In this article:
- Grubhub offered a $15 promo for “free lunch” that ended in distress for many
- Restaurants were slammed with orders and customers were left waiting
- Other delivery services responded by making jokes at Grubhub’s expense and pushing their own apps
Grubhub gave customers in New York City a free lunch last week, but it came with surprise costs.
On May 17, 2022, food delivery app Grubhub gave New Yorkers a promotional code to get up to $15 off their lunch between 11am and 2pm. But the promotion backfired, with restaurants and delivery workers overwhelmed by the sudden influx of orders. The delivery service received 6,000 orders per minute according to Grubhub. The promo ended up causing issues for Grubhub, particularly the customer service department, which was fielding calls from more than 3,600 people at a time.
The free lunch campaign was intended to drum up business for Grubhub, while also emphasizing the importance of eating lunch. But the campaign fell short for some people who had their orders canceled entirely. Additionally, some New York eateries claimed that they weren’t alerted to the promotion, and were surprised by the massive wave of orders.
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Grubhub is reportedly labeling the promotion a success, despite complaints from customers and workers. The company said that campaign yielded six times more orders than a comparable one that ran last year.
This isn’t the first time Grubhub has ruffled feathers in the food delivery space. At the start of the pandemic, Grubhub raised fees on customers as they sought ways to safely support their New York City’s restaurants and delivery workers. The city responded by capping those fees and passing restrictions in so-called predatory business practices. Additionally, the overturning of Proposition 22 in California allowed Seamless, which is owned by Grubhub, to cut wages for delivery drivers, who were no longer considered employees, but rather gig workers.
Other food delivery businesses took Grubhub’s shortcomings as an opportunity to advertise to potentially disappointed consumers. Following the promotion, Uber Eats sent out an email to customers with a $25 coupon. The email’s subject line was: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” with a winking emoji. Dig, meanwhile, sent a similar email with the tagline “Still hangry from Tuesday?” The fast-casual eatery encouraged recipients to download their app and handed out a referral code.