Business Insider/Nick Bastone
Typically, I take my lunch to work. It's healthier than always eating out and helps me save some dough. But microwaved leftovers and soggy PB&J's can get old.
So I decided to try out $4 - an order-ahead app that I've seen advertised all around San Francisco's Financial District. It's also available in most major US cities like New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
I was initially wary of Ritual. If I wanted a food app for the sole purpose of convenience, why wouldn't I splurge on a food-delivery app like $4 that would bring food right to me? Or, if I was optimizing on price, why wouldn't I use $4 - the monthly subscription service where lunches from local restaurants only cost $6.
The value propositions of Ritual - order ahead, skip the line, and earn rewards - seemed to fall in some awkward middle ground of food apps that didn't seem all too compelling for me.
Nonetheless, I was curious to see why so many techies around me seemed to be loving it.
Here's what I found: