cost of fuel, insurance and car maintenance have increased
As someone who drives for one of these companies, cost of fuel is only really an issue sometimes. When it gets closer to $4 a gallon, it stops being worth it. I do my own car maintenance so this really isn’t too much of an issue either. Car insurance though? You bet those fuckers have made plays to try and jack driver’s prices up. Some companies outright won’t insure you if you’re a driver without getting commercial insurance, which, from when I was shopping was over a grand a month in my state. (Mid-size sedan.)
I don’t understand the people who get McDonald’s on these apps
Right? McDonald’s has their own app!
(/j) Although I do use the McDs app, only to order ahead and then go pick up in person
I am so sick of food places replacing delivery drivers with Uber eats. Now my order takes two hours, arrives cold, and the tip vanishes into the ether. Drivers paid less, restaurants charged more per delivery, and a worse customer experience.
Hmm, kinda update experience for me. The people who have their own drivers are the worst. No accountability, does whatever the fuck they want.
I don’t know why people so harshly down voted you. I imagine this is very dependant on locale and you were just sharing your experience.
For sure, foodora and Wolt (main delivery guys in downtown Oslo) are very quick and reliable.
Last time I used Uber eats they scammed me out of $200
Uber eats is the worse as a customer. I wish they were the first to close shop but nope.
Don’t… Use them?
Oh yep I’ll use the good competitor that they killed. It’s just going to cost me a couple trips in my DeLorean.
Or, you know, put regular gas in that DeLorean and go get the food yourself. Acting entitled to food delivery and also hating the food delivery service that’s able to stay in business is kinda silly.
Did you get the illusion that I came here asking for help to solve my problems? Just take the rant mate.
The restaurant didn’t have most of what I ordered and called me so I tried cancelling the order, and so did they but Uber basically said that they have a no refund policy so I don’t get my money back, even though I didn’t get anything for that money. I put a fraud charge or my card, and I’m waiting to see if I can get the money back that way.
What I don’t understand is why the apps themselves aren’t even profitable. They’re taking billions of revenue yet losing money. What is costing them so much? Developers? The apps really haven’t changed much in the last few years.
Worker fees must be the top cost. In a purely it company the costs go mostly in building the features then rise slow and steady with numbers of users. These companies have a steady and bulky cost increase with number of users.
You mean the drivers? Or server/support/IT?
I thought the whole point of this business model was that they could build the software once and then using the power of scale they could make billions in profit. You know, like Google, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok…
Weird way to say broke people don’t order delivery…
Apps destroyed food delivery
Nah it’s worse than that. The economics of the model are bad. It essentially relies on delivery drivers having to survive on tips and nothing more.
That’s always how it’s been though. The difference is that in-house delivery is actually optimized for delivery volume, and restaurants which don’t have that volume or workflow just don’t have in-house delivery. When I drove pizza in college, I would take like 5 or 6 deliveries per hour, all within a 10 minute radius. Turnaround time from getting to the restaurant and back out the door would be a minute or two, and I’d leave with at least three different orders. That was good for $50/hr in tips during the dinner rush. Even a regular weeknight would be good for $100-150 in a 6 hour shift.
With the app ecosystem, it’s just impossible hit that kind of efficiency because you are almost always taking one order at a time, and you end up waiting on the restaurant most of the time.
Sorry I was blinded by my bias of living in a non-tipping country where delivery drivers are covered under an ‘award rate’ (a national agreed standard) of about $25/hour. Without the efficiencies of volume you’re talking about its been pretty clear from day one that these apps only work if they exploit ‘gig workers’.
But instead of recognising that, the tech companies have been pouring millions into trying to deregulate the industry and fighting to establish new award rates instead of being subject to the Fast Food or Transportation award rates.
No. Delivery is broken. Fees commonly go to double the food cost just because a few companies own everything. It’s like ticket master.
I know food delivery is becoming an issue in the USA, but here in Czechia it is significantly better. Sure, you cannot tip the restaurant - but delivery tipping has never ever been a thing as far as I can remember (maybe if you pay cash). The delivery costs are usually not jacked up, and the drivers make a living wage.
Am I missing something? The three services we usually use are Wolt, Bolt Food, and Foodora (predecessor was bought by a multinational company and renamed, was a regional thing in the past).
Can it be because of the fact that they do deliveries in the US using cars mainly while in Europe it’s mostly with bikes/e-bikes?
Honestly that seems like a huge factor to me. The more car dependent places I’ve lived the less delivery was a thing.
Somehow, the delivery services in the US have gotten into a situation that’s bad for basically everyone involved. The drivers are underpaid. The restaurants are underpaid. Customers feel they’re being gouged. Despite charging a lot without paying much to the people who actually make and deliver the food, the companies are losing money.
Arguably, the only people who are happy with the money involved in any of this are the salaried programmers working for these companies. That only because they could make just as much anywhere else. The owners can hope that line will go up enough that they can sell the company and take a big payout. This cannot last, and while you shouldn’t cry for them, it probably won’t last long enough for the owners to get their payout.
“Somehow!” Like every other unregulated industry. Weird!
About a year ago I made a rule for myself that if I wanted takeout, I’d go and get it myself unless I was physically incapable of doing that (drunk, high, etc). It means I don’t get takeout quite as often but I do still get it a couple times a week and even still my eating out expenses have reduced by more than 50%. Also, many delivery app prices are higher even if you’re opting to pick it up yourself. I often save a significant amount by just calling the restaurant rather than making the order through one of the delivery apps.
