6 ms·

I'm not surprised. In my region, delivery companies add on something like $10 (~$5 for the actual delivery, $2 for the company's cut, and another >$2 for the r

by djaque 6y ago

I'm not surprised. In my region, delivery companies add on something like $10 (~$5 for the actual delivery, $2 for the company's cut, and another >$2 for the recommended tip). Compare that with "delivery native" companies. I pay like half that for pizza delivery for instance. I can't afford to get $20-$30 delivery food every week, so I've moved to doing takeout instead.

ketamine__ 6y ago
Some delivery companies add an additional fee for smaller orders. A sandwich could end up costing $25-$30.
- djaque 6y ago
  Yeah, and it might just be that there was a surge of hiring recently, but I've had a lot of bad luck. Two delivery drivers showed up at the wrong street and I had to guide them to my place. One managed to deliver it inside the next door apartment and not call me, so I had to wait an hour for my neighbor to get back from errands to give me my order. Another time delivery took like two hours. I think restaurants/delivery companies are having a hard time adapting to all of the new (different type of) demand while at the same time having a huge cut in profits.
- xythian 6y ago
  So we've come full circle to at home 'room service'? :)
turtlebits 6y ago
The only reason pizza delivery "works", is because it's a very high margin food. In no real world can <$5 on-demand delivery work out unless you have a very high volume of order and can pool the delivery.
- germansolo 6y ago
  This exactly. Having been a former franchisee of one of the big three pizza companies, I can attest that this is true. On a typical evening there could be as many as 30 to 40 deliveries in the store per hour. With that kind of volume, it is easy to route drivers where I can send 2 or 3 orders together to the same geographic area. It's just logistically easier when there is a high volume of orders and the geographic area of the store's delivery zone is small.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    Did you have route optimization software to help?
    - germansolo 6y ago
      Yes we did, but most often you could just look at the delivery map and see what deliveries would go together. Optimization won't tell you which orders were not complete (waiting on an item that needed to be remade or was made wrong, etc.) and many times just eyeing the map and knowing the delivery area was all that was needed. Drivers also knew which shortcuts would be beneficial to use that the optimization would not know. The software at the time also would not be able to factor current traffic in the equation. It's been a while, maybe they do now, I don't know, I've left for greener pastures.
      - scarface74 6y ago
        Just curious. I wrote software for the old ruggedized Windows Mobile devices for field service workers over a decade ago. The holy grail was route/cost optimizations. Near the end of my time there we integrated with a third party route optimization service.
        germansolo 6y ago
        This was the main issue with the software we used. When it was slow, it would recommend that one driver take three orders to the same area while leaving others in the store with nothing, but when it was busy, it would suggest a driver only take one order even if there was three others in the immediate area and no drivers in the store. It didn't take into account the labor and mileage costs of its decisions. This was also a decade ago, I'm sure the software has been optimized for better results now.
- mewpmewp2 6y ago
  In Europe I get 1.90 delivery for a 10eur pizza. No hidden service fees/taxes/expected tip or anything. 11.90eur is the final what I pay. When I visited US however this shit with hidden fees was terrible. Where I live I never cook nowadays. I don't even shop. I only order in. Couldn't imagine this to be a possibility without food delivery apps.
tomlagier 6y ago
A recent $30 Thai dinner for myself and my wife came to $58 after delivery fee, service charge, and tip. Ridiculous for the convenience of saving 20 minutes (round trip) of drive time. Of course we didn't pay it did takeout instead. I feel bad because there's a tier of service workers that I'm not supporting anymore, but marking up ~100% prices us out.
- blaser-waffle 6y ago
  Shoot, a McDonalds burger meal and some nuggets ran me damn near $33 CAD for Uber Eats. I don't have a car, otherwise I'd just hit the drive through myself.
cuddlybacon 6y ago
Where I am pizza costs about the same as what an uber-eats purchase would once you factor everything in (eg the tip). I think the reason it has worked for pizza, is that pizza always had that extra cost baked into the product itself.
stronglikedan 6y ago
Good on you for doing takeout instead. It's safe with a mask, gloves, and care. It nets you a nice break from the house, and it directly supports the restaurant staff. Also, IME, the order accuracy is vastly superior. In fact, a few people ordered lunch to our workplace yesterday, and they didn't have one of the non-meat items I ordered (intentionally), so they replaced it with a meat item, without even trying to contact us first. Just insane to think someone thought that was an acceptable substitute, let alone without even confirming.
kart23 6y ago
I enjoy driving to get food because it's literally the only thing that actually makes me get out of the house now.

by djaque 6y ago

ketamine__ 6y ago

Some delivery companies add an additional fee for smaller orders. A sandwich could end up costing $25-$30.

djaque 6y ago
Yeah, and it might just be that there was a surge of hiring recently, but I've had a lot of bad luck. Two delivery drivers showed up at the wrong street and I had to guide them to my place. One managed to deliver it inside the next door apartment and not call me, so I had to wait an hour for my neighbor to get back from errands to give me my order. Another time delivery took like two hours. I think restaurants/delivery companies are having a hard time adapting to all of the new (different type of) demand while at the same time having a huge cut in profits.
xythian 6y ago
So we've come full circle to at home 'room service'? :)

turtlebits 6y ago

The only reason pizza delivery "works", is because it's a very high margin food. In no real world can <$5 on-demand delivery work out unless you have a very high volume of order and can pool the delivery.

germansolo 6y ago
This exactly. Having been a former franchisee of one of the big three pizza companies, I can attest that this is true. On a typical evening there could be as many as 30 to 40 deliveries in the store per hour. With that kind of volume, it is easy to route drivers where I can send 2 or 3 orders together to the same geographic area. It's just logistically easier when there is a high volume of orders and the geographic area of the store's delivery zone is small.
- scarface74 6y ago
  Did you have route optimization software to help?
  - germansolo 6y ago
    Yes we did, but most often you could just look at the delivery map and see what deliveries would go together. Optimization won't tell you which orders were not complete (waiting on an item that needed to be remade or was made wrong, etc.) and many times just eyeing the map and knowing the delivery area was all that was needed. Drivers also knew which shortcuts would be beneficial to use that the optimization would not know. The software at the time also would not be able to factor current traffic in the equation. It's been a while, maybe they do now, I don't know, I've left for greener pastures.
    - scarface74 6y ago
      Just curious. I wrote software for the old ruggedized Windows Mobile devices for field service workers over a decade ago. The holy grail was route/cost optimizations. Near the end of my time there we integrated with a third party route optimization service.
      - germansolo 6y ago
        This was the main issue with the software we used. When it was slow, it would recommend that one driver take three orders to the same area while leaving others in the store with nothing, but when it was busy, it would suggest a driver only take one order even if there was three others in the immediate area and no drivers in the store. It didn't take into account the labor and mileage costs of its decisions. This was also a decade ago, I'm sure the software has been optimized for better results now.
mewpmewp2 6y ago
In Europe I get 1.90 delivery for a 10eur pizza. No hidden service fees/taxes/expected tip or anything. 11.90eur is the final what I pay. When I visited US however this shit with hidden fees was terrible. Where I live I never cook nowadays. I don't even shop. I only order in. Couldn't imagine this to be a possibility without food delivery apps.

tomlagier 6y ago

A recent $30 Thai dinner for myself and my wife came to $58 after delivery fee, service charge, and tip. Ridiculous for the convenience of saving 20 minutes (round trip) of drive time. Of course we didn't pay it did takeout instead. I feel bad because there's a tier of service workers that I'm not supporting anymore, but marking up ~100% prices us out.

blaser-waffle 6y ago
Shoot, a McDonalds burger meal and some nuggets ran me damn near $33 CAD for Uber Eats. I don't have a car, otherwise I'd just hit the drive through myself.

cuddlybacon 6y ago

Where I am pizza costs about the same as what an uber-eats purchase would once you factor everything in (eg the tip). I think the reason it has worked for pizza, is that pizza always had that extra cost baked into the product itself.

stronglikedan 6y ago

Good on you for doing takeout instead. It's safe with a mask, gloves, and care. It nets you a nice break from the house, and it directly supports the restaurant staff. Also, IME, the order accuracy is vastly superior. In fact, a few people ordered lunch to our workplace yesterday, and they didn't have one of the non-meat items I ordered (intentionally), so they replaced it with a meat item, without even trying to contact us first. Just insane to think someone thought that was an acceptable substitute, let alone without even confirming.

kart23 6y ago

I enjoy driving to get food because it's literally the only thing that actually makes me get out of the house now.