Let’s be honest, anytime can be lunchtime. But the next time 10:58AM rolls around and you and your friends are too lazy busy to scrounge up some lunch, you’ll be able to use Postmates to make a group food order for delivery or pickup. Postmates says it’s rolling out group ordering over the next few days on its app (after downloading the latest update) or on its website.
Before you rush to impress your friends with your solution for lunch, know that other food ordering services already have the feature. DoorDash has offered group orders on the web since at least 2015 and on its app since 2017, and Caviar (now owned by DoorDash) offers group orders on a desktop web browser. And for companies that need convenient ways to feed lots of employees, Grubhub and Seamless (which merged in 2013) as well as Caviar offer programs designed just for that.
Postmates’ group orders should work just like they do with DoorDash or Caviar. One person sends an invite link to order participants and can set a spending limit so that someone can’t put too many appetizers on your tab. Once everyone has picked their food, the person who started the order can make any final edits before placing it.
It’s somewhat surprising to see that more food delivery services don’t already have this feature. Postmates does have another group-ish option, Postmates Party, which lets you order food as part of a large, anonymous group to avoid delivery fees, but Parties are short-term deals at select restaurants, not a meal of your choice with your friends.
Postmates isn’t the first to offer group ordering, but it shouldn’t be the last
Grubhub lets you split the bill with friends using Venmo, but you still have to pass your phone around to everyone so they can pick their meals. And Grubhub, Seamless, and Caviar have the aforementioned programs for offices to order meals, but those aren’t something everyone can use. Postmates isn’t the first company to offer group ordering, but it shouldn’t be the last, either.