I have a feeling these food delivery services are going to fade into obscurity or outright die. They cost way too much already and prices are only going to increase.
Very likely! Considering a lot of the world could see an economic contraction shortly, I can’t imagine people continue to consume mediocre food delivery at inflated prices if that occurs. Unemployment and pay cuts go further if you get your food yourself, and public market investors are in no hurry to adopt a dumpster fire (a la WeWork) into their portfolios.
Likewise. Good income coming in, manage costs well and as such have a healthy amount of disposable income left over every month. Last time I opened Uber Eats for something trivial, I was met with tax added, a service fee, a delivery fee and a request for a tip. Cancelled and deleted the app entirely.
Who in their right mind is succumbing to this nonsense?
If I am being frank, I mostly use DoorDash/Uber Eats when I’ve had a couple drinks and I can’t drive somewhere to get food. Pizza is the only delivery option if I don’t want to use an app. Most restaurants around here forgo offering delivery themselves and advertise the fact that you can order from them on Uber Eats or whatever.
Not to mention that the in-app menu prices are frequently inflated compared to dining in. To be fair, I believe this is set by the restaurant in order offset the huge cut that delivery apps take.
Remember folks, you can still just call restaurants and place delivery orders by talking to a human being (gasps!) without paying the Silicon Valley VC/IPO tax.
I think you under estimate how many people are lazy and willing to eat all those costs to not leave their house, and have the food delivered right to their door. Even more so in big cities where most of the population doesn't have a car.
Maybe where you are. All of the places I've lived have had only one type of restaurant (pizza) offering delivery themselves. The apps aren't about convenience of not talking on the phone, they're about the convenience of having delivery from that restaurant be an option at all.
I've actually noticed more than a few restaurants in places like NYC tell me I had to use one of their preferred online delivery services to place a delivery order. For anyone who knows the culture of food delivery in NYC this is kind of shocking development.
> tell me I had to use one of their preferred online delivery services to place a delivery order.
Yes, there are quite a few restaurants in my area that do this as well. I make sure to tell them that means that I'm going to order from some other restaurant that actually offers real delivery.
How does it make any sense that DoorDash has a valuation of $13b when Grubhub is only worth $4b with a similar market share? DD has been discounting so heavily that they can't obviously sustain that after the VC money turns off.
It's worth noting that Chase, which I believe is helping with the IPO, gave all Sapphire Reserve card holders a perk that effectively gave you 2-3 free DoorDash orders, bumping up their unique users just in time for an IPO. Feels unethical to me.
