After five years of the Tapingo, USF Dining Services shifted gears and introduced GrubHub as the new mobile ordering app this fall. 

The shift was due to GrubHub’s acquisition of Tapingo in November 2018. The shift in platforms was officially introduced at the beginning of September, a little after fall classes began.

Students can place an online order at any of the on-campus dining locations, such as the Starbucks in the library or the Marshall Student Center (MSC) food court. This is with the exception of the dining halls and P.O.D. markets across campus. During the fall semester, all pickup fees will be waived until Dec. 31.

Sean Hammad, Aramark Food Services Director, said that besides being more modern and recognizable, GrubHub has more of an established footprint in the market.

“With the acquisition, they’re not trying to reinvent the wheel as it is already rolling really well, but use the successes from Tapingo to keep improving while keeping the interface nice and crisp,” Hammad said. “The app just has a different name now, but it’s the same platform.”

Hammad said USF is the first college campus to launch a partnership between GrubHub and Chick-fil-A with the kiosk ordering. He said the kiosks allow students to have more freedom when customizing orders based on their tastes and preferences.

“Chick-fil-A partnered with GrubHub to pilot this new guest interface with the kiosk,” Hammad said. “They chose us to pilot the new ordering method as they are testing the new platform and the feedback it receives.”

All the user’s personal information, history and credit from Tapingo will transfer over to GrubHub automatically once the student signs up for the app, according to Aramark Marketing Director Jessica Cicalese. 

Tapingo will become inactive by the end of September.

“We had to turn over all of our signage and work with the company to make sure that the apps would sync and send students directly to GrubHub,” Cicalese said. “We had such a great partnership with Tapingo that whatever they recommended for the next step, we aligned with it.”

With the recent renovations in the Marshall Student Center food court, students can now order online through GrubHub and pick up their meals at any of the on-campus locations.

“Our main goal with the renovation was to create a better experience for the guests,” Hammad said. “We moved the registers to each location so that students did not have to wait in line, which allowed us to offer mobile ordering in the food court as well.”

In addition to the acquisition of Tapingo, GrubHub partnered up with Chick-fil-A to install kiosks at the on-campus location where students can customize their orders and get familiar with the technology.

Tapingo used to charge 59 cents in pickup fees when ordering through the app. The charge will remain consistent with GrubHub, according to Cicalese. 

“In the partnership with GrubHub, they want us to communicate with their team and share feedback to incorporate new features and make changes on the fly,” Cicalese said. We’re trying to provide our guests with the best technology and the best experience possible. And they’re trying to be the ones that do it.”