Saturday, September 21, 2019

Grubhub Review – My Experience Working for Grubhub

For the past couple years I have been involved with app based delivery gigs such as Instacart and Shipt with Instacart being my main focus. While the grocery delivery is still going well, I figured I might try out one of the many food delivery apps available now. After doing a lot of research I decided to apply to be a delivery driver for Grubhub.

When I first applied, I noticed the nearest zone available was a couple towns over, but I still went through with the application. Also, after I applied, they sent me a message saying there were no openings at the moment, but that they would let me know when they were hiring more people in my area.

After a couple months went by, they contacted me saying I could start working for them now. Interestingly the area that I applied for actually covered a larger area than I thought, which actually included my town. So if you are applying and they do not have your exact town, I recommend applying for the nearest town because it might actually cover your area.

Next, I went over the training online which was pretty straightforward. They also sent me 2 nice insulated bags for free! They have the option to choose hours to commit to, or you can just log on at any time and they will send you orders if there are any available. Since I am usually working for Instacart, I decided to just do the 2nd option of logging into Grubhub whenever it was slow or if I had some downtime.

When you are logged in and set to take orders, they will send you an offer that tells you how much it pays, which restaurant it is, and where it is going to be delivered. I found the pay to be about $10 per order which is ok. I would estimate it takes about 30 minutes from start to finish for 1 order.

As soon as you accept the order, you start driving to the restaurant. Once you get there, you go in and let them know you are there for a Grubhub pickup. I was under the impression that when you would go in, they would have your order ready to go, but in my experience, in most cases, the order is not ready when I get there, in fact many of them would not even start making the order until I got there. Because of this, you end up waiting in the restaurant for about 5-10 minutes until it is ready. In a business where time is money, this is something that could be improved upon.

Once you pick up the food, you start heading to the customer. Transporting the food is easy when it is just bags or boxes, but often they order drinks along with the food and these can be kind of tricky to transport and carry. You just have to make sure everything is secure in the car so nothing tips over or spills.

When you arrive at the customers location you let them know you have arrived and you bring them their food. I found that even though they are supposedly notified that you have arrived, often they are not ready when you get there. I had to contact several of the customers by text/phone because they would not answer the door when I got there.

Overall the work is pretty easy. You just pickup up food at one place and drop it off at another. What is nice about Grubhub is the orders are already paid for so you don't have to worry about the money.

Grubhub pays by direct deposit the following week. I found the payments to be on time and accurate. They also send you statements with how much you made each day.

If you are looking for an easy gig to get involved with to make a little extra money in your free time I would recommend trying out. If you have experience with food delivery or other app based gigs, I would say it is definitely worth trying out. These kinds of jobs can change fast so it is a good idea to have more than one option available!

Update 3-4-20:
I have been doing more orders with Grubhub lately and overall it has been pretty good. I have been scheduling hours which seems to give priority on the orders vs just logging in without being on schedule.

They added a new option where on some orders you place the order when you get there and pay with a Grubhub credit card. These are a little more challenging but they tend to pay a little more.

I like the flexibility and freedom of choosing which orders you want to take. Overall I would recommend it if you like working independently and like driving or delivery jobs.

Update 7-21-20:
Grubhub has been going pretty well lately. Since the Corona epidemic, most of the orders are now contactless which means you just drop it off at the front door and text the customer to let them know it is there. Sometimes it can be a little slow, but when it is busy you can make pretty good money. Overall I would recommend it for anyone looking for a flexible job that is low stress and pretty easy to do.

Sunday, September 8, 2019

Buying a Suit – Men's Warehouse vs Kohl's – My Experience

I'm getting to the age where I'm starting to have to attend more weddings and funerals and since these are formal events, I decided it was time to look into getting a new suit. I started doing some research to see what the options were. Locally, I knew of Men's Warehouse because I had to rent a suit there for a wedding a while back. I also knew of department stores such as Kohl's that have suits as well.

When I rented the suit from Men's Warehouse is was pretty expensive at over $200, especially considering you only have it for a few days. Still I decided to give them another visit to see what the options were when it comes to buying a suit.

I saw some sales advertised online for about $199 so that was about what I was looking to spend. When I got to the store, I asked the first sales person about it and they immediately said they don't have anything for around that price. I was then assigned to another sales person to show me some other options.

First thing he shows me, he says is $699! Way more than I was looking to spend. I let him know I just was something basic because I don't plan to wear the suit very often. He shows me their cheapest suits which are still about $300. I had actually gone in with intention of buying but so far the experience was not going well.

The sales person was very much the stereotypical fast talking commission hungry associate you don't want. When I let him know I didn't need the suit until a wedding next year, he pretty much ushered me out the door and said come back when you are ready to buy. That's strange, I thought I was ready to buy, but apparently not.

So I decided to look at the other options available such as Kohl's department store. I like Kohl's but in the past I have found it difficult to find the right sizes especially when it comes to formal wear such as suits. Since I knew my size would be hard to find in store, I decided to look online.

They had a good selection to choose from and the prices were much more affordable. I found several to choose from in the $100-$200 range. I ended up ordering one that came to about $135 and it came with $20 Kohl's cash so I was able to get a nice dress shirt to go along with it for free!

When the suit arrived I was pleased with the look and the quality. I tried it on and the fit was ok, but it would need some tailoring to get a perfect fit. This is actually a common procedure with suits. It is rare to just try on a suit in store and have it fit correctly. I did some measuring and decided to have the pants and sleeves shortened to the correct length.

I found a local cleaners/tailor that was able to do the alterations. The cost to shorten the jacket sleeves and the pants came to about $50. I picked it up a few days later, tried it on and the fit was exactly how I wanted.

So all together I ended up with a nice fitting suit and dress shirt for about $185. Not too bad considering the cost to rent a suit from Men's Warehouse was over $200.

If you are looking to get a new suit, I recommend first getting measured so you know your size. Then once you have your size you can order online. Once it arrives you can try it on and if you like it, you can have it tailored to get the right fit.