Minion Monday is here again! We’re making this a thing, people. Just go with it. Today, David reviews something technical! And it involves food! Hooray!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
As a self-professed geek of all things tech, I asked Mary if I could take a crack at reviewing some of the “foodie-related” mobile apps that come across her inbox. After regaling her with the story of being elected computer monitor at school when I was only 7 years old, she knew that I was the man minion for the job. Not pictured: Mary rolling her eyes after hearing the story for the nth time during our years of friendship. Acknowledging my nerd street cred, she happily obliged and forwarded me an invitation to try an app called Postmates.
While not strictly a food-centric service, Postmates originally started in San Francisco in 2012 and focused on providing quick delivery of just about any product that can comfortably fit into a car. You can ask them to pick up something from the local Apple Store, snag some last-minute office supplies at Staples, or – as in my case – a really tasty lunch from any restaurant my heart desired. I like to think of it as a courier service that transports incredible food directly to my belly.
New to the San Diego area as of September, the company sent me some discount codes for free delivery and a generous $25 credit to spend however I pleased. Mary and I thought that it would be awesome to have lunch delivered to our team at work, so we brainstormed and decided to have Mexican food delivered from Lolita’s – one of the most popular taco joints in the area that’s a little too far for us to go during our normal lunch hour.
Armed with an iPhone and a dream, I loaded up the app, found the Lolita’s listing, and then typed out our order. Some of the bigger restaurants have a cool built-in menu that you can use to quickly select items, but they didn’t have this particular location set up yet.
As exciting as the service is, the app itself wasn’t very user friendly. It looked like something from the last generation of iOS and the ordering process wasn’t very clear. After entering my order, credit card information and the address of our office, I hit the send order button and… nothing happened. The app crashed and took me back to the home screen. Perplexed and not wanted to get double-charged, I contacted the company to see if I had entered something wrong. Their support rep couldn’t replicate my issue, but encouraged me to try again. I decided to wait until the after the weekend to give it another shot.
Oddly enough, they updated their app and the current version is so much nicer than the one before. The menus have big, bright food images, cleaner text and a much more streamlined ordering process.
Using this new version, I ordered our lunch the following week. This time, everything went smoothly and after the order was placed, I was shown a map where our personal lunch courier was travelling over to the restaurant. Like Uber, you are shown exactly where they are and how long it will take for the delivery-person to arrive.
After about 50 minutes, our driver Geo arrived with a beautiful bag of burritos in hand. I was pretty impressed since she drove to Clairemont Mesa, stood in line at Lolita’s and then drove all the way up to our office in Sorrento Valley. She just had me sign off on the delivery using her iPhone and then rushed off to her next stop. Easy peasy!
All-in-all, I had a great experience with the service. Normally, our order would’ve had an $18 delivery charge*. This seems a little steep at first, but if you split it with your coworkers or roommates and consider the San Diego traffic during lunchtime, it quickly becomes appealing. If you’ve got a group delivery, or just badly want a burrito and don’t want to get up in the middle of a Netflix binge, I highly recommend this service. There’s nothing easier or more convenient.
**For extra fun, Postmates often has special events going throughout the month. One weekend featured a free pint of ice cream with every delivery, while another offered beer and lottery tickets (?!). A little kooky, but I enjoyed the off-the-wall sense of humor!
Postmates is available for download on iOS and Android.
* Delivery fees in San Diego start at $5 and vary depending on location and distance.
Disclaimer: A voucher was provided in exchange for this review by Postmates, making this lunch delivery a complimentary affair. The delivery fee was also waived as apart of the new service offered to San Diegans in September. No further compensation was received and all opinions stated here are the writer’s own.
Oh wow what an interesting concept. I think I’d be worried about the delivery fee but you’re right – if there’s enough people in your group, then maybe it won’t be so bad. I’m thinking I’d use them for a super crowded place like Phil’s BBQ or something. I wonder if they’d do that. There are probably some restaurants they won’t go to b/c of wait time (to get food).
Hi Faye!
Yeah, I have no idea how they handle super busy places. I was so surprised that our delivery-person made it through the Lolita’s lunch rush so efficiently. Mary and I guessed that they probably try to call in the order to the restaurant while they are driving over to it.
Sending them to Phil’s would be evil. That should probably be part of their delivery-person initiation ritual. I imagine it to be kind of like Dennis Hopper from Speed. Pop quiz, hot shot. You just got an order for Phil’s on a Saturday at noon. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO? 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
I feel there’s various order/pickup/takeout/delivery services already out there though can’t name one in particular. I’d still personally prefer using a computer since I’m almost always near one and it’s always easier to see and type. The wait time does seem a bit long though. 50 minute? sure, you’re not leaving the office but are you able to set a delivery time frame?
(assuming you actually order well ahead of time). i think that would be more useful
Hi Lynn!
You’re right, there are a lot of delivery services out there. I haven’t really used them, but Postmates seems to be one of the most economical and their customer service was great in my experience.
50 minutes is a little long, in general, but even getting a pizza delivered is still around a half hour. I was mostly impressed by the fact that the delivery-person made it all the way to our office during the middle of the crazy San Diego lunch hour. 🙂
Unfortunately, you’re not able to set a time frame as far as I can tell. That would be a super useful feature, I agree. It would probably help them plan out their day a bit better, too.
Let me know if you find any other cool food apps/services to try. I’d love to give them a shot.
Thanks so much for the comment!