Dirty Grubhub Delivery Bags in Brooklyn

Battery-powered bikes were once illegal in New York City and seldom seen. That was the correct policy, especially from the perspective of pedestrians. These bikes, although still illegal, started to become more common in the mid 2010s, and then former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio initiated the process to legalize the things in 2018. I remember seeing one on the Brooklyn Bridge around that time (before all bikes were kicked off the top pedestrian level) and thinking about how the City was declining. Things would become worse, especially in 2020, as restaurant deliveries increased and reckless food delivery men (maybe 1 out of every few hundred I see are women, so I will say delivery men) ride their bikes on the streets as if traffic laws such as red lights, stop signs, and one way streets do not apply to them as they ride on sidewalks as if sidewalks are for motorized vehicles. Of course, the e-bike delivery guys are not the only culprits. I have been zinged by many-a-moped or borderline motorcycle on the sidewalk as well, and one cut very close to me going the wrong way against the light as I was crossing the street right after taking a photograph of the Moon that I featured in a recent article.

I will venture that most of the e-bike restaurant delivery guys I see are carrying Grubhub bags. I understand that Grubhub is a food ordering and delivery platform. Were it up to me as a Brooklyn pedestrian, I would designate it as a terrorist organization, but that is neither here nor there. The Grubhub bags the delivery men carry are insulated in order to keep the contents of the bag warm (or perhaps cold in rarer cases). I have noticed one thing about the majority of these bags.

They are absolutely filthy and tattered, often falling apart at the seams.

Most of the Grubhub bags are, or once were, red. Some are orange, but I cannot tell if they were originally orange or have lost their color at some point. Most are at least partially covered in street grime, some so covered that I would be hard-pressed to guess the original color without having a point of reference. I have seen some delivery drivers on mopeds (as opposed to e-bikes) using the bags as a proverbial footrest. Some of the bags have large tears in the exterior cover, perhaps calling into question their insulation prowess. I fear the interior of the bags may be equally – and grossly – filthy.

To be sure, I would expect Grubhub delivery bags to have a rough go of it in the elements on New York City streets. Ideally, the would be replaced somewhat regularly. The thing here is that the filthy state of some of these bags is highly suggestive of never being replaced at all and being used until they lose the essence that makes a bag a bag and allows it to carry out normal bag purposes.

I do not order delivery from restaurants. I once had a good dream about finding onions on sale at the grocery store. That is more what I am going for than restaurant delivery. If I am going to spend restaurant prices, I may as well go to a restaurant (something I do very seldomly). This all to say that I have no horse in the Grubhub delivery food safety risk. But is it really sanitary for food to be carted along for variable periods of time in filthy bags which may or may not have holes in them? If the food is being delivered in the summer, is it a problem when the insulating bag may no longer insulate? Yet people living in expensive housing ordering food from expensive restaurants witness the delivery arriving at their doors in these bags. And then consume that food. Again, I submit this for the consideration of my New York City betters who seem to order three meals per day while indirectly putting my life in danger when I go for walks.

I had long thought about writing an article about filthy Grubhub bags much like I once did about another restaurant-adjacent issue which became a problem in 2020 – filthy dining sheds (or chicken coops). The problem is there was never an obvious way to take a photo of a Grubhub bag. I am not into taking photos of random people on the street or hunting for briefly unattended Grubhub bags. I finally had my chance on October 17, 2024, when I found a Grubhub bag on a Brooklyn sidewalk.

There was a food container not far from the bag, leading me to suspect it had fallen from a bike or moped instead of having been deliberately discarded on the sidewalk. As filthy as it is, it would be odd for a bag like this one to be thrown away. There are many bags – perhaps half – in use and in worse shape than this one. For example, the dirt and grime is far more severe on the bottom of the bag than the top whereas it is fairly evenly and liberally distributed on many working bags. This bag did not have any gaping tears in the camera-facing side, putting it a cut above many in-use bags. Thus, lost or discarded and all, I deem this a good example of a middle-quality working Grubhub bag in Brooklyn, New York City. Would you want your food delivery to be carried to you in a bag that looks like this or worse? I would answer in the negative – but as I dodge Grubhub-bag wielding delivery men on streets and sidewalks, I venture than many of my fellow Brooklyn residents see things differently.

Or maybe they never think about it at all.