Grubhub’s attempts to drum up buzz for its food-delivery service by offering “free” lunch in New York didn’t exactly generate the kind of publicity the company was hoping for.
On Tuesday, the company offered New Yorkers a “free” lunch, excluding tips and fees, up to the value of $15 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. The promotion was shared on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok and should have been a boon for the city’s restaurants, customers, and couriers.
Instead, a surge in orders resulted in delayed — or absent — deliveries as the rapid swell in demand left eateries overwhelmed and delivery workers in short supply. At the lunchtime peak, Grubhub was averaging 6,000 orders a minute, spokesman David Tovar said. By 11:25 a.m. there were more than 1,000 reports of issues with its app, according to Downdetector.
