By: Nick Gambino
It’s like Uber Eats is giving away food for free! Well, not exactly. It looks like the food delivery arm of Uber is gearing up to offer a monthly subscription pass that would see users only paying $10 for unlimited deliveries. You would still have to pay for the food of course, but still…free delivery, guys!
This is how they get me. This is the reason I spend so much on Amazon. The item might be $500, but if you tell me I don’t have to pay the $20 delivery fee, I’m adding to my cart immediately. Who cares if I don’t need an inflatable pool raft in the shape of Macho Man Randy Savage?
While Uber hasn’t officially announced the Uber Eats Pass, it was discovered by Jane Manchun Wong when she reverse engineered the code in Uber’s Android app. According to her tweet, she was able to create screenshots of the feature that say, “Get free delivery, any restaurant, any time.”
When reaching out to Uber, TechCrunch received neither a denial or a confirmation but rather a pat answer, “We’re always thinking about new ways to enhance the Eats experience.” That’s a pretty good sign that we should see this feature in the near future. And honestly, why not?
Postmates, DoorDash and other competitors in the food delivery sphere already offer a subscription service, and unless Uber Eats gets on board with this model, they risk playing second fiddle or third fiddle in an already competitive market. The Uber Eats service fee per order is about 15% of the overall cost of the food, which is a natural deterrent. Well, it stops me from ordering more regularly, that’s for sure.
It’s hard to imagine that this move wouldn’t cause Uber to lose money, at least in the short term, but with customer retention and new customers filing in to take advantage of the Pass, this should start to right the ship and offset any additional costs of subsidizing delivery.
All I know is that I’m here for this and I hope Uber Eats launches the feature sooner rather than later. There’s a new Chinese restaurant I’ve been dying to try but there’s no way I’m going to drive five minutes to pick up my own food.
