Delivery Apps Screw Over Everyone
Everyone needs a quick bite of food now and then, but delivery apps are not the way to go for your late-night snacks or midday munchies. I totally get that you want to stay home in your comfortable pajamas all day, and it’s pretty convenient to have a different person deliver meals to you when you don’t want to leave your home. But imagine that you are getting a Chipotle Burrito: if you pick it up yourself, it will cost $8, but if you use a delivery app, it will cost $19. That is an insane mark up of price just for a little extra convenience.
Not to mention the fact that if you don’t order enough food, some companies will charge a small cart fee on top of their usual service fee. Most people don’t notice that these delivery companies slightly markup the prices, but if you compare the restaurant’s website to the delivery app, you will likely find a discrepancy. The most popular delivery apps are Postmates, DoorDash, Grubhub, and UberEats, but all of them are essentially one and the same. These delivery apps don’t just screw over the customer, but also the restaurant and the driver.
Harmful for Restaurants
Delivery apps also aren’t good partners with restaurants because it is difficult to work together and fix problems that may arise. When an order gets screwed up, the delivery app handles the refund, but the consumer is much more likely to blame the restaurant than the app itself for the mistake. If looking at the bare basics, the apps serve as an unnecessary middleman. One of the only benefits is that they give some visibility to smaller less-known restaurants.
Unethical Practices
Doordash actually got criticized for using customers’ tips to subsidize a driver’s pay. In this case, the driver would still be paid the amount that they were told for the order, but the tip would essentially be considered their only source of income. If you do use a delivery service as a last resort, I recommend that it would be better to tip with cash, because you know that money will be going straight to the person who needs it and won’t go through the hands of a money-hungry company first. Think about the fact that delivery drivers don’t get paid well, plus the variability of the paycheck from week to week, as well as the wear and tear that they are putting on their vehicles. By ordering from delivery apps you are supporting companies that don’t treat their employees well and give them little to no benefits.
In a perfect world, most restaurants would have their own delivery drivers, but that is not a reality for all companies. Even eateries that do have a delivery service sometimes don’t utilize it, because the first hit on Google may favor a delivery service website instead. I want to encourage that whenever it is possible for you, get out and pick up your own food. You can order it in advance for takeout and then just drop by to support your local restaurants more than delivery apps ever could.