Every Vytal container has a unique name. Photo Resource Starting this week, the caterer Compass is testing a system with takeaway containers for meals from the Forum and Orion restaurants. Resource gave it a try.
Before you are allowed to take away your meal, you first have to install an app, create an account and add your personal payment details. You can use the container system (of the Vytal brand) free of charge but you get a fine if you return the container too late or not at all. A bit like the library in the past where you got charged for every day your book was overdue.
When you scan the QR code on the lid, the app records the container you want to borrow: each container has its own unique code. When you pay for your meal at the cash desk, you show the scan in the app. You also have to tell the cashier what you have put in the container, because they can’t tell from the opaque lid.
The containers are free but you get a fine for late returns
The tray in the restaurant where you return your container is supposed to have a return sticker with a QR code that you scan when handing your container back. That was still missing in the Orion restaurant when this issue of Resource was printed. ‘Chuck the container in the tray,’ said the cook. ‘We scan all the containers at the end of the day and then you’ll get confirmation you handed it back in the app.’ And we did.
Bonus
Hardly any use was made of the Vytal containers in the first week. The four-month pilot is intended to show how much demand there is for this service and what people’s experiences are. A bonus if you buy a soup is that more fits in the takeaway container than in the standard ceramic bowls. It all adds up!
