Just today, Grab announced a ‘Tapau’ option on GrabFood for customers who wanted to minimise contact with people and not pay for delivery. All they have to do is to order via the app, go to the restaurant and pick up the food. However, just hours after this was announced, Grab suspended its service following the Prime Minister’s announcement today.
This can be for a number of reasons. Firstly, during the course of the movement control order, people are advised to stay home until unless it is absolutely pertinent. Like getting groceries or buying medicine and even when it comes to this, only one representative of a family is allowed to carry out these tasks. The government is encouraging people to not flock to a place and hence why these restrictions are in place.
As much as people are allowed to go out and get food and groceries, the police and army will monitor the streets to make sure people are not travelling unnecessarily. Even with the suspension of ‘self-pickup’, you can still place your orders normally via the Grab App and it will be delivered to you within the designated time.
While some of us can go out to top up on dwindling supplies, there are those who may be housebound who may not be able to move about as conveniently. So during these trying times, we continue to take more steps towards supporting businesses and ensuring Malaysians are able to access even the smallest of necessity via our platform.
Sean Goh, Country Head, Grab Malaysia.
However, besides the suspension of the ‘self-pickup’ option, everything else will be available. Such as the Pasar option, which is an extension of the existing GrabMart feature. Grab’s aim is to deliver fresh vegetables, poultry and seafood to their customers and they are starting with the TTDI market for now. They hope to rope in more markets in the future.
In addition, GrabMart is also going to be available in Penang, JB, Melaka, KK, Kuching and Ipoh by the 25th of March. Grab will be running promos to boost the sales of merchants and delivery partners. Some of their discounts include free delivery, 30% off GrabFood Signatures, and 50% off GrabMart’s health essentials.
Malaysia recorded 212 cases of COVID-19 today which brought the total number of cases to 1,518. The Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin announced an economic stimulus package which is supposed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the economy and to also provide aid for the people. The movement control order which is set to end on the 31st of March may continue on for up to two weeks. The decision will be made on the 30th of March.
