Amazon 'rips off' former employees workplace lunch delivery service

Workers can order daily lunch specials from local restaurants and have them delivered to their offices, via Amazon’s Prime Now app.

The e-commerce company has begun by trialling its ‘Daily Dish’ service among a limited number of companies in Seattle. “Prime members are loving the service so far and we are excited to continue expanding the service,” an Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire.

Employees receive a daily menu via text message at 9.30am, they then have until 11.00am to order their food, which will arrive between 12.00pm and 12.30pm. “No lines. No mark-ups. Free delivery” reads the Daily Dish tagline.

However, the new service is identical to what Peach offers – a start-up founded by three former Amazon employees. Nishant Singh, Chenyu Wang, and Denis Bellavance launched the company in January 2014 to make “lunch easier for working professionals so they can get back to changing the world.”

Although Singh, the CEO of Peach, hasn’t responded to Amazon’s announcement, other employees have expressed their opinion via social media.

Vijay Boyapati, a Software Developer at Peach, wrote on Facebook: “When the sixth largest company in America directly rips off your 40-person start-up's product... ‪#‎ImitationNotAlwaysFlattery”

Responding to his post, Joseph Z Chen, another developer at the start-up, says: “Hey, people need something to compare with before they know how good they have it with Peach. You can't really call yourself the best if there's nobody else. It also validates what we are doing. Amazon's Daily Dish is the Endframe of Peach.”

Peach has raised $11million since inception and is operating in San Diego and Boston, as well as Seattle.