Sérgio Almeida
Sérgio Almeida is striving to bring Macau’s residents closer to local restaurants. ‘Fai D Fai D,’ currently operating on a trial, aims to deliver clients’ favorite restaurant dishes to their homes or offices within an hour.
“Macau is a small and overcrowded place with serious traffic issues. Small restaurants get easily packed at rush hours, and people who want to order take away sometimes have difficulties in finding car park spaces,” said Sérgio, a local resident.
Realizing that restaurants face challenges in operating their own delivery service, Sérgio thought that outsourcing such a service would be a more suitable option.
The idea took shape six years ago, when he was still living in Beijing . A few months after moving back to Macau last year, his girlfriend ordered food using a similar type of service, which Sérgio thought was an effective way to help people get their favorite dishes without having to leave their home.
In such a busy and crowded city, many face hurdles when trying to get their preferred lunch option at the office as well, which makes Macau a perfect place to develop delivery service projects, Sérgio stressed. “People who work in the NAPE area, for instance, have very little options for lunch, and those available are usually full. Also, people who work until late in the evening and have no time to cook find themselves having the same delivery options,” he recalled, stating that ‘Fai D Fai D’ was created to broaden those options.
“Everyone at some point has already thought: ‘Oh I wish I could eat that food from that restaurant’ without having to leave home. We hope to be the first thing that comes to these people’s minds when they want that,” he added.
But how does a food delivery service operate, particularly in terms of charges? Sérgio clarified that it really depends on what type of service people request. “We have a couple of services on our website [www.faidfaid.com]. The main service we provide is an under one hour delivery from any restaurant [available on the website], which is free and we hope to keep it that way,” he said.
The main service provided by ‘Fai D Fai D’ does not require the client to pay an extra charge, and the price of each dish remains the same as if ordered at the restaurant.
Other services include a premium delivery option, which comes at an extra cost. “We are requested to pick up food from restaurants that we don’t have an agreement with. Even though we have had clients using this service already, it’s still quite new and subject to changes,” he acknowledged.
‘Request a delivery’ is another option, which allows a client to request a delivery from any place as long as it’s related to food and drinks. The price will depend on how many people are needed to operate the delivery and the mode of transportation required, as well as the size of the order and distance.
Orders are currently placed via the company’s website, but they’re hoping to launch an app or call center at a later stage.
‘Fai D Fai D’ is currently working with seven local restaurants, namely Boa Mesa (Portuguese food), Tacos (Mexican), LB Super Pollo, Metropizza, Greens Kitchen & Juicery, Doçuras e Ternuras and Fai D Catering. They are negotiating cooperation with nine other restaurants.
The main service is available between 11am and 3pm, as well as between 6pm and 8pm. The ‘request a delivery’ service is available between 11am and 10pm.
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