Tapingo, an app that facilitates food order and pick up services on campus, is advertized as an indispensable ally for NYU students. Its promise “wait less, live more” seems to be somewhat accomplished by its targeting of students with tight schedules. However, with the recent addition of the pasta station at the Kimmel Marketplace, the app has shown it will need intense improvements in order to operate smoothly as it’s meant to.

The pasta station is one of the most popular dining stations at Kimmel and maintains one of the longest lines. Tapingo proposed its services as a solution, yet not much has changed since its implementation. Since the service was introduced last week, lines have still been strenuous and the Tapingo wait time can reach up to an hour. Many students must give up their orders and choose something else for the sake of time. On top of this, Tapingo lines at the Marketplace are not well-labeled, making it difficult for students to locate them or form an organized line. The app also does not allow changes to orders once they’ve been completed, which can create frustrating situations as some students may end up with something other than what they expected.

Overall, Tapingo’s biggest problem is its unreliability. For students with tight schedules, the app may not be a reliable option for picking up food quickly, since it can take up to double the projected wait time. Since the service usually displays incorrect wait times, resulting in an overwhelming amount of orders that cannot be handled on time. Additionally, in most stations, there is only one person handling Tapingo orders, while another takes orders in person. Instead of deceiving students with inaccurate wait times and overworking cooks, Tapingo should be more honest, while NYU should either increase the number of cooks completing Tapingo orders or disable the busiest stations on the app during rush hours.

Food is an essential part of the academic experience for any college student in New York. Tapingo is meant to alleviate the stress of students’ tight schedules but it falls short of this goal in Kimmel. While the app may be efficient in other locations on-campus, its performance at Kimmel Marketplace during rush hours must be improved.

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Email Carine Zambrano at [email protected].