As someone who works in a restaurant, I can say that the prices for our menu items on doordash are up to ~40% higher than menu price regardless of whether you get it delivered or pick it up. If you’re getting takeout somewhere, call instead of using a 3rd party app, or at least see if their website lets you place orders sans doordash/postmates etc
Maybe this is a dumb question but why are people willingly using a third party app to order food if they’re going to go get the fucking food themselves anyway? I had no idea this was a thing. Do we not like looking up phone numbers? No access to online menu? Pay a premium to avoid having a conversation? The only thing that makes sense is not wanting to have a conversation.
I love it because I can be very specific about what I want without worrying if I forgot anything or if the person taking my order forgot it. But even more so, I’ll see things that I didn’t even know existed or that I could get. When all the options are right there for me to see on my own, and I have clear pricing for them, it makes the decision much easier.
Many places I call have some shitty picture of the menu on the Internet and then I have to juggle talking to them, hoping they didn’t forget anything(as even saying it back is usually rushed and it’s hard to make sure it got it right) or I forgot something. Add in any type of accent or language barrier and it can be a real crap shoot.
And I’m a very social person who doesn’t have a problem with asserting myself. I can only imagine what it’s like for people with social anxiety or are at least a bit timid.
Thanks I didn’t really think of it that way. Never really used the service before so I was taken back at the idea but that makes sense.
People are literally paying double the cost of their food or more for doordash delivery from restaurants that already have a free or significantly cheaper delivery service. I don’t get how so many people have been falling for the lazy tax so much.
Life is hard. Making good choices requires do much work.
The Good Place finale did a whole bit on it.
Not to be pedantic but the conclusion was that it isn’t simply too much work to make good choices, it’s impossible to make good choices. Everything is so complicated now that it’s literally impossible to consider the implications of every single one of your choices. Even the guy that actually tried to make good choices was unable to do so and would still have been punished.
I still find these apps useful/handy when I’m having a party, I’m over at someone’s place with a bunch of different people, or I have family visiting or whatever. It stretches longer than people expect, people get hungry, etc., and then we can decide on a place, and everyone can simultaneously scroll the menu and make their order, and it shows up labeled for each individual.
It’s indulgent af and expensive, but once in a while for that kind of ordering efficiency, I like it.
For me and my girl or whatever, it’s my fun to just take a little cruise around town, get some take out, and then drive it straight home while it’s actually still hot.
Haven’t gotten delivery since before the pandemic. Get fast food or a restaurant less than once a year. Honestly if this is one of the problems in your life, you are not poor.
One of my friends was often complaining about money before and during the pandemic, so we never did anything expensive or nothing that costs money at all, which is fine by me. He had different work hours than me so i often cooked for two and invited him over. Just things like that. By the end of the pandemic i went to his place for the first time in years, and on his balcony he had two big garbage bags filled with empty delivery food boxes and McDonald’s crap. Bro, wanna know where your money goes?
I have literally never been able to afford these services, and I didn’t use them at the start so I dont know what the VC money days were like. Its already like 50 bucks to feed your family at McDonalds when you get it yourself.
I open the app to try to find what I want to eat, then look at the prices and decide to drive there myself and get the food which saves $10-$20.
And 3/4 of the time, the price and hassle to drive drives me to cook at home.
If I’m looking at the delivery app I’ve already decided I don’t have the energy to cook haha
and that’s why you keep dry noodles and stock cubes at home, if i can’t be arsed to cook i toss a square of noodles and one or two stock cubes in a pot with some water, get it boiling, turn off the plate and ignore it for 5 minutes, and bam food.
then you just rinse out the pot and put it back in the cupboard
I have adhd and I will tell you that seems way too hard when I’m lacking executive function. Way too many steps. Much easier is either to grab something pre-made like an uncrustable or something for the air fryer that is literally just put in and press button. Or the ramen in a cup I can just add hot water to from my water fountain that can just give me hot water I don’t need to boil.
It never should have become the bubble it was.
Thank god. I’ve got too many friends who “can’t afford” anything, but order fucking uber eats almost daily. “woops, spent $70 on taco bell!”, they’ll laugh…
Shit needs to legitimately stop.
It really is that price too. You go in the app and start adding like $20 worth of food to buy and somehow by the time you’re done with tax, fees, and tipping it’s $70. Despite this price, your food usually arrives soggy and lukewarm.
I haven’t used these apps since 2018 when it became pretty apparent what was happening, but some people are REALLY lazy and REALLY bad with money.
Of that 70 dollar order, none of it actually pays the driver. So yes. Let the companies die.
If you really want that ultraprocess garbage spend the ¢50 in gas and drive to the taco bell. The new one by my house even has a mobile order lane separate from the standard ordering lane, so you can at least skip waiting behind the Civic full of baked college bros that forgot what a quesadilla is.
Can I get uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Lol, reading this reminds me of a Jack In The Box commercial from the mid 2000s: https://youtu.be/3ZdT9MkyG7I
Baked college bros driving to Taco Bell seems like more of a case for convenient delivery options imo, they should not be driving at all
shout it from the rooftops with me:
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Good point. I was more roasting my past self in my comment than anything.
I love that for you.
Not only that but it pushes the ‘everything on demand’ mentality. All of these people I know have gained 50 or more pounds since the COVID lockdown, and they got trained to order everything online.
Got peeps ordering cigarettes, potato chips, chocolate bars, soda…
“We’re house-poor!!!”
And so much avocado toast.
Great, do short-term residential rental properties next
