Delivery is life — I can’t imagine a time before I had the convenience of food and groceries arriving at my door. What, you mean actually heading to the coffeeshop a few streets away to dabao lunch, or to the nearby mall to stock up the fridge? Nah, and especially when WFH has made me more of a recluse; I cram my social appointments into one day as much as possible, in order to minimise the number of times I have to step in and out of the house. If you’re like me, chances are, you’re also spending a significant portion of monthly expenditure on apps such as Grab, with good reason though. The convenience, and more.
True enough, Grab and its multitude of digital lifestyle services — especially Grab rides and GrabFood — are already well-known, though we might be so used to our routine orders that we might not encounter the newer features listed on the app. Guilty as charged here. In fact, Grab is always innovating and improving on the customer experience, that’s you and me, by keeping a close eye on our collective feedback.
To truly test out the app, as well as to try out some new features, I tried the Grab app for a week — and rated my experience on these two aspects: value-for-money, and convenience. Consider this a guide to how you can get the most value out of your Grab app.
1. MIX & MATCH + ISLANDWIDE DELIVERY
The Mix & Match feature was the one I was most excited to try. With this new feature, we’re able to combine orders from different restaurants in the same area into one cart, which can mean a couple of things — you won’t have to fight with your family member(s) if you’re craving two completely different restaurants, or you’re able to compile various types of cuisine / food items into one order, with just one delivery fee.
To try this, head to the “All-In-One Delivery Fee” tab on the app. Here, you can find several options listed, and pick the store you’d like to order from. The drop-down menu there will show the restaurants you can order from.
It was a Friday when I tried this, so in the spirit of TGIF, I basically narrowed down my choices to: how can I get my bubble tea asap? For that, Jewel Changi was a great Mix & Match choice, since Signature Koi was listed there, while I was looking forward to trying the delicious-looking Crispy Horfun with Truffle Prawn Broth from Yun Nans as well. It looked so good in the menu picture. I was tempted to add a dessert to my Mix & Match cart as well, but I think bubble tea counts as both a dessert and drink, so, some restraint here.
My Order: Jewel changi airport’s Mix & Match
– Yun Nans Crispy Horfun with Truffle Prawn Broth ($19.44)
– signature KOI Earl Grey Milk Tea with bubbles ($6.30)
– $12.60 Delivery
TOTAL: $38.34
I know, it’s quite a bit to spend on a solo lunch, but like I said, TGIF right… By the way, what I got to enjoy was a fragrant dish of an eggy seafood broth that was served warm (and unspilled), full of savoury goodness. The crispy noodles on top added a nice crunchy texture to the silky hor fun noodles too. Of course, shoutout to my Earl Grey Milk Tea, which was the whole point of my experiment.
The sheer variety of food and restaurants is what makes Islandwide Delivery such a fun option to try. Grab has hundreds of F&B establishments currently listed here, and I bet they’ll be expanding these further in the coming months. I’ve previously tried Islandwide Delivery for cafe fare, and I love how that opens up my options to things beyond my vicinity. Likewise, even if you don’t live in the East, these Jewel restaurants will still be available to you!
A note on delivery fees though. It’s normal to see $10 or above on most islandwide options, which did make me feel uncomfortable spending at first. However, I thought about how inconvenient it was to travel back and forth if I had actually wanted to head down to the restaurant, which would incur transport costs or parking fees too. Couple that with gloomy weather, and I was quite satisfied with my lazy-but-practical option.
As for Mix & Match, Grab did mention that they’ll be expanding this option to more hawker centres around Singapore, to 16 more locations in fact, so consumers can enjoy more variety. Some of the currently-listed ones, including Chomp Chomp Food Centre and Kovan Market & Food Centre, were a bit far from where I live, but I’m looking forward to East-side options so I can stack my orh luak, hokkien mee, and satay all in one delivery cart.
Value-for-money: 4 / 5
I don’t have to order from multiple stores any more if I want my bubble tea fix alongside my mains, since these can now be added into one cart. The cost can add up though if you’re looking at restaurant fare, so I’d bump this up to a 5 when hawker fare’s included as well.
Convenience: 5 / 5
Islandwide delivery is a game-changer that opens up my options to all around Singapore! Glad they kept this around, even after Circuit Breaker.
2. GRABEXPRESS
To be fair, GrabExpress has been around for a while, though this marks my first time using it. The feature offers instant door-to-door delivery service, and taps on Grab’s fleet of motorbikes and cars for islandwide delivery. They’ve also assured safe and quality item drop-offs too by well-trained drivers, while you’ll be able to track the delivery in real-time, which helped ease my mind a little when I had to deliver a MacBook Air to my Editor’s place this week.
My Order: delivered a MacBook Air to my Editor. $14 Delivery.
Thankfully, my job offers the freedom to work remotely, and while the NYLON team has been working from home, we’ve been receiving parcels and media drops individually. It’s been hard to coordinate meet-ups should we need to pass items or office equipment to one another, and in this case, the MacBook Air.
GrabExpress though, makes this a lot easier. I went ahead to book my GrabExpress service, choosing the Bike option, which is appropriate for items below 5kg. In less than 5 minutes, the driver turned up at my door to collect the item — and in less than 30 minutes, delivered it to my recipient in good condition. Very convenient.
I know of friends who’ve used GrabExpress for other reasons too. A colleague once used it to pick up an important item she had forgotten to bring to office one day; others have used the service to pick up orders from online merchants, by sending a driver over to their favourite home baker’s place, so they won’t have to personally head down to collect the items.
Value-for-money: 4.5 / 5
A bit on the pricey side for my taste, but at least I know my item was safe the whole time. Beats travelling out and the costs incurred.
Convenience: 5 / 5
I won’t have to go out of my way to run errands, which is really convenient since I don’t own a car.
3. ORDER WITH FRIENDS
This one’s a small feature that you wouldn’t otherwise notice in the app — though a mighty convenient option if you’re always the designated person who orders for your group of friends.
First, the usual way of ordering with friends. Discuss a restaurant, send over a couple of screenshots to the group chat, wait as their individual orders flood in, and just for you, the poor volunteer / host, you get the privilege of squinting your eyes as you scroll through the menu to locate your friends’ specific orders on the list. God forbid if they want to customise their items.
The new way? Send a digital link invite to your friends, and get them to add their items into a group basket!
My Order: New Hawa Restaurant — Tampines Street 44
– sambal Fried Rice with chicken ($8)
– Hong kong Kway Teow ($6)
– Baby Kailan with gaelic ($8)
– $3.80 Delivery
TOTAL: $25.80
I tried this on a mid-week evening when I wanted to order from a tze char restaurant, and didn’t want to risk hitting up the wrong option when ordering on behalf of my husband — hasn’t happened before, but you know. New Hawa has lots of food items listed on their menu, which can be confusing to navigate (sambal chicken with rice / sambal fried rice with chicken), so I promptly sent over the Group Order Invite link over Whatsapp.
This prompted him to accept the invite, which then meant he could start adding items into the basket. After he was done, he hit “Confirm Order” so I could see all our items in the cart. Once I was satisfied, I tapped “Checkout” and “Place Group Order” to proceed.
Since it was my first time using this function, I was a bit unsure of the procedure, though the process was seamless throughout. My food also arrived without a hitch, and we got to enjoy our feast — well, for two anyway — of comfort food. With the demand for food delivery increasing, and the trend of people opting to dine within the comforts of our homes or office, I can see how this feature adds significant convenience to the process of ordering.
In fact, I stumbled upon this restaurant while exploring the “Delivery fees $3 or less” tab on my GrabFood homepage. This, and the Order With Friends function, encourages me to explore my Grab app more frequently. Admittedly, I’m very used to the same old functions, so imagine my delight when locating these. You can occasionally explore the tabs on the main GrabFood page — that’s where you’ll find options such as “Deals Around You” to find offers within your vicinity; “Grab Gourmand List” for some foodie picks; or “Collect by yourself” where you get to enjoy 15% self-pick ups, say if you happen to be heading home from an event.
Value-for-money: N/A
Convenience: 4.5 / 5
Took some getting used to, but I can see how this will be useful for big orders, or for restaurants with large menus.
4. GRABMART
Grab doesn’t just do food delivery — they’ve since expanded into groceries and more as well, with the GrabMart service. Here, you’ll find stores that offer fresh produce, health & beauty items, specialty stores, cakes & desserts, and more, so you truly don’t need to be heading out of your house for these errands that will inevitably cost you valuable time. Of course, we’re talking about same-day, or next-day delivery as well, while you can also opt for a delivery timing when you’ll be at home.
There were plenty of stores listed within my area, from Shell Select and Cheers, to Famous Amos and Yole. Even small businesses such as New Meena Mart at Tampines Central 1, or One Stop Mini-Mart, made the cut. Well-known brand names such as Watsons and Unity, or The Body Shop and innisfree were also listed as merchants, which I’ll take note of the next time I want to shop for beauty items on the app.
My Order: Unity — Tampines One
– The Australian Cosmetic Company Hand Cream Goat’s Milk ($4.90)
– Forever Family Reusable Mask ($5.80)
– Swisspers Make-Up Pads ($4.40)
– Nivea Men Deodorant Roll-On ($4.75)
– Lifebuoy Hand Sanitiser ($2.65)
– $5 Delivery, but applied a $8 GrabMart voucher
TOTAL: $19.70
The first thing that struck me when I opened the GrabMart tab, was that I liked the new simplified interface that lists groups such as “Groceries”, “Snacks”, “Wellness”, and “Mart Deals” right at the top, so I could just tap them instead of scrolling endlessly to find what I want.
For my order, I was in need of some hand cream and roll-on deodorant for my husband, so Unity it was. Similar to a GrabFood order, I just need to add the items to my cart, then check out for the order to go through. It was seamless, and I received my items within 30 minutes. A point to note is that because mine was a relatively small order, I did feel that it didn’t account for the $5 delivery fee charged — I did have a GrabMart voucher that took $8 off my bill though, so that worked out great in the end. What I am looking forward to though, would be trying GrabMart out for larger grocery orders, especially when ordering milk, fruit juices and drinks!
Value-for-money: 3.5 / 5
I did save precious time. Only docking points because mine’s a relatively small order which doesn’t quite account for the delivery fee if I didn’t have a Grab voucher. Would definitely use this again for bulk grocery orders though!
Convenience: 5 / 5
Works exactly like GrabFood, which I’m already used to. Anything that doesn’t require me stepping out of the house is a plus!
Follow Grab on INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK to keep updated on their new features. GRAB.COM/SG
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