Montreal City Weblog

Kate 08:52 on 2021-01-27 Permalink Reply  

• Ephraim 10:01 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  They use eva.coop to do their deliveries. Very nice app, let’s you track the location of the driver the whole way. Excellent service. There is one other app out there called Fantuan, which is primarily in Chinese, but also does English which has a lot of Asian cuisine on it, including Chez Chili, Lan Zao.

  Areas included are Verdun/Angrinon, Downtown, Brossard, CDN/NDG and Chinatown.

• Bill Binns 10:13 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  It amazes me that new food delivery services are still popping up. Especially here in Quebec where they are being demonized for charging restaurants too much and paying drivers too little. There have to be some serious brass balls investors forking over the seed money for these operations.

• Meezly 10:41 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  If you read the article, there is one significant difference with CHK PLZ besides being a local startup: “the company only charges a fee of around three percent, a tenth the price of a service like UberEats.” We tried the service with Épicerie Pumpui one weekend, it was super easy.

• Kate 10:43 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Bill Binns, this service is supposed to be fairer than the existing ones. Whether something local with less support will survive, we’ll see.

• Michael Black 11:03 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  What about the local delivery service started up last year, the name escapes me. But it was started by a few restaurants.

• MarcG 11:16 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Seems like it’s app-only; no web interface for the smartphoneless among us?

• Ephraim 11:27 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  @MarcG – There is a web interface, if you know which restaurants are there. For example, try a google search for order.chkplzapp.com and you should see restaurants that use the service. Dobe & Andy, for example is there and you can order from their website without the app. (Other restaurants on there include Maestro SVP, Pamika, Paradis BBQ, Tendresse, Brit & Chips and many more.

• SMD 11:29 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  @Michael I think you might be thinking of radish.coop (CBC profile here: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-edition-for-may-3-2020-1.5547652/a-new-platform-created-in-montreal-takes-a-different-approach-to-food-delivery-1.5547817).

• DeWolf 11:37 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Eva is a coop that doesn’t screw over its drivers the way Uber does, so that’s an added bonus of using CHK PLZ. Their customer service is also really good. I hope they do well.

• Michael Black 12:04 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Yes, it was radish, and it sounded like a means of getting the food out rather than a third party wanting to make money.

• MarcG 12:56 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  @Ephraim Thanks for the tip.

• Alex 13:36 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  We have used ChkPlz a few times, the service is great and I am happy knowing that more of my money is going to the restaurants and drivers

• Meezly 15:33 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  I shared this on a FB group and someone did a comparison:

  “I downloaded this app and noticed that for customers, to order the same items would come up to more $ compared to UberEats.
  Here with CHK PLZ, I would have to pay $90.26 excl. tips to the driver
  Whereas with UberEats, there is free delivery, it would come up to $80.50 (again, excl. tips to the driver).
  It’s a difference of $9.76
  It’s quite significant.
  This may deter users who would care more about the final amount to pay.”

  I replied that since the FB group’s aim is to suppot local businesses, then hopefully its members will take this into consideration and pay a little more if it means their fave restaurants will profit fairly from this transactioin!

• Mark Côté 16:08 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Wonder if the Gazette’s article has led to a sudden increase in traffic that the system can’t handle… I just tried signing up, and it sends me an SMS but the app times out loading the screen where I can actually enter it.

• Ephraim 17:41 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Meezly most aren’t on the larger services or if they are, are more expensive. For example Dobe & Andy charges more on UberEats than on ChkPlz.

  You can help the restaurant by doing pick up. The apps aren’t charging the restaurant a fee if you do pick up.

• Meezly 18:27 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  @Ephraim, that’s interesting. I have never used UberEats so I wasn’t aware of price differences in how restaurants charge.

