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The reason I don't order from restaurants directly is because I usually don't know what I want to eat, and those third party ordering services give me more insi
by qppo 6y ago
The reason I don't order from restaurants directly is because I usually don't know what I want to eat, and those third party ordering services give me more insight as a consumer as to what's available to me and at what price. They also use payment processors that I'm already using and have a more browsable and legible menu with consistent layout across other restaurants.
Oftentimes the difference isn't between ordering through a third party and directly from the business, but ordering takeout at all.
There's too much benefit to me as a consumer to using third party services over ordering directly from businesses. You don't have a right to more of my money because someone else created value that you couldn't or wouldn't.
- subhero 6y agoSo the “too much” benefit you are talking about is aiu basically a) “consistent layout” b) “payment processors”? Isn”t that just a single digit improvement in terms of convenience (aka the laziness factor ;) In terms of “insight as a consumer”, it is the other way around where I live. Third party platforms almost always have only a stripped down menu available, because restaurants adapt and improve for meals that can be processed quickly and/or prepared in bulk in order to not pay up towards individual/labor intensive food on those platforms. I switched back to order by phone and pay at the door a long time ago to get the true value out of the restaurants and not a platform, which’s value prop is to be a man in the middle with a web front end.
- qppo 6y agoI wouldn't know about most of the restaurants in my area without these third parties. That's the insight I'm talking about. Like I said. The alternative is not me getting better service or product or whatever. It's buying from them at all.
- KCUOJJQJ 6y ago>They also use payment processors that I'm already using What about good old cash? >a more browsable and legible menu with consistent layout across other restaurants. Couldn't you use these menus to decide what to order and then order by phone directly from the restaurants? Once I couldn't make an order at an online shop, so I ordered the things in my shopping cart via phone. It wasn't that fast because there were a lot of small things, but it worked.
- qppo 6y agoI haven't carried cash in years. I could go through the steps manually. But why would I willingly increase the friction to making a purchase for myself?