> Is this really just a case of people not willing to pay what the service truly costs?
I think so. If a driver spends an hour on delivery, they have to make $15 in NYC or ~$8 elsewhere (USA) to be worth their time. For a single person, that can be the price of the whole meal again.
I've run into this when seeing the fees reflected on a final checkout page, and decided to cook for myself instead.
A single person isn’t really an efficient use for delivery. When I’m ordering for four people it’s $80+ so paying $20 for delivery is totally fine. And most places I order from are <10min drive.
Maybe it's due to my childhood, but even as someone who could easily afford a $25+ meal, it would hurt me emotionally to pay that much for delivery. Very few restaurants even offer a meal worth $25 in the first place (compared to what I can make at home), even in SF/NYC/London, and on top of that you don't know how long the driver is going to take, what kind of measures they are taking to keep it warm, and/or if they tamper with the food.
I'm guessing you don't know how much your time is worth. Suppose you wanted a nice meal for a friend you spontaneously invited over. You’ll go to the grocery store, cook, clean. Not only have you spent say two or more hours for a meal. If you paid yourself minimum wage, you wouldn't break even no matter how cheap the ingredients.
Frugality is a useful mentality, but it’s important to account for the economic value of time, energy, focus, and happiness. If you try billing yourself for your chores at your normal wage, your behavior will change.
We always have lots of food in the house as we cook on an ongoing basis, someone or even a few people coming over won’t make us go to the grocery store.
And my family prefers home cooked food not because of frugality, but because it’s much healthier and tastier. We can usually make a convoluted meal with at most 3 man hours (split amongst 2 or 3 people), including cleanup. But it will taste thousands of time better, and I will be able to trust the ingredients and quality more.
I’ve actually calculated that we spend more on ingredients and labor than going out to eat, but no normal takeout restaurant offers what we can make at home (it’s not affordable for most people to buy that quality food when you account for overhead and profit margins).
Although I do understand the convenience of ordering out if you live in a cramped apartment in downtown SF/NYC/other big city. But once you have the facility to cook, the marginal cost is tiny.
I think so. If a driver spends an hour on delivery, they have to make $15 in NYC or ~$8 elsewhere (USA) to be worth their time. For a single person, that can be the price of the whole meal again.
I've run into this when seeing the fees reflected on a final checkout page, and decided to cook for myself instead.