Imperfect Foods’ Post

Saving for a new home can seem daunting, but with small changes to your habits, you’ll be ready to put a down payment on a new home in no time! Tip #3: Save on delivery fees – pick it up yourself! With delivery fees and tips for the driver, you may be paying upwards of $15 extra for the convenience of having your groceries or food delivered.

The Biggest Mistakes Drivers and Food Delivery Drivers make when it comes to Account Deactivations. This is how #Uber and #Lyft drivers can fight wrongful deactivations. https://lnkd.in/g9Cy68Ep

A careless delivery driver cost her an $87 package and made her go a week without lunch at work. Here’s the story: A few weeks ago, Jenny watched a delivery driver: → Pull up to her driveway → Get out of the delivery truck → Walk around the truck (?) → Get back in the delivery truck → Drive away without leaving packages The best part? He left one of those notes that says, “Sorry we missed you!” Meanwhile, she’s watching all of this happen from her house. Needless to say, Jenny was pissed. But that's not the worst of it… Of course, she went in person to the delivery service the next day (I’ll keep the company private). She asked them why the delivery driver didn’t do his job, and they responded, “The driver informed us he left because your porch light wasn’t on. We’ve already returned your package back to the sender.” Her package was a weekly meal delivery service. Of course, the food was ruined and Jenny was out $87. As a single mom of three, she didn’t exactly have the extra time to make lunch for the week, making matters worse. The meal delivery company didn’t offer package protection and she was already stretching her budget for convenience — she stopped ordering from them altogether, and it wasn’t even the company’s fault. We hear about package horror stories like this all the time at SavedBy Package Protection. By allowing customers to protect their orders, they won’t be stuck with the bill (or without product) when mistakes inevitably happen. I know Jenny wishes she had SavedBy… make sure your customers aren't wishing they did too (send me a message if you’re curious) 🤝

How do you know when it's time to leave your lane? I was closing up shop at Soho Food Park one night. I noticed that one of the food trucks wasn't leaving with the rest, so I went over to investigate. The owner showed me what was up: they had a flat tire. No big deal, right? Anyone can change a flat. It was kind of a big deal. There was a stove covering the access to the tire. It was bolted down. The owner called AAA, but they still had trouble getting the stove out. I needed to get the truck out of there that night. The city had strict rules against overnight parking, and our neighbors would report us for the slightest infraction. So I stepped in to help. I noticed that the AAA driver had the wrong set of wrenches for the bolts. He needed metric. I ran to grab my set, and we got the stove out. I could tell the driver felt annoyed that I "did his job," but he easily changed the tire after that. The truck got home that night. Sometimes you need to leave your lane and intervene to solve a problem, even at the risk of pissing people off. How do you know when it's time to do this? For me, it was the combination of a) noticing the problem and b) connecting it to a solution available to me. Leave your lane. Fix the flat tire. Onward.

Online food delivery services (take out and to a lesser degree groceries) tried on and off for years to gain traction and finally did with the help of a couple years of people socially distancing. Now it’s a year plus since people started wandering out into the world again and I have questions (some I’m already looking into to, but I wanted to write this down before I forget). What was the drop off in usage, if any? How did this change / create competition between “independent delivery contractors”? I have my suspicions that we’re at the point where the model (using independent individuals instead of maintaining employees and vehicle fleets for cheap) will start to break down as the shoppers/deliverers start to maximize their revenue by gaming the system where they can. If this is the case, then customers will change / decrease / halt their use of these services and things will start to spiral in. I can only assume these services are gathering so much usage data (if they’re not, why not? And would they like to? Call me) and I’d kill to see it.

'A delivery boy met an untimely death on the road while speeding on the fast-lane'. 'A delivery bike swerved suddenly causing a near-fatal accident'. 'A new driver lost control when a delivery bike overtook from the same lane'. These are not uncommon piece of news nowadays. Scouring the social channels you will find umpteen complaints from motorists about these unruly driving habits. The rules of the road can be tightened, and safety-gear can be provided to delivery boys, but the loss of lives will continue unless we rethink our expectations of ‘instant delivery’. The 30-minute Pizza delivery promise has spawned a whole new generation of people who decide at the ‘last-minute’ to order food. Or for that matter staple groceries like milk and noodles. Do we really need ‘instant noodles’ delivered to us within 15-minutes? Can we not plan a little ahead to keep our pantry stocked? Do we not know at 6pm that there’s no food in the kitchen for dinner? It takes an average 60-90 minutes to get dressed to go out for dinner, so if you are ordering food, isn’t that also the time it will take to be served at home? The expectation of fast-delivery is met by one company and soon replicated by competition to retain market share. And while logistics can be managed and food-waste absorbed as an expense, the cost of human lives has sadly gone unaccounted. During Eid holidays, while driving on a highway, we passed the life-less body of a young delivery boy, perhaps an earning member of a family in the sub-continent. I doubt if the customer whose order was being delivered was ever told why the order got cancelled. We can make a change. Let’s be realistic. Next time, let’s put an instruction to the driver, “Ride safely, your life is more important than my hurry. I am okay to wait a little longer.” Video courtesy: Vecteezy.com

Have you heard? Doordash is testing warnings about poor service if you don't tip your driver. And Paytronix data confirms it's a real issue. As noted in our data brief, "No Tip, No Trip," delivery orders without tips are left unclaimed more than twice as much as those with tips of $2.50 or more. Given that the vast majority of delivery orders contain a tip, it is no surprise that messages encouraging tips is just good business. Check out our readout of the data in our Research Brief: https://lnkd.in/e7gtvbxR

As the cost of living keeps climbing, many people are feeling the pinch in their wallets. Ordering takeaway or delivery used to be a convenient and affordable option for busy nights or special treats. But now, with prices rising across the board, some are wondering if the buzz of ordering in has lost its appeal. Let's delve into how the increasing cost of living is impacting the takeaway scene. The Grocer takes a look at the impact of cost of living on the Delivery Business: https://bit.ly/3PYm2Db

Being "speedy" is about being efficient (and fast, too, I suppose). During this holiday season, think of us like Santa's elves getting your product to where it needs to be, so shoppers get what's on their wish list. #speedydelivery #deliver #deliveryservice #shipping #onlineshopping #logistics #homedelivery