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.
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.
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