Sales growth at Grubhub (GRUB) has fallen for five straight quarters, and Grubhub stock has lost 35% of its value over the past year. Now, Grubhub is aiming to do something about that.
This morning, the "nation's leading pickup and delivery marketplace with the largest restaurant network" announced it is launching a "Grubhub+" membership program to reaccelerate growth and lock customers in to its network (so as to make them less inclined to defect to Doordash, Postmates -- or whoever else is offering the fattest coupon today).
Image source: Grubhub.
For a $9.99 monthly fee (after a 14-day free trial -- cancel anytime), Grubhub+ members will receive "unlimited free delivery" from Grubhub+ restaurants. Members will also receive "unlimited 10% cashback" on their food delivery orders. That's enough for membership to pay for itself when ordering "more than $100 in food per month" (from Grubhub alone, mind you).
To further emphasize its desire to discourage bargain-hunting, Grubhub says it will double (or perhaps triple -- the language isn't 100% clear) a new Grubhub+ member's free trial period with 30 free days if they provide proof that they are currently signed up with a rival's subscription service. For that matter, if you're a college student at "any of the 150+ campuses that work with Grubhub," the company says you can get a Grubhub+ subscription totally free.
Now ... does all this sound like a lot? It does, and it is. We've pulled out all the stops for this program," says Sam Hall, Grubhub's Chief Product Officer. Grubhub is currently "the only profitable company in our space," adds company CEO Matt Maloney.
Whether it can remain so after all these giveaways remains to be seen.
