The Latest in Food Delivery - Postmates VS UberEATS

For longer than I'd care to admit, I've complained about food delivery. In much of the US, delivery is limited to chain pizza, and maybe some inauthentic Chinese food if you're lucky. Good for you if you live in NY or somewhere similarly urban. I never have. The closest I've come to quality and variety in food delivery was in college, where local food joints are banking on students that are either studying too hard to leave their rooms, or partying too hard to walk out the door. I've also long lamented on lazy nights, that no one will bring me beer or wine on command. I'm lazy, you don't have to say it. Obviously I'm a lazy glutton. The only other kind of people with food blogs are vegans, and that I am not.

My kids watch a lot of YouTube, and a lot of YouTubers live in LA, so my son and I were super excited when we heard about Postmates. Which my friends in LA are all too familiar with and casual about. Postmates is an app you use to have anything from books, clothes, to food delivered to your door. The delivery fee is only $2.99, and you have the option to tip through the app when the delivery is done. The unique thing is that they will deliver food to you from places that would never ordinarily deliver, like Chili's, or your local burger shack. We tried using it one night only to realize that because we live outside of Seattle we aren't good enough for their fancy services. Last week, while stuck at an airport hotel in LA I realized I was in. I had access! I went on the app looking for food, and I found so much more.

Clearly I was very excited, and trying not to be too loud. The hotel walls were surprisingly thin. The delivery guy was lovely, although he had never delivered alcohol before, and it took him a bit to figure out how to record my ID. Yes, you do have to verify your age at the time of delivery. He also seemed miffed that I only ordered one bottle. *Shrug*

This week the boy kid and I discovered UberEATs, which doesn't deliver the wide variety of items that Postmates does, but they do deliver food to our neck of the woods, and they deliver food that we've never had access via delivery to before. It's still not as exciting as ordering Indian food for breakfast in LA, but we can have the following delivered: Indian, Thai, Teriyaki, two different Mexican restaurants, a variety of coffee shops, and classic Pub food. We also found a ton of promo codes online, so we got an immediate discount. Taxes do apply, but there is not delivery fee, and you'd have to tip the driver in person. There is no in-app option.

Both Postmates and UberEATs mark up the food items to make business possible I suppose, but the mark ups do seem to vary depending on the restaurant, so I'm guessing it's up to the individual businesses. At any rate, I loved them both in their own rights, and am hoping this trend continues. I think we may have to order again for Super Bowl Sunday, just for funzies and the sheer gluttony of it all.