How Delivery Apps May Put Your Favorite Restaurant Out of Business

[DamianTV]

https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/0...ut-of-business

In a piece this month, The New Yorker argues that online food discovery and delivery platforms are bad for restaurants. From the report:

In recent years, online platforms like Uber Eats, Seamless, and GrubHub (which merged with Seamless, in 2013) have turned delivery from a small segment of the restaurant industry, dominated by pizza, to a booming new source of sales for food establishments of all stripes. When the average consumer logs in to the Caviar app to order a Mulberry & Vine salad for the office or a grain bowl on the way home from work, she might reasonably assume that her order is benefitting the restaurant's bottom line. But Gauthier, like many other restaurant owners I've spoken to in recent months, paints a more complicated picture. "We know for a fact that as delivery increases, our profitability decreases," she said. For each order that Mulberry & Vine sends out, between twenty and forty per cent of the revenue goes to third-party platforms and couriers. (Gauthier initially had her own couriers on staff, but, as delivery volumes grew, coordinating them became unmanageable.) Calculating an order's exact profitability is tricky, Gauthier said, but she estimated that in the past three years Mulberry & Vine's over-all profit margin has shrunk by a third, and that the only obvious contributing factor is the shift toward delivery.

Using Apps is NOT the way to support local family owned businesses.

[Danke]

Can’t they just pass along the delivery costs to the end consumer?

[oyarde]

Can’t they just pass along the delivery costs to the end consumer?

I bet with fine dining , if you added 100 percent of it you would be adding so much to the price you would price yourself out .

[Danke]

I bet with fine dining , if you added 100 percent of it you would be adding so much to the price you would price yourself out .

Not a 100 but “twenty and forty per cent”

I would think with time and more competition, it would be closer to 20% of less.

[oyarde]

Not a 100 but “twenty and forty per cent”

I would think with time and more competition, it would be closer to 20% of less.

If they hired me to teach them some management and book skills they'd have money to burn .

[Danke]

If they hired me to teach them some management and book skills they'd have money to burn .

I think that is their fear. To hire someone like you that would burn through their money. Probably up in peyote smoke.

[oyarde]

I think that is their fear. To hire someone like you that would burn through their money. Probably up in peyote smoke.

They would have record profits , the competition would cry , nash teeth and make claims of illegal activities .

[dannno]

Can’t they just pass along the delivery costs to the end consumer?

Ya I wish they would have explained that part. These delivery services have been popular here for years and in my experience ordering from restaurants costs a bit more than eating out because you have to pay extra for delivery.

I would think it would be helping restaurants to some degree since they can utilize their kitchen more and not have to worry about overcrowding their eating space. Restaurants in general should be able to have smaller eating spaces and pay less rent.

[Voluntarist]

xxxxx

[angelatc]

https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/0...ut-of-business



Using Apps is NOT the way to support local family owned businesses.

The whole concept of local residents eschewing large chain operations in favor of spending more supporting Mom and Pop shop places is pretty much an urban myth.

[Anti Federalist]

I never got the "full meal" delivery service thing.

For damn near the same price as a restaurant meal, you eat at home for what you could have cooked yourself for a third of the cost.

The appeal of a nice meal "out" is atmosphere and having someone else do the prep, cooking, serving and cleaning.

It must be 20 years or more since I ordered delivery food while at home.

[Anti Federalist]

Moot argument anyways.

We're all on borrowed time, we're all destined for unemployment in the next 20 years or so once the next wave of automation takes hold.

[dannno]

I never got the "full meal" delivery service thing.

For damn near the same price as a restaurant meal, you eat at home for what you could have cooked yourself for a third of the cost.

The appeal of a nice meal "out" is atmosphere and having someone else do the prep, cooking, serving and cleaning.

It must be 20 years or more since I ordered delivery food while at home.

I like take out, I prefer eating at home to eating at a restaurant unless it's a social occasion.

Almost all restaurants will let you get take-out orders and you don't have to pay the delivery fee.

But ya that's when I don't feel like cooking.

[heavenlyboy34]

I never got the "full meal" delivery service thing.

For damn near the same price as a restaurant meal, you eat at home for what you could have cooked yourself for a third of the cost.

The appeal of a nice meal "out" is atmosphere and having someone else do the prep, cooking, serving and cleaning.

It must be 20 years or more since I ordered delivery food while at home.

This^^ I also control exactly what goes into the food and know the nutrient profile of everything when I cook.

[heavenlyboy34]

I like take out, I prefer eating at home to eating at a restaurant unless it's a social occasion.

Almost all restaurants will let you get take-out orders and you don't have to pay the delivery fee.

But ya that's when I don't feel like cooking.

protip: make big batches once or twice a week so you can store them and warm them up later.

[Anti Federalist]

I like take out, I prefer eating at home to eating at a restaurant unless it's a social occasion.

Almost all restaurants will let you get take-out orders and you don't have to pay the delivery fee.

But ya that's when I don't feel like cooking.

Some foods lend themselves to being "take out" or delivered as well.

Pizza, Chinese, maybe burgers...but the thought of having a sirloin steak, garlic potatoes and skillet cooked veggies served in a lukewarm Styrofoam box does nothing for me.

[dannno]

Some foods lend themselves to being "take out" or delivered as well.

Pizza, Chinese, maybe burgers...but the thought of having a sirloin steak, garlic potatoes and skillet cooked veggies served in a lukewarm Styrofoam box does nothing for me.

Mexican, sushi, sammiches.

But ya the take out at Outback is really popular, I haven't been able to bring myself to try it yet.

[fisharmor]

Pretty sure I read in one of John Lott's books, that the reason why restaurants are able to have lunch specials isn't to try to drum up lunch business:
it's mainly about the fact that lunch patrons spend less time in the restaurant. The table space costs money too - and dinner guests are "renting" that space for more time than the lunch guests.
If that's true, then reducing your table rental time to zero means whoever is complaining about this can STFU.