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From my personal journal
Farewell Foodler
Oct. 16th, 2017 06:25 pm
Welcome to my personal wake for Foodler this evening.
Tonight is the final night before my favorite restaurant delivery service ceases to exist, having been absorbed by the more pedestrianly named GrubHub during some corporate shenanigans. So I went for a little cruise around their website for the last time. After 904 personal orders and 104 for work, I will be headed elsewhere the next time I want to order in.
We’ve been together for nearly 10 years – my first order was from Cinderella’s in Central Square on November 9, 2007. My final order was October 9, 2017 from Beantown Taqueria in the same area.
I ordered from restaurants around the corner and across the river, from places I know to places I learned about on Foodler and have never been inside. There are lots of places long gone – Pu Pu Hot Pot, Dolphin Seafood, Snack Bar, Spice & Rice, Alfresco, Lady Siam, Cambridge Coffee & Pizza, Potato Freak. Some places we placed one order and decided never again, others we ordered over and over… and over. I never lost the thrill of not having to call to place an order or read my credit card – just click on “repeat order,” tweak it a bit and hit SUBMIT.
I remember the breakfasts, lunches, dinners, late night snacks and random indulgences like ice cream or chocolate cake. I’ve had all sorts of food – pizza, burgers, omelettes, muffins, rice, noodles, mashed potatoes and home fries and fries and chips, wraps, subs, gyros, wings, smoothies, sushi, dim sum, turkey dinners, dumplings, soups and even Cream of Wheat! I enjoyed Thai, Chinese, Italian, Vietnamese, Korean, Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Greek, Swiss and more!
I learned all the tricks to maximize the points earned for each order, and ended up with hundreds of dollars in free food over the years. I am so sad to see that benefit go!
I adored their “Best Bets” section, telling me what they thought I’d like to eat, based on my past orders. I especially like the little green check marks telling me I’d ordered it before. I often look for those on menus in restaurants and then slowly realize why they aren’t there!
It wasn’t all good times – we had delivery drivers who wanted us to go out in the street to meet their car rather than coming up to our floor, a few who “got lost” and made us wait 90 minutes for them to appear, wrong items, missing items… but the nice folks at support@Foodler.com always made it right. I wonder what will happen to them.
It seems just my luck that I tried a number of delivery sites – Doordash, GrubHub, AllMenus, BeyondMenu, MixMenu – and decided I like Foodler best, so of course, they are the ones who are disappearing. *sigh I may have to… cook more. Argh!
So Farewell Foodler. Thank you. It’s been delicious!