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"Ghost" Restaurants Are Haunting Seamless
By
Nell Casey
Published Nov 11, 2015
Modified Nov 11, 2015
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By
Nell Casey
Published Nov 11, 2015
Modified Nov 11, 2015
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The endless Seamless scroll is a daily ritual for most of us. Selecting one of the dozens—if you're lucky—restaurants on their site can often take nearly as long as making the damn meal yourself—and some conniving restaurateurs have found a way to exploit that bounty by creating fake or "ghost" restaurants to increase a customers chances of ordering from them.
An investigation by NBC New York discovered that 10% out of the 100 restaurants they searched via Seamless and GrubHub were found to be ghost restaurants. A restaurant listed as Really Chinese advertised their location on 31st Street yet the listed address was one for a private residence, not a restaurant. According to the delivery person, the food was actually being prepared at Abby Chinese, located four blocks away.
Gary Chen, owner of Abby Chinese, says it's common for restaurants to employ this practice to stay competitive in a flush market. "When we have one line, it's hard to compete," Chen explained. “We know how many lines some of the other restaurants have. It's an open secret." In fact, last year Tribeca Citizen uncovered a similar practice, whereby one restaurant kitchen was listed under multiple names on the Seamless website.
"Some people might be illegally operating from their apartment, from their home, and delivering to people in complete contravention to department of health regulation," said Julie Menin, Consumer Affairs Commissioner, whose office reportedly encounters this issue regularly. For its part, GrubHub says it "take[s] the accuracy of our restaurant listings seriously" and will work with the DCA on an exorcism.
Update A representative for GrubHub tells us the restaurants mentioned in the story above have both been removed from the Seamless listings. The company also released the following statement:
Going forward, GrubHub will take additional steps to verify the details restaurants provide. Our new process includes more checks to validate the name and location of restaurants. Should any discrepancies arise, we will take immediate action to correct information or remove inaccurate listings of restaurants on our platforms. We're also encouraging tips. If you spot any inaccuracy on our platforms, you can alert us at [email protected] or [email protected].
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Nell Casey
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