Lyft dips toes into food delivery for first time

Lyft has added e-scooters, e-bikes, car rentals, and other services to its original ride-sharing app over the years, but it's stayed away from food delivery. Until now.

On Tuesday, Lyft announced that its subscription plan, Lyft Pink, will now include perks from restaurant delivery app Grubhub. Lyft Pink subscribers — who pay $19.99 per month for Lyft discounts — will get access to Grubhub+ (and Grubhub-owned Seamless+) for free delivery on any orders on those apps as well as other promotions and offers.

Normally Grubhub+ has a separate subscription fee of $9.99 per month for unlimited free delivery. For Lyft Pink members that's rolled into the monthly plan with access to free delivery and other promotions at 200,000 restaurants on the food app.

That's on top of the existing Lyft Prink offerings. Those include 15 percent off all rides, three free 30-minute scooter or bike rides per month, faster airport pickups, and three chances to avoid cancellation fees per month.

Uber added Uber Eats in 2014, and during the pandemic the company is relying on its food delivery business more than ever. Uber rides were down 85 percent at the start of COVID-19 shutdowns, but demand for food delivery shot up. Lyft has also suffered, with ridership 75 percent lower in April 2020 than April 2019, but it doesn't have a food business to fall back on.

As ride demand remains below normal, Lyft is partnering with the very food delivery company Uber failed to acquire this summer. Uber ultimately bought another, albeit smaller delivery app, Postmates.