TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | FEB 2020 19
By Jimmy Prosser
Food Delivery Apps
I want to take a moment and discuss a trend that hasn’t taken
off on Tybee yet, but I know is popular in Savannah, Whitemarsh, and
Wilmington: Food Delivery Apps.
When I first moved to Jacksonville, I took a job at a restaurant as a
waiter since that’s pretty easy work to come by, especially since I have
years of experience waiting tables and doing most jobs in a restaurant,
such as hosting, dishwashing, managing, fry cook, bartender. It was just
my interim job until I got into a bank where I prefer to be. I know, can
you picture me in dress shoes and a button down shirt every day? You
probably can’t.
At this restaurant that will remain anonymous, we offered online
ordering off our main website, Door Dash, Post Mates, Bite Squad, Uber
Eats, and Grub Hub. Occasionally, I would be the scheduled person to
handle those orders. Each service has its own iPad/Tablet that the order
would come through on. I would enter it in the computer, send it to the
kitchen, and when the food was up I would let the corresponding device
know the food was ready and that it should call a driver to come pick it
up.
Here’s what I don’t like - first of all, most FOH (front of house staff)
make less than minimum wage, as little as $2.13/hour. These apps do
not allow the person ordering to include any type of gratuity for the
person in charge of properly entering your order, collecting and bagging
your items, and making sure it’s correct to be delivered. The drivers do
not tip us either. Where I worked, to make up for the difference if I was on
the “to go line,” I was paid $12/hour. That’s fine.
My other biggest concern was that these are complete strangers,
in their personal vehicles, delivering the food. Vehicles you never see
the inside of. I’ll touch on that in a moment. The apps also showed me
a picture of who was coming to collect the food. Around 50% of the
time that person would not be the one picking it up, instead they would
sit outside and send in their five year old child, or a friend they brought
along.
Speaking of the vehicles, picture yourself on Tybee. You call and order
AJ’s, then call Breezy to pick it up. Breezy is a licensed cab company.
Their cars are relatively empty, the back seats and floors aren’t piled with
personal belongings, and you know who your driver is. Plus, I guarantee
Ron doesn’t let just anyone drive, he has ethical and moral standards for
his drivers, and you can expect someone professional will get your food
to you in one piece.
Now back to this restaurant in Jacksonville. I had a driver come in
for Uber Eats, pick up the food, take the bag with $40+ of food and head
straight to the bathroom where he spent five minutes doing god knows
what with that person’s food in tow.
Now, here is where I have a problem. This driver collected the food,
I marked it as picked up, and it’s out of my hands and control now. If he
needed to use the restroom beforehand, he could have. If he picked up
the order and then had a sudden urge to go, he could have easily asked,
“Can I leave this here for a minute?” Unfortunately, he took this person’s
food into the stall with him while he relived himself.
Restaurants DO NOT EVER take food in to the restroom. That is a very
serious health code violation. Ask yourself, would you like to eat a $40
meal a stranger took into a stall so it could sit on the floor while he took
a poop in front of it? I bet you’d answer no. I worked this job for a month
and these behaviors were all too common.
I love the idea of someone delivering food to me, but unless you
personally know the delivery driver, or that the restaurant itself has
screened these people, do not use these apps. And if you do, proceed
with caution. If your food looks tampered with, it probably was. I also
ran into problems on busy nights. The food would come up, I would let
the device know it was ready for delivery, and it would message me and
say someone would be there in 90-120 minutes. Cold, soggy food that’s
toured the restroom with a complete stranger is nothing I would want to
put in my body. Avoid these apps when they become available. They’re
not worth the convenience.