"online ordering" news and stories

This weekend, there's going to be a 10-foot pastrami sandwich at the Brooklyn Flea, but, despite the fast-food bigger-is-better craze, no one will dare you to eat it. This inedible behemoth is the latest structure from New York artist and School of Visual Arts professor Kevin O'Callaghan, and that meat is all rubber. That tooth-pick tassel? It's made from old menus. Your old take-out menus, in fact.

The unveiling of the large-scale piece, along with a 10-foot packet of take-out essentials (utensils, condiments, napkin), is the end of a week-long press run for SeamlessWeb.com, the international online food-delivery and takeout site. Their new campaign involves the slogan "(Less Paper) More Eat," and a big red truck circling the city to collect consumers' old menus. In exchange, you get a fortune cookie with a redemption code to use on the site's 5,000 featured restaurants in 27 cities across the U.S, as well as in London. And they've enlisted O'Callaghan to turn those paper menus into a piece of art. (FYI, he also designed the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards and is the subject of the newly released book, Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan, which chronicles his long career.)

I made the grave mistake of ordering Pizza Hut online once, about eight months ago. I had a craving, I read about the online ordering, and I went for it.

...Big mistake. First, it was way too expensive. Second, I happen to live in one of those delivery netherworlds - between the boundaries of one delivery area and another - where the delivery dude refuses to visit. This, however, was not made clear to me on the website - I was easily able to enter my address, and the system informed me that my food would arrive shortly.

Two hours later, no pizza. I wearily called up my local Pizza Hut branch, and a pissed-off sounding teen answered. "...Yea? Pizza Hut?"

"Um...I ordered online, and it still hasn't arrived. Do you happen to know...?"

"Oh. Yea," she said, snapping her gum. "We don't deliver there." (This, mind you, was about .75 miles away). "You can come pick it up."

...And then the e-mailing began.

It's pretty stiff competition out there now in the pizza chain delivery business. First there was online ordering so you wouldn't even have to break your stride while working away at your computer. Then came Papa John's ordering via text message. Driving home from work and don't want to stop somewhere to pick up dinner? Just send a text message with your order. Not soon after we saw Papa John's implement pizza ordering via text message, Pizza Hut is offering the same service.

Oh, the options!

For as much time as I spend on my computer, it surprises me how seldom I actually order food online. Though not exactly a new concept, (heck even Sandra Bullock ordered pizza online in The Net) many pizza restaurants either don't offer the service, or it is limited to so few delivery areas that it doesn't seem worth the effort.

However, Pizza Hut is looking to change that now with the official launch of their system-wide online ordering system. It seems to have all the bells and whistles that you would expect, including special offers and coupons specific to your ordering area, the ability to create your own "pizza playlist", memory of past orders and one-click repeat ordering. I have to admit, my favorite aspect of online ordering is that you actually have a 'hard copy' of what you ordered in case of discrepancy - rather than just your word against that of the person who took your order by phone.

Pizza Hut states that they already have an average of nearly 30 online orders placed every minute during normal business hours nationwide, so you can expect that number to increase exponentially now that the system is fully functional. Do you often order food online, or do you prefer to call it in or simply just pick it up?

Has anyone tried ordering food online yet? I'm talking about ordering food from someplace local, like a pizza place or a restaurant or take-out Chinese. I haven't done it yet (all the food I want to eat is either already in my house or I'll just call and go get it), but several Boston college students do it a lot.

As an experiment for The Boston Globe (the students got a free meal out of it), they all ordered food online at 8pm and waited to see who would deliver the food first. Here are the results. Is the online process tedious or easy? Did the food get there in the time advertised? Does it arrive hot? (Make sure you check out the links in the middle of the article for a rundown of the best services.)

Readers, do you order food online like this? What have your experiences been?