Yahoo Finance YouTuber Josh Pieters sold microwaved ready-meals on Deliveroo – and got away with it
Ever been disappointed with a delivery order and wondered whether the restaurant was really just reheating supermarket-bought food?
Based on a new video from London-based YouTuber Josh Pieters, the answer is it’s not actually impossible.
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His video, ‘I Sold Microwave Meals On Deliveroo’, was released on Saturday 7 September and has already been viewed a whopping 200,000 times as viewers tuned in to find out just how Pieters, and magician friend Archie Manners, managed to list his apartment’s kitchen on Deliveroo and actually send out food to hungry locals.
Pieters built a website, The Italian Stallion, which listed meals from UK supermarket Waitrose in appetising ways, launched an Instagram page and bought followers, and registered as a food business establishment, listing his apartment as the restaurant address.
The YouTube star - who has nearly 1 million followers - told Yahoo Finance he wasn’t sponsored by Waitrose.
“If Deliveroo checked with the council, they would find we were totally legal,” Pieters said in the video.
“I’d also set up a real company, Italian Stallion Ltd. A simple search would have told Deliveroo that this restaurant was owned by me, was three days’ old, and was based in apartment 132.”
The next step was to contact Deliveroo about the required hygiene review. But, they were told they could operate so long as they’d put in their application to operate on Deliveroo, regardless of whether the review was still pending.
“With a website, a company, an Instagram account, and a microwave, but no inspection from Deliveroo, we were ready to take our first orders.”
He listed every Italian meal sold at Waitrose on the app, and the orders started flooding in. The store-bought ready-meals were heated up in a microwave, arranged in an appealing way and sent off with Deliveroo riders to hungry Londoners.
However, Pieters also included a cash refund for the microwave meals in each delivery, along with a note explaining what they were doing.
“What’s interesting about this is we don’t have a food hygiene rating, Deliveroo know we don’t have a food hygiene rating. This is just my kitchen,” Pieters said.
He made £100 (AU$179.86) in one day’s work – and refunded all of it – before closing the restaurant.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Pieters said he hasn’t yet heard anything from Deliveroo about the microwave stunt.
The lesson, he added, is that “if you apply your mind there are business opportunities in the strangest of places”.
Additionally, “In this day and age we are quick to click and buy, perhaps we need to start researching more on the things we can attain so easily.”
Yahoo Finance has contacted Deliveroo Australia for comment.
The Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit will take place on the 26th September 2019 at the Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney. Check out the full line-up of speakers and agenda here.
