Telling the food delivery company you don’t need them to deliver your food nets you some extra cash.

While Uber’s ride-sharing initiative has had next to no impact in Japan, Uber Eats is a major hit. With a wide selection of restaurant options, easy ordering, and the convenience of home delivery, what’s not to like?

Really, the only downside is the service/delivery fee. Right now there’s a way to counteract that, though, thanks to a promotion Uber Eats Japan is running that gives you 35 percent off the cost of your order. All you have to do is utilize the app’s omochikaeri option when ordering.

And what’s omochikaeri mean? “Pickup.” In other words, Uber Eats is offering the discount to customers who are willing to go pick up their order themselves.

It’s pretty much a complete role reversal for a company whose whole business model is “give us money and we’ll bring you food,” and online reactions in Japan have included plenty of head-scratching:

“Picking up your Uber Eats order by yourself…so Uber Eats is completely unnecessary?”
“So basically you’re just ordering takeout.”
“Seems like they’re putting the cart in front of the horse.”
“What’s the point of using Uber Eats without delivery?”
“This is like if you went to a butcher shop to buy some meat, and they said ‘OK, here’s a calf for you to raise. Bon appétit!”

As strange as the promotion may be, a discount is still a discount, and since using the self-pickup option means you’re not paying any service or delivery fee, the entire discount is extra money in your pocket compared to placing an ordinary non-Uber Eats takeout order. Essentially you use Uber Eats as an ordering app in order to get the discount (which caps at 1,000 yen [US$9.50], which would be your discount for an order of 2,857 yen or more). Uber Eats itself also points out that placing your order through its app cuts down on time spent waiting in line and for your order to be cooked, since it’ll be ready and waiting for you at the counter (or fried chicken locker, if you’re ordering from certain Tokyo KFC branches).

The promotion runs until November 2, and is also the perfect opportunity to field test the Uber Eats backpacks being sold by Amazon Japan.

Sources: Uber Eats via Engadget via Jin, Twitter
Top image: Uber Eats
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