Why Grubhub’s Free Lunch Promotion Was A Complete Failure
Grubhub thought it had a hit a home run with its latest promotion, however, it turned out to be a complete failure.
Food delivery apps are infamous for promoting catchy deals that are advertised as money-saving opportunities for customers. It seems like the likes of Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub are advertising a new discount deal daily. However, one of Grubhub’s most recent promotional deals that it launched in New York City for one day last week went completely awry. Vice reported that what started as a clever marketing “Free Lunch Promotion” ploy to drive sales ended up as a complete and utter debacle that angered and frustrated both Grubhub customers and restaurant partners alike.
Grubhub made its free lunch promotion available to all of its New York City customers between the hours of 11 AM and 2 PM on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Considering that the word “free” was attached to the promotion, it perhaps comes as no surprise that it was an immediate hit. However, while that may have been great for Grubhub and its customers, it was not so great for restaurants that had become inundated with orders at the height of their lunch rushes. Understandably, restaurants, many still operating with less than a full staff, could not handle the unexpected onslaught of orders. The Vice described the aftermath as one full of copious amounts of food waste and restaurant workers completely burnt out from exhaustion. Way to go Grubhub.
Part of the reason why the promotion was so unsuccessful was that Grubhub failed to communicate to its restaurant partners that it was going to occur in the first place. As a result, the restaurants were ill-prepared to field the uptick in business. Also, it doesn’t help that Grubhub decided to run the promotion in the United States’ biggest and busiest city. New York City likely coined the definition of what a lunch rush means. Despite the promotion’s obvious shortcomings, Grubhub didn’t hesitate to tout it as a success. The company even gloated on social media about what a hit it was. Grubhub boasted that when all was said and done that they “were able to fulfill more than 450K lunch orders connected to the promo, which was a win-win for businesses and diners.”
The motivations behind Grubhub’s promotional ploy and their overall lackluster acknowledgment that something had definitely gone awry serve to highlight a growing industry concern. Simply put, after historic gains during the height of the pandemic, businesses in the food delivery space are beginning to suffer as society continues to rebound. Thus in an effort to retain profitability and hold onto customers companies are going to desperate lengths without bothering to examine the potential consequences of their actions. Grubhub’s free lunch promotion debacle is a pinnacle example of that.
Thus, the real question becomes not whether or not Grubhub will own up to the error of their ways, but whether or not businesses in the food delivery space are actually sustainable. Ultimately, Grubhub’s free lunch promotion served to highlight a concerning undercurrent for the industry as a whole. Only time will reveal whether or not Grubhub and its competitors will be around for the long haul or if they just served as convenient placeholders during a time when the world needed them most.
