Uber Eats food at home reminder

I like to think of myself as a strong-willed person, but I, like most humans, fall victim to the urge to order takeout even when I have food in my fridge. I’ve had many a night lately where I know we have leftovers, or food that I cooked over the weekend, and I knowingly ignore it so we can order Indian food instead. To be fair, there are some great Indian places near me.

However, ordering out is not cheap. The bills add up over time, and Uber Eats and DoorDash are incentivized to get you to spend more money on their apps. They have all kinds of upsells and promotions which make ordering dangerously frictionless.

What if, instead of optimizing for money spent in the app, Uber Eats was focused on reducing food waste? It would motivate you to eat things you have at home (if you have anything). You can imagine a promotional banner that reminds you, “we have food at home.”

To some extent, this is a manifestation of a common meme I’ve seen over the last few years, but this would be a good nudge for people to spend lest. However, this is antithetical to Uber Eat’s business, so they’d never build this.

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