$500 GrabFood order from Shake Shack thrown away at Jewel? Netizens have questions and theories

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Five hundred dollars is a lot to pay for food. Worse is to not get it.

Ever since Facebook user Melvin Twj posted about it on Sept 2, the saga of his $500 GrabFood order from Shake Shack ending up next to a bin in the basement of Jewel Changi Airport (or did it?) has gone viral. The post has been shared more than 1,000 times.

The story has a number of twists and turns, like Game Of Thrones but with burgers.

At first, Grab claimed the food was delivered. Then Grab claimed the Grab driver could not find the delivery location.

Then Grab claimed the driver was aware of the location but could not contact Melvin. "But the strange thing was that there was no chat history found on my phone at all," said Melvin in his post.

So the driver was advised by the company to dispose of the food.

"However," said Melvin, "the driver raised a concern, claiming that the food was of a high value, after which the Grab agent suggested leaving the food at the security guard post. The driver then raised another concern, stating that he was afraid that the food would be stolen at the security guard post.

"Hence, the Grab agent suggested that if there was no safe place around the location, dispose of the items."

Melvin shared a photo of three large Shake Shack paper bags next to a bin, presumably sent to him by Grab to show that the food was disposed of.

Melvin ended his post with a few questions, such as:

  • "Is the security guard post not considered a safe place even when there was security there?"
  • "Why would the driver make such a trip to the rubbish bin at the basement two carpark entrance in Jewel Changi Airport just to dispose of the food?"
  • "Since the Grab agent told me that the Grab driver arrived at the location, why was I not informed and the CCTV did not capture anyone unfamiliar?"

In a screenshot of Melvin’s chat with Grab, he was told he would be getting only a $50 refund in his GrabPay wallet.

Grab has since tried to get Melvin to contact the company in the comment section of his Facebook post but was rejected by Melvin. Stomp has contacted Grab for more info.

Even Shake Shack reached out.

Netizens have their own questions as well as theories.

One veteran food delivery rider told Stomp his theory: "Most riders, after taking the photo of the food disposal, will take back the food to consume or pass to fellow riders if the quantity of the food is too much just like what happened to the $500 Shake Shack order."

A few netizens wondered where the delivery location was.

One commenter mentioned Changi Naval Base, which makes sense since Melvin can be seen in Instagram posts wearing T-shirts with the Republic of Singapore Navy emblem and the naval base is relatively close to Jewel Changi Airport.

When contacted by Stomp, Melvin said he was not comfortable disclosing the exact location "due to security reasons" but said it was at Tanah Merah Coast.