The food delivery bubble is bursting — and maybe that's not a bad thing
The food delivery bubble is bursting — and maybe that's not a bad thing
On-demand food delivery is not working for customers, couriers, restaurants, or even the companies behind the apps
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.
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.
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.
Bro
Got peeps ordering cigarettes, potato chips, chocolate bars, soda.....
"We're house-poor!!!"
And so much avocado toast.
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.
Call me crazy, but all the various food delivery apps should be consolidated into one and run by the government. Make it part of the post office. It helps businesses, drivers would be paid fairly, and it provides an extremely useful public service.
Unfortunately one of two major US parties and a chunk of the population believes that government fundamentally can't work. And they'll run for office to prove it.
It is a little like saying bridges are unsafe and then taking a sledge hammer to a bridge for years until it falls apart. "See? If you hit it a bunch and don't pay for maintenance or repair anything, eventually it falls apart!"
I feel like making it part of the state is not the right course here. Rather, consolidate it into larger cooperatives (maybe not just one, but one for each area or city or state or something), which are collectively owned by all the restaurants. They all have an interest in having delivery personnel available. It seems like a collectively owned coop fits well for that.
Maybe have the government manage the software/servers that individual co-ops use so that part is uniform. As long as the co-op aren't in direct competition, I see no issue. With competition there is too much immediate pressure to screw over delivery drivers.
And then a guy like Louis DeJoy gets in there....
Any system will fail if it is directly sabotaged.
Only if they find a way to make it possible for the courier to go back to the restaurant to fix order issues. If there is no model to make that work, then these services should never exist.
I think with a unified restaurant listing system and order verification by drivers, these could be minimized (no system will ever be error free). As it is now, some delivery companies will list menus without consulting with the restaurant and that is a big source of mistakes.
Exactly! These are valuable services for people who can’t drive.
What happens when the restaurants aren't satisfied with the government service and decide to go with some third party? Or run their own, as many still do?
If they operated under the government at a loss I think it's terrible policy. If it's ran as a for-profit then it'd be fine.
And of course make discounts for people that actually need the service (disabled people and such). But no way I'm paying for lazy 20 year olds that can walk across the street to pick their food themselves, but don't want to because the government service would be cheap.
Until recently when a bill was passed drastically changing how their retirement accounts had to be funded, the USPS was usually run for profit and was even usually actively profitable year over year. I think they're still dealing with the fallout of that bill meant to hobble them, but I can't imagine they'd operate at a loss purposefully.
The USPS even used to offer banking services which was also reported to be widely profitable until legislation was passed eliminating that service. Wouldn't even be the first time that they had branched out beyond just mail.
I agree. These apps have filled in the gaps for the government services that are supposed to exist but really don’t in practice. Lots of people depend on grocery and food delivery and ride shares. (And most of those same people cannot find the help they need and qualify for because the care industry has been gutted by greed and no one is available to hire.) Regulations, we need them. And HIGH pay for delivery drivers, who in the US are quietly care workers.
I think that's how it works in Dubai. Basically you're asking for a benevolent dictator thingy. Now think hard, do you think your own country government has what it takes to do it properly?
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.
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.
It never should have become the bubble it was.
Great, do short-term residential rental properties next
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
Bubble my ass, these companies were only profitable for a few quarters out of the last decade. VC is shifting there capitol around
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 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.
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 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).
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!
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.
Might be true, almost all of my deliveries to work are by bike. But that's in the city centre where going 200m take about 20 minutes by car.
On the other hand, where I live, it is almost always a car, because it is faster and more convenient for the drivers.
But I feel like the company also has something to do with the quality of the service for the end user. I feel like Wolt, which originates from Finland, is not funking up the economy here.
Weird way to say broke people don't order 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.
Apps destroyed food delivery
No. Delivery is broken. Fees commonly go to double the food cost just because a few companies own everything. It’s like ticket master.
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?
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.
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.
I loathe the line-cutting self-important food delivery hustle bros with every fiber of my being and will never use their service. This is glad news.
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.
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.