Popping out

After my post on yesterday’s string of minor disasters, there were (rightfully) some comments on my plan to make everything better.

Comments like this:

And that’s a very fair point. Because bad chili poppers will definitely have an undesired effect. And factor in the additional risk that quite a lot already went wrong yesterday and you have yourself and dangerously hazardous situation: some sort of compound disaster state of affairs.

Fortunately, I’d done the risk assessment for the chili poppers thing and went with a trusted source: The Village Bicycle (previously Da Vinci’s) in Harfield village.

Three perfect chili poppers arrived via Oobreets and were gratefully devoured along with one of their excellent burgers (there was also some very decent fayre for the kids).

And along with some perfectly chilled Biere de Label de Noir – and an early-ish night, suddenly everything was alright again.

Tipping point

Incoming from Uber Eats, who we occasionally use to order ribs, pizzas, burgers and several other unhealthy – but nearly always enjoyable – items. Great news – you can now tip your driver. Officially.

There will be some of you who have already worked out that you slip your Butlers or Oishi delivery guy a few extra Rands for his trouble, so why not your Uber Eats guy too?

The thing is, the joy of Uber Eats is that it’s a cashless system, so it’s not always possible to find a R20 note without a bit of forethought. And although Butlers and Oishi also offer a cashless option in the form of Snapscan, there’s the option to add your tip there and then.

OK – we’ll continue with this in just a second, but already, I can see that there will be some people who will take issue with that photo. Stereotypes in the race of the driver, the race of the customer, and the fact that she seems to be working for Starfleet.
The fact is that every Uber Eats driver we have ever had has been black (and male* – hence my ubiquitous use of ‘he/his’ in this post), every time we have used Uber Eats, I have been white, and conveniently, it turns out that the beagle is a huge fan of Star Trek, so there you go.

And now back to the post…

Interestingly, when we do offer our Uber Eats driver a cash tip they are always surprised and delighted. This suggests to me that this is a rather unusual practice. It shouldn’t be that way though, surely?

Well, now it doesn’t have to be:

That seems pretty straightforward, now doesn’t it?

I’m not sure exactly how the Uber Eats pricing model works and how much of your order price goes to the driver, but I’d wager that 1) it’s not very much and 2) if you’re using the system as a customer, then you’re probably able to share a bit of the wealth with the guy who just saved you going out to the local takeaway joint in the no rain.

Do it.

 

* did I just assume his gend… Yes. Yes I did. Get over it.