  Yes, my household has been almost 100% pick up, esp. in fairer weather as we can bike. We are carless so much more limited in the winter. Last week, I wanted to order a Filipino kamayan for my husband’s birthday but the restaurant was way across town. So I contacted the restaurant to see what my delivery options were – the owner confirmed that UberEats gouges them 25-30%. Since I was planning to order on a Sunday, which is normally a slower night, the owner ended up offering to deliver the meal himself. Win-win!

  So always try to contact the restaurant directly first – you just never know what your alternative options are until you try it.

• Raymond Lutz 18:35 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Disruptive. Delivery Apps and Ghost Kitchens Are Killing Our Local Restaurants

• Joey 18:37 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Uber Eats, unlike the morally superior Chk Plz, offers loads of promos, discounts, etc., that presumably come out of the restaurant owners’ pocket – but make the service more attractive to customers.

• dhomas 18:51 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  I used EVA exclusively after Teo went under, though I’ve had little need for private transit since the pandemic. They are quite responsive to user feedback, and have implemented some of the changes I recommended in the past. The last time I used it was in January 2020, I think, and the driver at the time was driving for both Uber and EVA as EVA did not yet have much volume. They much preferred EVA’s model, though (and I can’t remember why).
  I will definitely check out CHK PLZ to encourage a local company. I currently use the 3 mainstream services (UberEats, DoorDash, and Skip the Dishes) in alternating fashion. If you don’t use one for a while, they beg you to come back with coupons. I used to like Foodora as they used bike couriers and used them quite a bit when I worked downtown, but they’ve since folded.
  Also, when this whole food delivery craze started a while back, I was reminded of another local company that did this long before it was popular: A La Carte Express. I didn’t like their service when I used it (a long time ago) since it was clunky and expensive. That said, I’m surprised they didn’t improve their position when it got more mainstream. They could have been Montreal’s Skip the Dishes (based in Winnipeg).
  Finally, as others have mentioned, you can save both yourself and the restaurant some money if you call them directly. There’s an Indian place close to my house that I order from that offers free delivery for orders over 20$ if you’re in a 5KM radius, for example. You get free delivery and the restaurant doesn’t have to give their pound of flesh to UberEats. It’s a _teensy_ bit less convenient than using an app, but it’s so much better if you want your favourite restaurant to stick around. I don’t think ghost kitchens can become a thing in Montreal, though. One of the complaints about the food truck regulations was that they needed to be associated to an actual restaurant (“cuisine de production”, in the rulebook). I don’t think these delivery apps will be able to skirt these rules, either.

• MarcG 19:14 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  The problem with ordering directly from a restaurant is contactless payment is often not possible, or at least wasn’t last spring when I last attempted it.

• Ephraim 20:38 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  I think Doordash has the lowest percentage and pays the drivers better. But I don’t have the exact numbers. Some provinces stepped in and put in a cap. They all put in a temporary no charge for pick-up for a few months. Personally, we try to do what’s best for the restaurants, as we want them to be there when this is all over. We’ve called in orders and picked up. But we have used the services every once in a while. We tend to choose place where we can order a much larger order and use it for a number of meals. Having an air fryer is helpful with that.

  As for ghost kitchens, there are a few restaurants that do it themselves. Diablo’s took over the space that was Rubs on Prince Arthur and runs a few ghost restaurants out of the space. But Kinka uses a number of names including Tokyo Sando. See https://www.mtlblog.com/en-ca/feature/montreal/montreal-is-opening-3-new-virtual-restaurants-so-you-can-eat-in-discover-something-new

• dhomas 17:23 on 2021-01-28 Permalink

  Thanks for the info, @Ephraim. I didn’t know ghost restaurants were a thing here. But I simply will not click a link to MTLBlog.

• Jaqui Poser 14:49 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

  Can someone please advise. I work for a medium size law firm in Mtl. Many of the lawyers have their own accounts and never have any problems. It is when we try to use the company card that it is never accepted. As we all know there is no customer service whatsoever. Doordash is the same.

  Can anyone recommend a company that has customer service?