, operating hours, and preferences.
Order tracking. Monitor live orders from placement through to delivery.
Historical data. Access past orders, changes, and revisions for your records.

Kitchen Operator

Kitchen Operator is a tablet-first web app designed for day-to-day kitchen operations. It is the interface your staff will use during service.

When an order comes in, it appears on the Kitchen Operator screen. From there, your team can accept the order, manage preparation, and coordinate with drivers. The interface syncs in real time with the delivery network, so couriers and customers are kept informed throughout.

The experience is familiar if you have used the kitchen-facing tools on other delivery platforms. The workflow is the same: orders appear, you prepare them, and they go out the door.

What you need

To get started, you need a tablet (approximately €150) for the Kitchen Operator interface. The Merchant Operator dashboard runs in any web browser on a desktop or laptop.

The technology underneath

Local is built on a decentralised architecture. Each restaurant ultimately runs its own part of the network through a small computer called a Fogbox: a Linux-based machine that handles your orders, data, and business logic locally rather than routing everything through a central server.

When you first join, your Fogbox is hosted on a shared server called an apartment. This is a managed environment run by the cooperative where multiple merchants share infrastructure. You can remain on the apartment for as long as you need. As your order volume grows, the cooperative will help you set up your own dedicated Fogbox on your premises, giving you full local control over your data and operations.

Whether you are on the apartment or running your own hardware, orders flow directly from the customer's phone to your Fogbox. There is no mega-server in the middle collecting, storing, and controlling the information. The cooperative's servers provide search indexes and coordination, but the core of your operation runs on your own instance.

The backend is written in C#, the frontend in React, and the mobile apps in React Native. Full API access is available, including MCP connectivity for AI integration. If you have technical capability or want to build on top of the platform, everything is open to you.

Delivery and Drivers

Local's delivery network is run through DSP cooperatives (Delivery Service Provider cooperatives), owned and governed by the drivers themselves. This is not a gig economy model with an algorithm assigning work and suppressing pay. Drivers are co-owners of their own cooperative, with a say in how it operates.

How orders get delivered

When a customer places an order, the system uses an intelligent algorithm to find a delivery price that balances cost and driver availability. The driver is assigned by the DSP cooperative, and real-time tracking keeps the customer, the restaurant, and the driver in sync.

From your side, the experience is straightforward. An order comes in on Kitchen Operator, you prepare it, and the driver picks it up. The driver app (Local Navigator) handles routing, status updates, and handoff confirmation.

How drivers are paid

Every order includes a fair driver contribution, which is a fixed fee visible to the customer at checkout. This goes directly towards driver pay. The DSP cooperative receives the delivery fee and pays drivers either directly or through Stripe, depending on the arrangement.

Drivers also pay a small cooperative fee (3.69% of the delivery fee) to their DSP cooperative, which covers the operational costs of running the delivery network. This includes a brand fee of approximately €0.50 per day per driver to Generation One.

Payment flow

The payment flow is designed to be transparent and auditable:

The customer pays the full order amount (food + delivery) via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or card.
The payment settles to Generation One's Stripe destination account.
G1 acts as a blind payment router, splitting the payment according to instructions from the merchant cooperative.
Each party (merchant, merchant cooperative, DSP cooperative, driver) receives their share directly into their own Stripe account.

G1 does not retain any portion of the transaction. It processes Stripe account IDs only and does not know or identify the recipients. The merchant cooperative defines the breakdown for each order.

Pickup orders

Customers can also choose to collect their order directly. In this case, there is no delivery fee and no driver involvement. The order flows through Kitchen Operator in the same way, and the customer picks it up from your premises.

What happens if no driver is available

Sometimes there will not be a driver available. If that happens, the order is cancelled with an apology to the customer. Local does not pretend this will never occur. The system is honest about its limitations, which is better than making promises it cannot keep.

Getting Started

Joining Local is straightforward. The onboarding team handles the heavy lifting so you can keep running your business without disruption.

Step 1: Get in touch

Fill out the short form on the-local.one with your business details, or contact the team directly at hello@generation.one. This is not a sales process: nothing is being sold. You are joining a cooperative that you will co-own.

In Malta, you can also contact Koperattivi Malta directly at info@cooperatives-malta.coop or on 2148 4835. They are supporting the rollout of Local across the island and can help with everything from onboarding to understanding how the cooperative works.

Step 2: Setup

The onboarding team takes care of:

Menu setup. Your menu, pricing, images, and categories are configured on the platform.
Staff training. Your team is shown how to use Kitchen Operator and Merchant Operator. The interfaces are familiar if you have used other delivery platforms.
Configuration. Your business details, delivery radius, operating hours, and preferences are set up.

Step 3: Equipment

You will need a tablet for Kitchen Operator (approximately €150). Merchant Operator runs in any web browser. Your Fogbox starts on a shared server (called an apartment) hosted by the cooperative, so there is no additional hardware to buy upfront. As your business grows, the cooperative will help you transition to your own dedicated Fogbox on your premises.

