28 July 2017

Maccas and UberEATS join forces

| Suzanne Kiraly
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It’s true. The word is out. McDonalds and Ubereats have combined to bring you Maccas ‘tragics’ an even more convenient way to consume your favourite fast food, while not lifting a finger (except for your Apps Pinkie), and catering to your tendency to be too lazy to even get in your car and drive to your nearest location for your Maccas ‘fix’!

Every now and then, the business world rocks when innovation is driven by popular demand, and savvy businesses find ways to meet the trends of the time. Both Maccas and Uber are such companies. Each company, it can be said, is at the leading edge of customer convenience, where efficient systems drive their services to entice their consumers, who in turn, cannot resist the convenience factor at an affordable price.

So, it stands to reason that the creation of a combined service offered by the two companies in collusion will take our world of convenience in fast food with fast delivery by storm!

This service is now available within a 10-minute delivery zone from stores in Mitchell, Dickson, Manuka Plaza, Canberra City, Braddon, Woden, Westfield, and Belconnen. The new service is called McDelivery and I was keen to try it out (just for this article you understand), so I can test-drive the new service.

But I was deeply disappointed. On the Ubereats App, although it said ‘McDonalds’, in the scrolling menu, it was nowhere to be found, even in the search box. So, I then downloaded my Maccas App and found it also impossible to order the new service. I could only order a ‘pick-up’ service from my local, Belconnen, Westfield Maccas store.

Was it just me? I phoned a friend who lived in Page to try it and alas, he got the same result.

Not one to easily give up, my next strategy was to call the Braddon store, as I thought perhaps the biggest store would be trading in this new service for sure and could guide me. I got lucky. A very friendly staff member said I could order through my App, but they guessed that the reason I couldn’t order delivery is that I had to live within ten kilometres of the restaurant I was trying to order from. Living in Hawker, I must have just been out of range, I guess.

Highly disappointing.

A Google search told me more. I landed on the Ubereats official website. And found the map for Canberra deliveries.

UberEATS
And this announcement:

‘UberEATS is currently available throughout most of Canberra CBD and surrounding suburbs. Specific neighborhoods in the UberEATS coverage zone include CBD, and the following suburbs: Canberra, Belconnen, Braddon, Kingston, Dickson, Phillip, Fyshwick, Griffith, Acton, Barton, Yarralumla, Deakin, Macquire, Parkes, Narrabundah, Bruce, Ainslie, Campbell, Lyneham, Forrest, Curtin, O’Connor, Turner, Red Hill, Reid, Aranda, Garran, Cook, Kaleen, Hughes, Civic Square, Lawson, Page, Fyshwick, Mawson, Florey, Farrer, Chifley, Lyons, Hawker, Scullin, Downer, O’Malley, Torrens and Weetangera.’

There was not much more I could do to get my Maccas ‘fix’. I finally put it down to ‘teething problems’; perhaps the announcement to the media was indeed a little premature.

Such teething problems may just be temporary, as with any new service, and no doubt they will iron them out soon. Meanwhile, I must wait, or move house. I think the former rather than the latter is the way to go for now. After all, I have developed great patience living in Hawker; we are still waiting for the NBN!

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Holden Caulfield12:57 pm 02 Aug 17

Suzanne Kiraly said :

Holden Caulfield, I have no idea how they can deliver ice cream without it melting!

The 1 litre tubs of ice cream were almost literally rock hard and they had a pretty good esky setup happening in the boot of the delivery car.

Suzanne Kiraly7:16 am 02 Aug 17

Hilarious Rollersk8r! Thanks for sharing…

Holden Caulfield, I have no idea how they can deliver ice cream without it melting! And I am still reserving my opinion on whether the burgers from Maccas will be soggy, once they get to you. But will give it a try as soon as I can find a way to order that isn’t “pick-up”.

Holden Caulfield2:12 pm 31 Jul 17

Working in Fyshwick, where lunch options nearby are limited, I was hoping to crack my Ubereats cherry the other day, but no luck. A shame, given I’ve had ham and ice cream delivered where I work during previous Uber promos.

I suppose it’s no different to pizza etc – although there is something a bit wrong about McDonalds being home delivered. It’s like McDonalds has come up with every possible innovation to make their products quicker and easier to access EXCEPT bringing it to your house.

Maybe the next level of innovation will be UberFeeds!? Your friendly Uber driver brings McDonalds to your house – then feeds you one chip at a time!

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