Is Anyone Surprised Grubhub’s ‘Free’ Lunch Program Was a Disaster for Restaurant Workers?
Claudia Leo, the marketing director for Jing Fong, was in her office when she got the call. “There’s no delivery men coming in,” an employee at the Chinatown dim sum restaurant told her over the phone, an unusual lull for a 100-seat dim sum restaurant. Doordash Driver, a service that connects restaurants with food delivery workers across the city, had unexpectedly crashed, she says. The closest courier was more than 40 minutes away.
At this point, New Yorkers may be familiar with what comes next. On Tuesday morning, Grubhub released its “free lunch” promotion onto the world — up to $15, not including tax, tip, or delivery fees — a promise that ended up being too good to be true. As Eater previously reported, the Grubhub app and website crashed within minutes of the promotion launching at 11 a.m. Users flooded Twitter with screenshots of error messages, rejected payments, and delayed delivery times.
“Who at Grubhub thought it was a good idea to promise 8 million New Yorkers free lunch during a 3 hr period,” one Twitter user wrote. Eater has reached out to Grubhub for more information.
