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Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

nytimes.com

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Re: Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

#101

Post by swat535 »

justanotherc wrote: post #7

This is why I have never ordered UberEats. Plus cold McDonalds is gross. Its not hard to order takeout and run down the road myself. To be honest I don't really get why this whole trend is so popular.

I don't understand. You will get cold McDonalds if you driver there yourself, pick the food and take it back to your home/office as well.

Unless you are advocating for: spending time to drive there, order, get lucky enough to find a seat, spend more time there eating and finally spend time driving back.

Honestly, the $5 is a huge time saver for most people and they gladly pay it. Those who rather save the money, can perform all the steps above.

Re: Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

#102

Post by grayed-down »

I found this great food delivery app. It's you!

How it works is, you actually call and speak to someone at the restaurant you want to order from. They take your order, and at a pre-arranged time, you get into your car and go pick it up and bring the food to where you want to eat it.

Warning: This app is not for everyone

Re: Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

#104

Post by grayed-down »

lowercased wrote: post #54

what I want is a simplish way to text a restaurant my main basic wants, have them call me back via voice to confirm and make any adjustments, then I go pick it up. or... maybe delivery (I don't live in an area where delivery is huge but maybe that a gotta-have in some places). I don't like calling because I'm always put on hold - call me back within 2-3 minutes, when you're actually calling me, vs me interrupting you…

Absolutely agree!

I even do this with a local Chinese restaurant. We email them our order and they'll call back if there's a question. They only called back once on a pretty big order.

Re: Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

#105

Post by simonsarris »

cik wrote: post #52

I find the niche answer to this fascinating. With kosher restaurants (captive audience) in my city: 1. They increase their prices on skipthedishes and friends, in order to account for the price difference. 2. They add a piece of paper to EVERY ORDER indicating that if you call or text your food would be 30% cheaper, which includes a flat $3 delivery fee, and no need to tip the driver. 3. Many of them run targeted sub…

> They add a piece of paper to EVERY ORDER indicating that if you call or text

This is very wise. Money and orders from Uber Eats aren't your revenue, they are a little recoup on your ad campaign. They're basically treating the service like a more successful Groupon.

Re: Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

#106

Post by hansvm »

michaelt wrote: post #69
walrus01 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food delivery by car should actually be way more expensive than it is, if you consider the standard IRS mileage reimbursement rate for driving.

In my country, business mileage rates are based on the depreciation of a car that is quite nice, and quite new. The kind of car a professional salesperson might drive to visit clients. For a delivery driver to show up in a BMW would be... very unusual.

I delivered pizza for a couple years before getting my life together, and I can definitely confirm that vehicle costs can be much lower than the IRS standard mileage deduction. I averaged $0.16/mi in insurance, depreciation, repairs, maintenance, tires, gas, washes, and every other cost put together. You can't pull that off as an Uber driver because you need to make a good impression, but food delivery costs can be pretty low.

Re: Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

#107

Post by lowercased »

grayed-down wrote: post #104
lowercased wrote: post #54

what I want is a simplish way to text a restaurant my main basic wants, have them call me back via voice to confirm and make any adjustments, then I go pick it up. or... maybe delivery (I don't live in an area where delivery is huge but maybe that a gotta-have in some places). I don't like calling because I'm always put on hold - call me back within 2-3 minutes, when you're actually calling me, vs me interrupting you…

Absolutely agree! I even do this with a local Chinese restaurant. We email them our order and they'll call back if there's a question. They only called back once on a pretty big order.

FWIW, I text in an order to our local burger place now and then, as I'm a regular, they know me, and I get the same thing every time. Normally it's something like "regular - I'll be in in 15 min". If there's a problem, they text back with "no" or "wait" or "30 min" or whatever...

"Food ordering" outside of "food delivery" should be a separate category. "Food ordering" businesses, imo, likely have a wider audience.

Re: Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

#108

Post by sjg007 »

ghaff wrote: post #55
anonsivalley652 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's not a defensible business model because anyone can start such a company with very little expenses. I remember using waitersonwheels.com in the mid 90's and it wasn't any better than what's available now. Also, I know waiter.com has been around a long time and makes very good money. Perhaps the SF Bay Area is a unicorn where there are so many people with disposable income that their time is worth more than ov…

In general, food delivery doesn't work well well in rural areas. Where I live is more ex-urban than rural and I'm just 40 miles from a major city and almost next door to a couple minor cities. But I have very few delivery options. I apparently have a few more these days through a couple of the online delivery apps although I haven't used them yet.

I find pizza shows up reliably! We have 5 pizza delivery options and only 2 stop lights in town.

Re: Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

#109

Post by sjg007 »

cik wrote: post #52

I find the niche answer to this fascinating. With kosher restaurants (captive audience) in my city: 1. They increase their prices on skipthedishes and friends, in order to account for the price difference. 2. They add a piece of paper to EVERY ORDER indicating that if you call or text your food would be 30% cheaper, which includes a flat $3 delivery fee, and no need to tip the driver. 3. Many of them run targeted sub…

This is the kitchens unlimited idea. You see famous places like Cantor's Deli do it.

Re: Meals on food delivery apps can be 90% more than if bought from the restaurant

#110

Post by justanotherc »

buildsjets wrote: post #57
justanotherc wrote: post #7

This is why I have never ordered UberEats. Plus cold McDonalds is gross. Its not hard to order takeout and run down the road myself. To be honest I don't really get why this whole trend is so popular.

I had a terrible week-long flu a few weeks ago, and used Uber Eats several times. It was my first using a food delivery service, but I do use Uber for rides every few months or so. It was much better than trying to forage in my pantry. Cold McD’s is gross, but so is hot McD’s, so I ordered from our local Thai restaurant quite a bit. Phad See Ew reheats just fine.

Funny you say Thai, because I actually live in a small town and a Thai place is our usual go-to for quick take-out down the road. Otherwise we have to drive the 12 min to the next bigger town with more choices which means cold food and a 25-30 min round trip.
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