41–50 of 580 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They haven't. Grubhub just scrapes business listings and pretends restaurants sign up. https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/29/21113876/grubhub-seamless...
If restaurants haven't signed up, then how are they getting fees from delivery services?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If restaurants haven't signed up, then how are they getting fees from delivery services?
In at least some cases ... the prices you see on grubhub may be higher than the actual prices the restaurant is charging. E.g $17.99 vs $14.99
What is everyone's problem? Why do we want to interfere with this?
So as I understand it Deliveroo and Uber eats charge 25% of the food costs, plus delivery fees on top. Uber eats I know is losing money and Deliveroo are losing a few hundred million per year on revenues of about $500m. Basically cutting the food percentage like this to 10% would imply delivery services are permanently unprofitable? Why have all these restaurants signed up if 25% is so unfair?
A number of anti-competitive business practices, such as offering delivery for restaurants without telling them. Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23216852
In a country where tipping of 20% is the norm ... there is all of sudden a cap of 10% on what the delivery guy can make?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Seems like a solid move Are any of these food delivery companies even making money? What will capping their fees do except make them lose even more?
Food delivery worked for decades when it was done by the restaurant itself so worst-case scenario we wouldn't lose much as these companies go bankrupt and we go back to restaurant-provided delivery. In fact, with all their tech and economies of scale, I'm surprised food delivery services are doing worse in terms of per-unit profitability than the low-tech restaurant-provided ones despite already charging excessive fe…
Only like maybe 5% of the restaurants offered delivery on their own, mostly pizza chains and Chinese places.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope, they don't make any profit even when charging 30% fees. So this 10% cap will probably cause them to withdraw from the market.
I've had delivery takeaways in British towns and cities for 2 decades, well before the likes of ubereats and deliveroo. Those companies do their own deliveries and manage to make enough money to not even charge more for delivery (or offer a collection discount) - although usually a minimum cost of say £20. Why can't VC companies do it that efficently?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If restaurants haven't signed up, then how are they getting fees from delivery services?
In at least some cases ... the prices you see on grubhub may be higher than the actual prices the restaurant is charging. E.g $17.99 vs $14.99
I agree that it's scammy that grubhub etc. is pretending to be the restaurant. But if they made it clear, we are a delivery service giving you access to this restaurant, if you want to order this food you can do so for $17.99, I think everything would be fine with that business model.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Food delivery worked for decades when it was done by the restaurant itself so worst-case scenario we wouldn't lose much as these companies go bankrupt and we go back to restaurant-provided delivery. In fact, with all their tech and economies of scale, I'm surprised food delivery services are doing worse in terms of per-unit profitability than the low-tech restaurant-provided ones despite already charging excessive fe…
You're right, and that's why I'm genuinely confused by what's going on. Restaurant delivery used to be a healthy market that didn't need to eat up external capital. Now we have a situation where: - Restaurants say they are paying too much. - Delivery companies are losing money. - Customers are paying fees to the sites in addition to the delivery cost we used to pay. What gives? It seems these can't all be true.
Restaurant customers really need to change their perceptions and understanding of restaurant economics before it collapses under the current pressure – many will not return for a long time, if ever.
Are any of these food delivery app services actually making profit right now, or are they just burning VC capital? A news podcast I listened to yesterday made the statement that every food delivery company is doing deliveries at a loss. This seems problematic for making delivery a viable business without forming a monopoly to get the scale required to make things profitable.
drivers bringing restaurant food to individual houses doesn't really seem like something that scale helps. More people using the service requires more drivers.
Imagine a bunch of ghost kitchens next to each other in an industrial park, offering discounts to certain neighborhoods if they agree to order in a certain time frame.