The Strange Case Of The Unwanted Uber Eats Deliveries

As far as phone push notifications go, there's not much that compares to the joy of the Uber Eats alert that your food has arrived. Chances are you've been waiting with anticipation, watching the tiny car on your screen go to the restaurant and then slowly make its way to your house. 

Food delivery has become omnipresent at this point, with the industry's market revenue increasing by over 200% since 2017 (via Business of Apps). Although the pandemic can be largely credited for this boom, as the U.S. begins to recover, food delivery is still projected to grow consistently through 2025. Fundera reports that 60% of adults in the U.S. say they use food delivery services at least once a week. Consumers are all aboard the food delivery train — except for when multiple orders are dropped off at their houses without having ordered them.

This is what's happening to the neighbor of a Redditor who posted about the issue, and with 2,500 comments, the community has a lot to say about it.

Redditors offer plausible possibilities

One Reddit user posted to the subreddit, r/therewasanattempt, with the above photo of their neighbor's front steps and the caption "to get Uber Eats to stop delivering unordered food." While Uber Eats has announced a massive expansion, we don't think practical jokes were part of that plan.

Some users commented that the recipients of the deliveries should be thankful, but the author of the post explains that their neighbors are vegan, so they can't enjoy most of the items.

Another user says "I've heard about this as a form of harassment. It's really hard to stop, which is why it's effective. You just keep sending delivery after delivery, and the recipient just gets interrupted all the time." The original poster admits this as a possibility because his neighbor is a "local 'celebrity' Chief Meteorologist for a TV Station." To make it even more interesting, the poster adds that the orders all come from different restaurants and were never addressed to the same name. 

"Might be the drop point for one of those "food plugs" that have been going around," suggested another user. "Apparently people using stolen credit card services to get food delivery. They usually have food delivered to a nearby doorstep (less tracing directly to themselves), then come and collect the food."

Although we aren't sure of the purpose behind these mystery deliveries, we can see all of the suggested reasons as possibilities.