How’s app-bout that food
22 Aug 2017
Food delivery apps are exploding at the moment and it’s no wonder why; no matter time of day, what kind of cuisine or which restaurant you’re after, food can be delivered to your door within 20 minutes. And you never have to leave the couch.
You may be the best cook in the world and absolutely adore being in the kitchen but there’s no doubt about it, sometimes cooking can be a drag. And it can get exhausting.
Food ordering apps such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Foodora combine convenience with a quick meal. The options are endless and if there are a few of you in the room and you all want a different kind of cuisine, well that’s ok too.
People are becoming busier and busier. This means ready-made and convenient meals are becoming much more popular. In fact, according to the National Australia Bank, in the year to June 2016, takeaway food sales were up 56.1 per cent. And convenient apps on our smart devices are changing the way we order.
While previously, people would have a drawer full of restaurant menus, now they have apps on their phones, with all menus at their fingertips. The great thing is that they’re generally grouped by suburb, so you can always find the restaurant that will deliver to you the fastest. Interestingly, while lifestyles are changing and people are getting busier, it’s questionable whether laziness is the driving factor with food apps. Instead, it’s about habits changing. Rather than picking up the phone and having someone personally take your order, you’re choosing your order (and altering it if necessary) through your fingertips.
Of course, this does take the personalisation aspect away because you don’t actually talk to a person through the process, until they show up at your door of course. But it can also help with getting orders correct; the ‘lost in translation’ element is eliminated, because your instructions are clearly written out.
The top four contenders
In Australia, there are four main delivery apps around.
- Menulog – this was founded by Australians and bought out by English company Just Eat. It has more than 8500 restaurants on the app, offering more than 130 different types of cuisine.
- Delivery Hero – this one’s an international company. In Australia, it’s known as Foodora. It’s only in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane at the moment and offers access to high-end restaurants that don’t necessarily deliver.
- Deliveroo – started in Britain, Deliveroo delivers to homes and offices and groups restaurants by postcode so you know exactly which restaurants will deliver to you.
- UberEATS – the newest player in the game, UberEATS is attached to Uber, using the resources of drivers already signed up to the driving app. You can scroll through the feed or select a specific cuisine and when ready to order, simply go through the steps. You can then track your driver in real time, just like you can track your Uber driver.
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