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People appear to be forgetting how horrible food delivery was pre-UberEats/DoorDash et al. It was horrible and the food was always cold. Once they started doing

People appear to be forgetting how horrible food delivery was pre-UberEats/DoorDash et al. It was horrible and the food was always cold. Once they started doing food delivery it was a game changer. My food arrived hot enough that I had to wait sometimes but almost always pleasantly warm. To me, it’s worth paying the fees, especially since I don’t have to spend time going out, waiting, driving back. When I go for In’n’out these days, it’s almost an hour spent in total. I would rather pay fees and a tip to get someone to bring it to me. And quite honestly, without food delivery most of these restaurants would be dead anyway so they really should be thankful. There’s no way they could coerce enough customers to drive down, find parking and wait while they expose themselves to COVID just for a meal.

kingkawn 6y ago
I never had a problem with delivery before the VCs started trying to make bank off it
derrekl 6y ago
I worked at a pizza place in the early to mid 90s in the suburbs of Chicago. The place ran its own delivery service. The service was fantastic, pizzas delivered piping hot most of the times. It wasn’t very hard for the restaurant to set up and operate the service. 15 year old me understood it pretty well. That said I think where these delivery services have come in is at places that historically didn’t have their own delivery. Now these places suddenly have “delivery as a service” to add on with Seemingly no additional work, a fee, and additional revenue. These places could easily start their own delivery service if they want, but they must still think it’s easier to pay the delivery as a service fees.
- blfr 6y ago
  Yes, pizza places had it figured out. Everyone else, not so much. And on Uber Eats or many of their competitors you can order pancakes with coffee, burgers, traditional food, Georgian, whatever. In Poland, Pyszne.pl is usually better and offers a wider selection than Uber Eats. The delivery is often provided by the restaurant itself, just like you suggest. In fact, I made two orders from Uber Eats today and both are delivered by the restaurant. But even then the intermediary keeps them honest with reviews and access to the platform. It's not pure rent seeking. Before that, these platforms do a lot of promotion, marketing, and allow for easy discovery. They have greatly expanded the market. Just like Uber did for taxis.
krapp 6y ago
>People appear to be forgetting how horrible food delivery was pre-UberEats/DoorDash et al. It was horrible and the food was always cold. No one's forgotten anything, that's just simply not true. I've never used UberEats or DoorDash, and I've had food delivered plenty of times over the years, and never had a problem. I assume this is the same sort of propaganda Uber fans use when they claim taxi service was universally terrible and corrupt before they came along and disrupted everything. No, for the most part both taxis and restaurant delivery worked perfectly well for most people, most of the time.
- torstenvl 6y ago
  Taxi service was absolutely terrible before Uber. You couldn't order a taxi from an app, there were never enough of them, you couldn't figure out what the price was before ordering so there was no direct competition, many localities had an anticompetitive licensing scheme on top of that, and a not insignificant number of drivers would take you the long way during off-peak hours IOT inflate the price.
  - krapp 6y ago
    >You couldn't order a taxi from an app Never needed to, I could just call them on the phone. >you couldn't figure out what the price was before ordering so there was no direct competition Sure I could, I would just ask them how much to get from point A to B. The price I was quoted was always accurate. >many localities had an anticompetitive licensing scheme on top of that Has no effect whatsoever on me as a customer. >and a not insignificant number of drivers would take you the long way during off-peak hours IOT inflate the price I've literally never had that happen.
    - torstenvl 6y ago
      Calling on a phone works not so great in crowded and loud places. Quotes on the phone aren't in writing and I've never had them honored. "Oh that's just an estimate." Lack of competition has an effect on all customers. Nobody is exempt from economics.

kingkawn 6y ago

I never had a problem with delivery before the VCs started trying to make bank off it

derrekl 6y ago

I worked at a pizza place in the early to mid 90s in the suburbs of Chicago. The place ran its own delivery service. The service was fantastic, pizzas delivered piping hot most of the times. It wasn’t very hard for the restaurant to set up and operate the service. 15 year old me understood it pretty well. That said I think where these delivery services have come in is at places that historically didn’t have their own delivery. Now these places suddenly have “delivery as a service” to add on with Seemingly no additional work, a fee, and additional revenue. These places could easily start their own delivery service if they want, but they must still think it’s easier to pay the delivery as a service fees.

blfr 6y ago
Yes, pizza places had it figured out. Everyone else, not so much. And on Uber Eats or many of their competitors you can order pancakes with coffee, burgers, traditional food, Georgian, whatever. In Poland, Pyszne.pl is usually better and offers a wider selection than Uber Eats. The delivery is often provided by the restaurant itself, just like you suggest. In fact, I made two orders from Uber Eats today and both are delivered by the restaurant. But even then the intermediary keeps them honest with reviews and access to the platform. It's not pure rent seeking. Before that, these platforms do a lot of promotion, marketing, and allow for easy discovery. They have greatly expanded the market. Just like Uber did for taxis.

krapp 6y ago

>People appear to be forgetting how horrible food delivery was pre-UberEats/DoorDash et al. It was horrible and the food was always cold. No one's forgotten anything, that's just simply not true. I've never used UberEats or DoorDash, and I've had food delivered plenty of times over the years, and never had a problem. I assume this is the same sort of propaganda Uber fans use when they claim taxi service was universally terrible and corrupt before they came along and disrupted everything. No, for the most part both taxis and restaurant delivery worked perfectly well for most people, most of the time.

torstenvl 6y ago
Taxi service was absolutely terrible before Uber. You couldn't order a taxi from an app, there were never enough of them, you couldn't figure out what the price was before ordering so there was no direct competition, many localities had an anticompetitive licensing scheme on top of that, and a not insignificant number of drivers would take you the long way during off-peak hours IOT inflate the price.
- krapp 6y ago
  >You couldn't order a taxi from an app Never needed to, I could just call them on the phone. >you couldn't figure out what the price was before ordering so there was no direct competition Sure I could, I would just ask them how much to get from point A to B. The price I was quoted was always accurate. >many localities had an anticompetitive licensing scheme on top of that Has no effect whatsoever on me as a customer. >and a not insignificant number of drivers would take you the long way during off-peak hours IOT inflate the price I've literally never had that happen.
  - torstenvl 6y ago
    Calling on a phone works not so great in crowded and loud places. Quotes on the phone aren't in writing and I've never had them honored. "Oh that's just an estimate." Lack of competition has an effect on all customers. Nobody is exempt from economics.