UberEATS Takes a Pass on Philadelphia

When you are in the mood for some food from your favorite restaurant but you don’t want to go out (and the restaurant doesn’t offer delivery), what do you do? Right now, you have several options – Caviar, Grubhub, Eat24, and other such services, all of which exist to bring restaurant food to your door. Competing with those existing services now is UberEATS, a new delivery service from the ubiquitous ride-sharing service Uber. UberEATS just launched service in ten cities around the U.S. – but none of them were Philadelphia.

UberEATS unrolled with ten American cities, but none of them were Philadelphia.

It’s a curious choice, considering the fact that Philadelphia is the 5th-largest city in the country and definitely boasts one of the most sizable food scenes. From food trucks to casual pubs to high-end, upscale eateries, Philly is undoubtedly a force with which to be reckoned when it comes to dining. Why, then, did UberEATS not choose Philadelphia as one of its launch cities? We don’t know for sure. They picked ten other cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Austin, Texas.

Grubhub only just recently expanded into Philadelphia. This was shortly before Uber launched itself into the $709 billion restaurant industry, where experts are speculating that the company could have an advantage sheerly by merit of size. For example, Uber has 12,000 drivers in Philadelphia alone, with thousands more spread across the country. Also, Uber has tried other products in Philadelphia before. The day before Thanksgiving this past year, UberSMART offered free rides to bar patrons. And, this winter, UberHEALTH drove around offering wellness packs and free flu vaccines. It remains to be seen whether Uber will see fit to expand UberEATS into the City of Brotherly Love.