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

oregonlive.com

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

#551

Post by austhrow743 »

TrackerFF wrote: post #480
chillwaves wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you see? My time is too valuable to do anything vaguely unpleasant. The entire economy would suffer if I had to pick up my own food.

I'm probably going to get downvoted for this, but yes - that's spot on. It's exactly that kind of attitude I've seen far too often in the culture of well-paid tech workers. Their lives are all about optimization of time resources / time management, and everyone should bow to their needs - if it results in them shaving off some minutes here and there. After all, they're making $300k/year working on important products,…

You sew your own shirts and milk your own cow I presume?

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

#552

Post by austhrow743 »

colinmhayes wrote: post #462
nickff wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're explaining why you don't use delivery, but not why "it doesn't make sense".

Would people really rather have cold food that costs more than walk for 10 minutes?

In a central area of a city? Absolutely.

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

#553

Post by austhrow743 »

mindslight wrote: post #472
austhrow743 wrote: post #221

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.

If you aren't being paid hourly, this is utterly fallacious. If you are being paid hourly, you should be billing for thinking while walking down the street or taking a shower. That is some of your most productive time. Also as another commenter mentioned, cold food. Furthermore, avoiding all of the extra zero-use plastic waste they throw in the bag by default.

Most high earning people have the ability to influence their pay through expending time and effort.

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

#554

Post by imtringued »

andrewla wrote: post #194
inkaudio wrote: post #99

This is a regulatory response to Silicon Valley’s implementation of predatory pricing. Let me explain: Predatory pricing is defined as “the pricing of goods or services at such a low level that other suppliers cannot compete and are forced to leave the market.” For silicon valley startups like Doordash and Grubhub this is accomplished by acquiring customers at a significant loss in ways that may often seem idiotic. e…

The problem is that this response is in the wrong direction. By forcing prices lower, we guarantee that only over-capitalized predatory businesses can compete in the space. The problem is that consumer advocacy and anti-monopoly are practically the opposite thing. The end result of government action here should be short-term higher prices to the consumer, that reflect the actual cost of operations, rather than lower…

I'm just repeating what another comment said. The 10% cap doesn't include the delivery fee. It's about the price of the food. Delivery services can't charge more than $55 for $50 worth of food but they can still charge $10 for the delivery if that is what it costs.

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

#555

Post by SahAssar »

nerfhammer wrote: post #474
8ytecoder wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And base that delivery fee on distance between the restaurant and the customer as well. They can solve it they want to. People in treasure might be willing to pay a higher fee than to not get any delivery at all. It’s political posturing and pressure tactics.

In that other fold of the multiverse, the headline could be that uber is charging people extra in Treasure Island, which contains a lot of subsidized low-income housing.

They already do that for taxi rides, right? A longer taxi ride doesn't get magically cheaper because it's going to/from low income housing. It's all transportation, and transportation gets more expensive for a longer distance.

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

#556

Post by scarface74 »

nybble41 wrote: post #545
scarface74 wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> It’s not the “opportunity cost” you should be measuring. It’s the “opportunity cost of the next best alternative.” Opportunity cost is exactly that: the next best alternative. > But if I am choosing between watching Netflix and going to get food. The next best alternative pays $0. If you could be spending that time earning $50, and you choose to watch Netflix instead—all else being equal—then obviously watching Net…

I agree that monetary compensation is not the sole economic value. But still “how much you could be making that hour” is also irrelevant in most cases.

That’s the entire point.

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

#557

Post by tgel0 »

adfuioqenasdf wrote: post #482
RussianCow wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have actually seen quite a few restaurants do this, where they use a third-party ordering system but then delegate to DoorDash/GrubHub for delivery. Is it maybe because the delivery service gets a smaller cut in this case? I wonder if the total fees add up to a smaller number with the two middlemen than with only DoorDash/GrubHub. Presumably, the latter can charge more if they also handle the transaction as well as…

> Is it maybe because the delivery service gets a smaller cut in this case? Yes, this is correct. If you order from DoorDash directly, the restaurant will pay anywhere from 15-40% of the total transaction. Restaurants that have partnered with DoorDash for delivery logistics only will pay usually around $7 per order (this varies depending on geography and overall partner terms). However, the key difference is that thi…

> Restaurants that have partnered with DoorDash for delivery logistics only will pay usually around $7 per order

Did you mean 7 percent of the order perhaps?

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

#558

Post by cwilkes »

scarface74 wrote: post #556
nybble41 wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s not the “opportunity cost” you should be measuring. It’s the “opportunity cost of the next best alternative.” Opportunity cost is exactly that: the next best alternative. > But if I am choosing between watching Netflix and going to get food. The next best alternative pays $0. If you could be spending that time earning $50, and you choose to watch Netflix instead—all else being equal—then obviously watching Net…

I agree that monetary compensation is not the sole economic value. But still “how much you could be making that hour” is also irrelevant in most cases. That’s the entire point.

No it is highly relevant. I’m “making” happiness by watching a film on Netflix instead of getting dressed, getting in the car, struggling to find parking, waiting for the order, and then driving back.

This is an economic decision just One that not easily seen by dollars. I value a movie more than running errands.

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

#559

Post by cwilkes »

TrackerFF wrote: post #480
chillwaves wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you see? My time is too valuable to do anything vaguely unpleasant. The entire economy would suffer if I had to pick up my own food.

I'm probably going to get downvoted for this, but yes - that's spot on. It's exactly that kind of attitude I've seen far too often in the culture of well-paid tech workers. Their lives are all about optimization of time resources / time management, and everyone should bow to their needs - if it results in them shaving off some minutes here and there. After all, they're making $300k/year working on important products,…

> Their lives are all about optimization of time resources / time management, and everyone should bow to their needs

You make it seem like they have a gun to the heads of the landscaper they hired to do a job, in which the landscaper now has money to do whatever want to do it with it.

To your other claim about not “working” during those 30 minutes. You are working every single minute of the day. It might not be for a paycheck, it is probably for your mental sanity by chilling out with a drink waiting for some food to arrive.

That was purely an economic decision that they value doing X over doing Y. That’s done with every transaction done throughout life.

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

#560

Post by sumedh »

strictnein wrote: post #427
orangecat wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* If the delivery fee doesn't cover delivery, then charge a higher delivery fee.* Why doesn't that reasoning apply to restaurants? If the fees cut into their profits too much, then they need to raise prices. There is no free lunch here (ha!). The customer is always going to be paying for both the food and the delivery. There's no benefit in micromanaging the internal transactions.

Because the restaurants aren't allowed to charge higher prices to their higher cost delivery customers. Which doesn't stop the food delivery places from charging higher prices, of course. And taking a cut, and collecting a delivery fee, etc etc.

Restaurants in Australia do charge higher price on Ubereats and Menulog, I am surprised its not the same in the US.
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