Skip to main content

Postmates takes on UberEats and others with speedy meal delivery service

On-demand delivery outfit Postmates wants to feed you fast with a new service promising to get a meal to your door in under 15 minutes.

Taking on similar speedy meal delivery services like UberEats, SpoonRocket, and Munchery, Postmates’ new offering, called Pop, costs $1.99 per call-out, with lunch specials offered for around $10.

Recommended Videos

Pop kicks off this week in Postmates’ home city of San Francisco, though if things go well the startup is set to take it to its other locations across the U.S.

So how exactly does Postmates plan on getting meals to your door in such rapid fashion? By eliminating the pickup run, that’s how.

“Rather than spending time traveling to a specific merchant location or waiting for the food to be prepared, Postmates drivers who participate in Pop carry an inventory of freshly made items ready to drop off immediately,” the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.

And it says that while 15 minutes is the maximum time a hungry customer will have to wait, initial tests saw food delivered to its destination in an impressive seven minutes on average. Deliveries start at 11am each weekday and continue until all supplies have been ordered and delivered. Users can order a meal by tapping the Pop icon at the bottom of the Postmates app and choosing from the menu.

To keep things interesting, Postmates intends to rotate the offerings daily, selecting a handful of options from more than 3,000 providers, some of whom will be creating dishes exclusively for Pop.

With an increasing number of services diving into the rapid meal delivery game, competition is growing ever more intense, especially in the San Francisco area where many of the players are based.

Fighting for a piece of the pie is Uber, a company better known for delivering people to destinations than meals. UberEats, which promises to bring dishes to your door in under 10 minutes for a $3 fee, arrived in San Francisco in August following rollouts in Austin, Chicago, New York, and L.A., as well as Toronto, Canada and Barcelona, Spain.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
This one iPadOS 26 feature has me excited for the iPhone Fold
Semi-open state of a foldable iPhone concept

Samsung is set to launch the seventh generation of its Galaxy Z Fold book-style folding phone this Summer, but its biggest rival is yet to show its folding phone hand. Apple has long been expected to unveil an iPhone Fold, and the latest rumors suggest that it will launch next year.

I’ve used almost every folding phone released globally, with some exceptions for extremely obscure ones. While I've always been curious what an iPhone Fold would look like, I was fairly certain that Apple shouldn't build it, as I wasn’t sure they could deliver on one necessary feature.

Read more
These are the 4 best alternatives to the Google Pixel 9a
A person taking the Google Pixel 9a out of a pocket.

The best cheap phone race has been reignited by the Google Pixel 9a, which brings the Google Pixel 9 series experience at a significantly lower price. Starting at $449, Google’s latest Pixel offers the flagship processor of its siblings for flagship-level performance, an excellent camera, and long-term software support.

Yet, Google’s software experience won’t be for everyone; there are obvious tradeoffs in the specs sheet to enable the low price; the camera bar design is somewhat polarizing for long-term fans, and there’s no telephoto camera. 

Read more
Apple and Samsung rivalling phones, earbuds and more due at huge July event
The OnePlus Summer Launch Event has five new products, including the Nord 5 and Pad 3 Lite
Five OnePlus products launching in July 2025

OnePlus has confirmed it will host a bumper launch event on July 8, where it will announce five new products, covering phones, headphones, wearables and tablets.

The range of new devices will join the OnePlus 13, OnePlus 13R and OnePlus Pad 3 which arrived earlier this year as the Chinese firm fills out its product offering to compete against Apple, Samsung and co.

Read more