Skip The Dishes has always touted its roots, reminding us that it was – and remains – the only home-grown food delivery service in Canada. Now, it’s fulfilling its destiny in a compelling and timely manner, standing up to the season’s worst weather…
The service must have been planning this all-Canadian promotion for far longer than the weather service attempts to see ahead. But it comes at the ideal moment in this quirky winter…
Worst weekend of year
After a lead-up week of mixed and shifting forecasts, Environment Canada finally solidified its out-look through the weekend just past in time for the actual weather itself to arrive. We got two big dumps of snow here in Canada’s capital, one at the end of the week and another on Sunday. Bringing our total accumulation for the elongated climate event to more than 3 ft. / 110 cm.
In Toronto, Canada’s biggest city and traditionally the hardest hit by such storms, they got less of the white stuff. But still enough to throw traffic into chaos the end of last week. And that naturally threw food delivery services into its own kind of Hell…
Enter: Skip The Dishes
Just a week ago today, Skip issued a news release announcing the launch of it’s own fleet of big orange delivery trucks that double as snow ploughs.
“Feeling the winter chill? Put down the shovel because Skip has got you covered!” the official news release blatted shamelessly. “Introducing the Skip Winter Delivery Fleet: a fleet of custom orange snowplows, clearing the snowy streets and delivering the ultimate convenience to Canadians this winter!”
Hyperbole central
Rarely have I read such superbly crafted, carefully understated hyperbole as the quote attributed to Rachel MacAdam, VP of Marketing at Skip: “As Canada’s homegrown delivery network, we understand that Canadian winters can be unpredictable,” she begins.
“No matter what the season throws at us, Skip is here to help Canadians avoid the winter hassles and get right to the good part,” MacAdam continued. “Whether it’s a comforting meal, last-minute meds to kick a pesky cold, or a week full of groceries, we’re making it easier than ever, with plowed streets and freshly fallen deals!”
Well, you can’t blame Skip for going a little over the top, taking advantage of the stunning 7-day weather forecast covering the coming weekend, which had just been released in its earliest form the same day.
But there’s more…
The plough trucks are just one dimension of the Skip Winter Deal, which also offers, ‘savings of 30 percent or more off your favourite restaurant and retail brands, with new promos dropping weekly’.
Well-known brands taking part include McDonald’s, Boston Pizza and Rexall.
My take
Skip is now ‘part of JustEatTakeaway.com, a leading global online food delivery marketplace’. What JET does is connect more than 81 million consumers to 731,000 retail partners in 17 countries via a network of delivery services of which Skip is just one.
But that doesn’t diminish Skip’s own ‘Canadian’ identity. In fact, it enhances Skip’s ability to with-stand the ups and down of an overall delivery industry that’s recently been struggling to operate at narrower and narrower margins amid shrinking sales and lower profit margins. And to offer that significant 30 percent off just when so many snow-bound folks need it most.
Bravo, Skip, for embracing your Great White Canadian roots!
~ Maggie J.