WunWun On-Demand Delivery App Expands Into Brooklyn

WunWun, an app that acts like the Uber for just about anything, has expanded from Manhattan into BK (where you can have it your way).

Today marks the first time the app has been available outside of Manhattan, with WunWun helpers now answering calls in Williamsburg and Dumbo, Brooklyn.

The startup launched back in November of 2012, and has since been experimenting with business models for a service that lets users order anything, from toilet paper, to Chipotle, to picking up your grandma from the airport.

Originally, anything you purchased from a regular store, like a pharmacy or grocery store, was delivered for free, with the amount of the cost charged to your credit card. If you wanted to place a custom order, like a delivery from a restaurant or leaving a key with your Airbnb guest, it cost an extra $20.

Recently, WunWun implemented surge pricing to deal with extra demand in the wake of a few snow storms in the North East. The Surge Pricing added on a multiplier, in increments of $5, to move your order to the front of the cue. The cap on the surge pricing was $30 and six hours.

With the launch into Brooklyn, the company has to fiddle with pricing once again.

For orders in Manhattan and delivered in Manhattan, nothing changes. The same is true for orders delivered in Brooklyn from Brooklyn Restaurants. But if I place an order from Balthazaar, a restaurant in Soho, to be delivered in Williamsburg, WunWun charges an extra ten dollars on top of my original $20 charge.

In other words, if a WunWun helper has to cross over the river to deliver or retrieve your order, add an extra $10 to the order.

Opening in Brooklyn is a big move for the startup. Though delivery is always a big deal in Manhattan, where the weather is rough and very few people have their own cars, Brooklyn has even less options than Manhattan. There aren’t quite as many pharmacies, delis, shops or restaurants in Brooklyn as there are in Manhattan, so WunWun should have an active userbase in the BK.

But why BK?

According to founder Lee Hnetinka, the company wanted to really take care of New York before heading to the West Coast. That includes all the boroughs, not just the main island.