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DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

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Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#271

Post by throwaway2037 »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #93
Nextgrid wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a race to the bottom to capture market share That is the real problem, not that the concept of food delivery is unprofitable by itself.

Not sure where you folks live but all the major ordering apps present in Toronto have been excellent in the suburbs. I was fully satisfied at least 9 out of 10 times. And even the most expensive, ubereats is only, at most, a 20% surcharge compared to the in-restaurant price plus tip, for a $50 order.

This is a good post. Do you have any thoughts about why this works in Toronto? What is different from other cities? And do workers make living wages?

Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#272

Post by zachkatz »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #265
zachkatz wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “problem” is that many (most?) delivery cyclists in NYC aren’t legally allowed to work, so this option would be jeopardizing a large part of their workforce (bad for DoorDash) while also being bad for the workers themselves (who aren’t exactly swimming in job options). I’m not making a value judgement here, just weighing in with a tradeoff to consider.

many (most?) delivery cyclists in NYC aren’t legally allowed to work Woah. Are you saying these people are illegal immigrants, or don't have a work visa? I never heard this before. That is a bold claim. Do you have any evidence to share? I tried Googling, but I couldn't find anything.

Illegal immigrants. Here are some sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/nyregion/migrant-delivery...

https://nypost.com/2023/09/20/tidal-wave-of-migrants-in-nyc-...

https://gothamist.com/news/doordash-legal-group-set-to-deliv...

Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#273

Post by Dylan16807 »

kiba wrote: post #264
lhorie wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's operating profit.

I took a look at a fool article. If you exclude the unrealized return from an investment they made, their profit are in the single digit millions. Not really confidence inspiring, but maybe I am wrong and that they could indeed make their business sustainable.

"could indeed make"? What's not sustainable about that level of profit? And aren't they still spending a lot on expansion?

Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#274

Post by Flameancer »

bigtunacan wrote: post #212
darth_avocado wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was not very doable pretty much everywhere outside NYC. The lower density of restaurants made it harder for delivery to be a thing except all the pizza places that offered it.

That's a generalization with no supporting data. As an actual sample size of 1; I lived in a smaller city of only about 250k people and there was a huge selection of restaurants that offered delivery, not just pizza. Honestly DoorDash when it did come reduced restaurant profits, lowered quality of food delivered, and increased consumer costs. Zero advantage for anyone other than DoorDash unless you consider being abl…

It’s always dependent on wear you lived. I’ve always lived in my city of at least 1mil+ and growing up before DoorDash we could never get delivery because of zip code. Now with DoorDash it doesn’t matter. Delivery has always existed but that was mostly dependent on if the restaurant wanted to come to your area.

Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#275

Post by Flameancer »

candiddevmike wrote: post #140
crmd wrote: post #131

As an old person, I'd like to point out that my hometown of New York City had a dynamic, world class restaurant scene, including a cornucopia of home delivery, long before the tech platform companies found a way to siphon ~40% of consumer spend out of the local restaurant economy in exchange for some friction reduction. We were doing great. But you had a drawer full of paper menus and had to call the restaurant.

And if you called the restaurant enough, you typically got on a first name basis with them and had incredible customer service. Now you're just another customer #47523 that created order #37324.

Ehh some restaurants still know you on a first name basis even with DoorDash. I used to order from this one Philippine spot like twice a week and after a month a decided to go there in person to sit down and when they asked for my name they immediately asked if I wanted my usual DoorDash order

Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#276

Post by kiba »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #273
kiba wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a look at a fool article. If you exclude the unrealized return from an investment they made, their profit are in the single digit millions. Not really confidence inspiring, but maybe I am wrong and that they could indeed make their business sustainable.

"could indeed make"? What's not sustainable about that level of profit? And aren't they still spending a lot on expansion?

It implies that their margin is really low. We're talking about revenues in hundred of millions and they're only able to make single digit millions.

Next quarter, their margin might entirely be wiped out by a slight downturn in business. If they could increase their margin and make profit consistently, then I'll change my mind.

Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#277

Post by quickthrower2 »

standardUser wrote: post #226
quickthrower2 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. Remind me: How many people like alcohol, cigarettes, sugar etc.?

I love alcohol. And what kind of inhuman monster doesn't like sugar?

Sure, but overall regular alcohol use categorically leads to a more miserable life. There are no free lunch drugs, maybe except exercise. Alcohol culture though is crazy strong, probably an example of a naked emperor.

Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#278

Post by stefan_ »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #268
stefan_ wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as an additional incentive, DoorDash has decided to fuck with tips!

Thanks for the info. Can you share more details? Tipping a delivery person always seems bizarre to me. Any reasonable society would just pay a better wage, but instead, the US prefers slave wages plus "tips" to maaaaaaaaybe make a living wage.

They reduced the default tip amount, hide tip information from delivery drivers and moved the tipping to after the order, all together ensuring that tipping happens less & for lower amounts.

Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#279

Post by Dylan16807 »

kiba wrote: post #276
Dylan16807 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"could indeed make"? What's not sustainable about that level of profit? And aren't they still spending a lot on expansion?

It implies that their margin is really low. We're talking about revenues in hundred of millions and they're only able to make single digit millions. Next quarter, their margin might entirely be wiped out by a slight downturn in business. If they could increase their margin and make profit consistently, then I'll change my mind.

Is a particularly big percentage of their costs fixed? Because that affects the math a lot. If we consider a generic slightly-profitable company facing a 25% revenue drop, there's a huge gulf between a world where costs drop 10% and a world where costs drop 22%.

Re: DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC

#280

Post by Sai_ »

darth_avocado wrote: post #152
zepton wrote: post #147

DoorDash is being misleading when they imply that NYC required a minimum wage of $29.93/hr for delivery workers. DoorDash could comply with the bylaw by paying its contractors $17.96/hr for the full time they work (including time waiting for orders). But DoorDash instead chose to use the "Alternate Method" which has a 67% higher minimum wage, but only for the time the contractor is actively delivering food (not stand…

The other part of this is that Doordash workers need to pay for their own delivery vehicles (gas, upkeep etc.) which factors into the actual wages they get. They are not making significantly more than minimum wage workers.

Can they not offset these expenses against their tax? If you’re running a business out of your vehicle, the cost of operating that vehicle is the cost of running the business which should be treated like that by the tax code.
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