Step 4: Go live

Once your menu is loaded and your team is comfortable with the tools, you are live on the platform. Customers in your area can find and order from you through the Local One app.

How long does it take?

Getting started takes about five minutes to submit the initial form. Full onboarding, including menu setup and training, is typically completed without disrupting your operations. The team works around your schedule.

What it costs to join

There is no joining fee, no setup fee, and no monthly subscription. You pay the cooperative commission (9.63%) on orders processed through the platform. That is the only cost.

Support

Local's support is handled by the cooperative in your region. These are people in your area, working for a business that you co-own. If you need to, you can meet them in person.

How to get help

Support is available through the app, via WhatsApp, and by phone. Contact details are on the app and on the-local.one.

For operational issues (orders, payments, technical problems), the cooperative's support team handles it directly. For issues involving a specific customer or driver, the cooperative works with the relevant parties to resolve it.

Accountability

Because you are a co-owner of the cooperative, support is not a call centre in another country following a script. The people helping you have a direct stake in getting things right, because they work for the same organisation you own.

If something is not working well, you have the ability to raise it with the cooperative membership. Problems that affect multiple merchants can be addressed through the cooperative's governance structure. You are not filing a complaint with a faceless corporation: you are raising an issue within your own business.

Technical support

For technical issues with the Merchant Operator dashboard, Kitchen Operator, or your Fogbox, the cooperative's technical team is available to help. The platform is designed to be straightforward, but if something goes wrong, there are people nearby who can assist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Fees and costs

Will the commission go up? No. The cooperative is owned by its members. You control the fee structure. The stated goal is to bring it lower as the network grows, not higher.

Are there any hidden fees? No. The 9.63% commission includes everything: cooperative operations, transaction processing, and the network brand fee. There is nothing on top. VAT is excluded in applicable countries and must be claimed back by the merchant, as with any business expense.

What does the €1/day brand fee cover? It funds Generation One (G1), the brand guardian that maintains international network operations and development. This fee comes out of the cooperative commission, not in addition to it.

Ownership and governance

What does it mean to "own" the platform? You are a member of the cooperative with equal voting rights. You see the full financials, vote on decisions, and have a say in how the cooperative operates. This is genuine cooperative ownership, not a marketing claim.

Can I leave? Yes, at any time. You take all your data with you: customer information, order history, sales records, and financial data. There is no exit fee, no lock-in period, and no penalty.

Who makes decisions? The membership. Major decisions go to a vote. Day-to-day operations are handled by the cooperative's staff, who are accountable to the members.

What is Generation One? G1 is the brand guardian for the Local network. It maintains international network operations and development, and sets a small number of non-negotiable standards (no fraud, no customer harm, no sabotage). It does not run operations, set prices, or control cooperatives.

Data and privacy

Who owns my customer data? You do. The cooperative stores order data to resolve operational issues, but your customer relationships and business data belong to you.

Is my business data shared with other merchants? No. Individual merchant performance is never disclosed. Aggregate market data (total regional sales, number of restaurants) is shared publicly, but nothing that identifies your business specifically.

Operations

What equipment do I need? A tablet for Kitchen Operator (approximately €150). Merchant Operator runs in any web browser. Your Fogbox starts on a shared server (an apartment) hosted by the cooperative, so there is no hardware to buy upfront. When your order volume grows, the cooperative helps you set up your own dedicated Fogbox.

How is it different day-to-day? Honestly, not very. Orders come in on a tablet, your team prepares them, drivers pick them up. The tools work the same way you are used to. The difference is in the economics and the ownership, not in the daily workflow.

What if I am already on other platforms? You can run Local alongside other platforms. Many merchants do during the transition. The economic advantage becomes clear quickly once you compare what you are paying versus what you keep.

Can I customise the platform? Yes. The software is owned by the cooperative, and you will be able to customise it to suit your needs. Full API access is available, including MCP connectivity for AI integration.

Delivery

How are drivers assigned? The DSP cooperative manages driver assignment. An intelligent algorithm balances delivery cost against driver availability to find a fair price, then assigns the delivery. You do not need to manage this: it happens automatically.

What if no driver is available? The order is cancelled with an apology to the customer. Local does not promise 100% availability at all times. It is honest about this limitation.

Do customers pay for delivery? Yes. There is a delivery fee and a fair driver contribution at checkout. These go directly to the delivery network and drivers. For pickup orders, there is no delivery charge.

Getting started

How long does onboarding take? The initial form takes about five minutes. Full setup, including menu loading and staff training, is handled by the onboarding team without disrupting your operations.

Is there a joining fee? No. There is no joining fee, no setup fee, and no monthly subscription. You pay the commission on orders only.

Who do I contact? Visit the-local.one and fill out the form, or email hello@generation.one. In Malta, you can also contact Koperattivi Malta at info@cooperatives-malta.coop or on 2148 4835, who are helping with all aspects of the Local deployment on the island.