Seamless & Grubhub Merge
New Yorkers can now rejoice that their favorite food delivery service has merged with a delivery service they never even used in the first place. The former rivals will now be able to serve more than 500 cities from over 20,000 local establishments.
The services work like this: you go on either company’s respective website, enter your location, and what kind of food you want. The service then filters what restaurants around you will deliver, how long it will take, how expensive each one is, and what category of food they serve. From there it’s a matter of picking what you want to order, putting it in your payment credentials, and you’ll soon have delicious food delivered to your abode.
Typically Seamless has dominated the East coast, since it is headquartered in New York, whereas Grubhub dominated the Midwestern market, as it is headquartered in Chicago. This merger should allow customers in all parts of the United States to get whatever food they want delivered to their doorstep in a short time. The consumer is clearly the big winner in this scenario. Both company’s also mentioned they would be combining technology in order to make ordering food a more seamless process for the customer. For example, on GrubHub, you could track where your food is via their iPad app. I can’t really imagine a more seamless process then just using a computer for a few minutes to get whatever food you wanted and have it delivered in a short time, but I welcome any thing that further serves my laziness and refusal to cook for myself. Half the reason I use Seamless is so I don’t have to interact with a human being on the phone. The fact that I have to greet the delivery guy when he comes to my door still freaks me out.
Personal details aside, both Seamless and GrubHub are raking in the dough. The companies reported that they have together processed nearly $875 million in food sales, and have a combined revenue of around a $100 million.
The great thing about these websites is that they benefit everyone around. The delivery service makes money for leading consumers to restaurants, restaurants now have increased business because of the popularity of the delivery service, and consumers benefit from being able to order food without a lot of hassle. Everyone wins.
