Sometimes we order food delivery even from places close by, just because we want to avoid getting out of our homes or offices and waiting in line.
We’d be willing to pay a delivery fee for that convenience instead—or perhaps the more “giam siap” (stingy, or thrifty, to put it nicely) of us will wait for promo codes that give us free delivery.
But there’s another solution, that in some ways, offers the best of both worlds.
foodpanda just announced the launch of its “Pick-Up” option on 7 November 2018, allowing users to collect their own orders at over 2,000 vendors.
Users can see the distance from their location to the restaurant on the foodpanda app, so they can plan when they should leave in order to pick-up their food without waiting.
According to foodpanda, each Pick-Up order would take about 15 minutes on average to be prepared.
As usual, foodpanda charges vendors a commission for each order, but there will be no delivery fees or minimum order values for customers who order for self-collection.
This service sounds similar to the many meal subscription plans available on the island, like MealPal or Singapore startup nomnomby, that let you order your food and skip the queues to pick up it from the restaurant when it’s ready.
However, a key difference one may notice immediately is that you don’t have to commit to a programme and pay a package price.
With Pick-Up, foodpanda says it’s currently the only food delivery service in Singapore that allows users to collect orders from a wide range of locations.
These participating vendors represent more than a third of foodpanda’s 6,000 restaurants here.
Among some of these vendors are A Poke Theory, Fun Toast, Guzman y Gomez, Krispy Kreme, PastaMania, SaladStop!, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and The Soup Spoon.
While Deliveroo and honestbee also offer self-collection options, they remain limited to their dine-in venues, Deliveroo Editions 2 and honestbee’s newly opened retail space, habitat.
Featured Image Credit: SG Asia City
