Its a risk you're willing to take.

Rebekah Boon

Ever wanted meals from your favourite fancy restaurant down the street that does not provide delivery services? Ever had meals delivered to your doorstep that were cold? Or maybe you had food poisoning from one of your recent take out meal?

These are some of the ups and downs of using that food delivery app you have on your smartphone. Postmates and Doordash are just two of the many food delivery app services that are growing rapidly. Both apps have a net worth of almost half a billion dollars. There doesn’t seem to be a reason why one shouldn’t have such a convenient app on their phones, or is there?

Sure, now you can have your meals in your pajamas on your cozy sofa, tucked in while watching netflix--you can decide where you’d like to order from and not be confined to certain restaurants within a mile or two. However, when you order from Postmates or Doordash, you’re ordering products at your own risk.

 "What if someone gets food poisoning?" Meinert asks. "Who's responsible? Postmates takes away our quality control, and potentially endangers our customers." (David Meinert, the general manager at Lost Lake cafe tested out the system by ordering through Postmates one day. He alleges the food arrived in the back seat with a dog.) Based on the interview by Sarah Jones on “The Postmates Problem: Why Some Restaurants Are Forced to Fight the Delivery App”, there are reasons why some restaurants aren’t found on Eat24 or Grubhub. Store owners want to have quality control over their products, causing some to even refuse turning over their food to delivery services.

Whether you’re at a restaurant or ordering in, they prioritize the experience of their customers."A restaurant's reputation is critical to their success," WRA CEO Anthony Anton told Geekwire.

Anand Dass, Postmates’ director of business development, said that their main priority, however, isn’t the restaurant but the experience of their customers who are ordering food through them.

Meinert sent letters to politicians to draft legislation that forbids a third party from reselling a restaurant’s food without acknowledging them and receiving consent.

With Postmates, customers type in which restaurants they would like to order from and then the app service picks up orders from those restaurants. Often times, those restaurants will automatically be in the system without the consent of the restaurant. When Meinert realised this, he personally called postmates and asked them to take their restaurant off. Unfortunately, once someone searches for a restaurant, they are automatically recorded in the system and cannot be taken off.

Gabriella Mahady, 20, Media Studies major, said the first time she ordered from postmates was the last time she will order from them. “It’s not really a big deal but when I received my meal it was kinda cold. Like I said it wasn’t a big deal but it was a little upsetting,” she said.

It is a risk you’re willing to take, some food are just not made to be packed and eaten after an hour.