Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 121 posts

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

#111

Post by justanotherc »

jmpman wrote: post #25
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 use it on business trips if I’m not scheduled to go out with customers. Uber back to the hotel, order some Grubhub and enjoy a quality meal without having to go to a restaurant by myself. Much better quality/variety than room service.

I used to travel 6-8 months out of the year, and I'd happily go to a restaurant alone over spending more time in my hotel room eating alone lol.

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

#112

Post by untog »

AgloeDreams wrote: post #60
vector_spaces wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do consulting work in the grocery business and serve as a point of contact for software and tech purchasing for a handful of retailers and producers. Uber Eats has been calling me every year to sell their platform to some of the stores I work with. Grocery product margins are about 30 percent in the happy case (specialty foods), usually much lower. Uber Eats wants 30 percent of the basket on each sale they make. Th…

What is bizzare about all of this is that I honestly do think that when Amazon figures Drone Delivery all out they will basically eat everyone alive in the food delivery business. They totally will automate the storage and picking systems, do it in warehouses (that also do normal delivery and act as Go/ Whole Foods distribution networks) and the Drone systems will be AI piloted possibly with human oversight. (one hum…

> when Amazon figures Drone Delivery all out

This feels similar to “when self driving cars are figured out”, i.e. a much bigger ask than it would first appear.

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

#113

Post by mantap »

9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #48
mantap wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The business model is strong and is hugely successful in Asia. But the fees will decrease with competitive pressure.

That's because food is cheap, wages are low and cities are dense enough to cover by motorbike, PMD (hoverboards etc) or even bicycle.

The food is cheap but not necessarily cheaper after adjusting for income because, as you said, wages are low.

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

#114

Post by throwaway71719 »

danShumway wrote: post #93
chrisseaton wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hey, we know you have a working phone Sounds like a rebuke. I'd be pretty offended if a business tried to call me out like this for using an app that (presumably) they're willingly taking orders from. If they don't want to be on there then don't, but don't have a go at me about it.

Part of the issue is that restaurants don't always sign up for Grubhub. When you place an order with a food delivery service, there may not be a special infrastructure or agreement set up -- the food delivery service may just call the restaurant and pretend to be a customer[0]. People assume that there's a strong relationship here, like selling a product in Walmart. Very often, there's not. I'm not in the food servic…

How does the delivery service get the restaurant to foot its 30% of the bill in that case? Do they call the order in as a regular customer and then show up and identify as GrubHub, at that point the food has already been made and they hold the order hostage? If so then that is beyond shady.

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

#115

Post by throwaway71719 »

swat535 wrote: post #101
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…

You are assuming that the delivery service driver: 1. is at McDonalds when the order is prepared 2. brings the order directly to you, takes the shortest route, etc.

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

#117

Post by aabbcc1241 »

SN76477 wrote: post #33

Food delivery in its current form will be short-lived. It is a 4 party system where the company controlling the money is the only one that wins. Restaurants are asked to pay 30% of the ticket. The customer is asked to pay more than expected for their meal, a delivery fee, and a tip. For the customer, this can be nearly double for a simple $10 lunch. The driver that has to deliver it gets stuck with fuel, automatic, a…

Can we improve the situation? Well known "platform app" are evil, while non-evil alternative feel tough to reach the critical mass, because they don't have as much budget to promote.

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

#118

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

Really? I tested this the other day and with the required tip, i ended up paying basically the same. I was actually pretty annoyed by the fact (I have a 2 years old, so eating at the restaurant takes some parenting effort)

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

#119

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

untog wrote: post #112
AgloeDreams wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is bizzare about all of this is that I honestly do think that when Amazon figures Drone Delivery all out they will basically eat everyone alive in the food delivery business. They totally will automate the storage and picking systems, do it in warehouses (that also do normal delivery and act as Go/ Whole Foods distribution networks) and the Drone systems will be AI piloted possibly with human oversight. (one hum…

> when Amazon figures Drone Delivery all out This feels similar to “when self driving cars are figured out”, i.e. a much bigger ask than it would first appear.

In italy we used to joke over how people will stsrt buying rifles to shoot down drones and get the packages...

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

#120

Post by AgloeDreams »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #119
untog wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when Amazon figures Drone Delivery all out This feels similar to “when self driving cars are figured out”, i.e. a much bigger ask than it would first appear.

In italy we used to joke over how people will stsrt buying rifles to shoot down drones and get the packages...

I mean you can do the same with a postal truck if you like too. It's going to be pretty easy to prosecute when someone shoots a camera-covered, GPS and cellular connected object.
Post reply on HN