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Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants

oregonlive.com

531–540 of 580 posts

Re: Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants

#531
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The socialist busybodies in Portland want to "do something", so apart from rendering these businesses unprofitable, they are also going to put more of the relatively less skilled workers out of work, while at the same time lower the quality of life for consumers who will now be forced to find less convenient or more expensive ways to eat.

The cap can be adjusted or even removed down the line. Maybe 10% is too low, too high, or maybe it's just right. It's an experiment worth trying.

What experiment? Don’t delude yourself. Experimenting is over once the government steps in.

Re: Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants

#532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all pay people to do things that we could do ourselves that we would rather not do. Every time we eat out, pay a lawn service to cut our grass, have someone else wash our car. Yes. It is dumb though to justify it based on how much you get paid hourly. They don’t understand the real concept of opportunity cost.

> It is dumb though to justify it based on how much you get paid hourly. imo my time is actually worth many multiples of what my employer pays me for it.

That’s fine. You can value your time however you want. But don’t pretend it’s done grand economic principle.

But your time is only “worth” monetarily what the market will pay for it.

Re: Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants

#533
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got a lotta Reservoir Dogs fans replying to you lol. Didn’t realize how cheap so many of the tech bros on here were.

We've asked you several times to stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments. Please actually stop.

Is it possible for me to delete my account? I emailed about this awhile back and never got a response.

Re: Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants

#536
post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it’s really hard to do this though. I recently wanted to order from a sushi place and I couldn’t find the paper menu with their number so I searched DDG. The first three or four things I clicked on weren’t the direct website of the restaurant. And only one was an ad. I get that for some of these small local restaurant owners the margins are tight and I’ll do my best to make sure my money goes directly to th…

The answer is another tool that reduces friction to setting up a website. I'm friends with a bunch of bands that don't have websites, but they do have facebook pages! Why? Because they're free and they do what the band needs from a website. A restaurant doesn't need more than a page with contact info and link to a pdf menu. But even standing that up is a massive hurdle for .

I'd rather pay the 10% than touch facebook with a 10-foot pole.

Re: Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants

#537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 minute walk then 20 minute wait then 5 minute walk back. When you're earning $50+ an hour, which many in cities are easily clearing, it starts to make a lot of sense to pay someone else to do your waiting for you.

I hate this line of reasoning and so do many economists. It’s not the “opportunity cost” you should be measuring. It’s the “opportunity cost of the next best alternative.” If I am an hourly worker making $50 and going to get food would be an hour that I wouldn’t be working, then yes it is worth $50 to not spend it going to get food. But if I am choosing between watching Netflix and going to get food. The next best al…

I just want to make sure I'm following your train of thought correctly regarding this object.

So, say, an hourly contractor who orders delivery so they can get back to work sooner still makes sense to you, right?

Re: Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants

#538

This is the right move - local restaurants are hurting and, sadly, the internet is a place where big corps with large budgets have leverage over passionate little guys working their butts off. For those who want to help, I built a chrome extension similar to Honey that shows a local restaurant's direct ordering website as you're about to order from that restaurant thru a third party service. If direct ordering isn't…

(Preface: I'm sure your app filters for stuff like this) I got kinda burned when I tried to order direct from a restaurant. The last time we ate there they included a little "order online" card with a link to their website. So the next time, in the spirit of supporting businesses directly, I went to their site and ordered. They did use a third-party handler (ChowNow I think?), but I figured it was a kind of order man…

I got kinda burned when I tried to order direct from a restaurant.

If it's a "mom and pop joint" with 1 or maybe at most a handful of locations located in the area, skip the app and just call it in. Nothing to download or sign up for, no chance for an unseen middle-man. These non-chain restaurants are literally the "service industry", I've found I always get a higher level of service when talking to a human on the phone, at a couple of our regular places the servers that pickup ask how I'm doing, have an idea of how we like things, politely inquire about the kids, etc... A couple of them offer online ordering, but I always just pickup the phone and hand over my credit card when they bring the food out, IMO it's a better experience for all parties involved.

Edit: Caveat, I'm old enough that to-go/delivery over the phone was the only option at one point, not app first; and even before the pandemic found DoorDash and their ilk to be parasites that I wouldn't use.

Re: Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants

#539
When I found out that local delivery service here is charging around 30% fee my mind was blown. I asked my friend who owns a small restaurant how he puts up with it and he basically said he has no choice, especially during covid. This made me think I should go out more and support the local businesses more as my country opened up already. Well my favorite mexican place was actually charging 30% more for me to eat in person there so it was actually cheaper to sit at home and have food delivered, I was almost tempted to sit down there and order via the app.

The whole restaurant industry is so messed up with coupons and all sorts of marketing tricks and manipulations that I just wish there was static price with single delivery fee so I could enjoy my meal and get over it without having to be constantly vigilant to not feel ripped off. I hope more places follow Portland.

Re: Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants

#540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doordash seems to have higher menu prices than the restaurants' own websites, so unless I'm missing something, it seems the restaurant has the ability to choose to recoup those fees from the customer if they want to. What gets me is that Doordash is triple dipping here. There's the fee to the restaurant, which may or may not translate to higher menu item prices. There's the fixed $2-5 delivery fee which is pretty obv…

There's also the 15-20% tip, of which the restaurant staff aren't getting a cent.

I don't tip for takeout. If they deliver, I tip the delivery person, but if the restaurant isn't the one delivering that's not relevant.

(I hate tips, restaurants should just charge what they need to charge. But that's not how things are done in the US, and it's hard to change the culture...)

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