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It's falsifying the restaurants prices. Grubhub shouldn't be able to say a dish costs $15 when it actually costs $10. It's a false statement that harms the re

by treis 6y ago

It's falsifying the restaurants prices. Grubhub shouldn't be able to say a dish costs $15 when it actually costs $10. It's a false statement that harms the restaurant. Sure, they will get some deliveries but what about the people that would buy at $10 but not $15? And what about the people that won't dine in because they think prices are 50% higher than they are. GrubHub is skimming valuable customers while discarding others. That's good for them but ultimately harmful for the restaurant.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
chrisseaton 6y ago
> It's falsifying the restaurants prices. It's marking them up... yeah. Is that a problem? Do you realise when you go to a store all the products are 'falsified' by marking them up on top of what the producer sells them to the retailer for?
- spideymans 6y ago
  Imagine Google Shopping marks up all BestBuy items by 50 percent. And then you decide to never shop at BestBuy, whether it be in person or online, because Google’s marked up pricing lead you to believe that BestBuy’s prices are outrageous.
- treis 6y ago
  No, because since the beginning of retail stores that is how it has worked and everyone understands that. For food delivery it has always been that you buy from the restaurant and pay menu price + delivery charge. Grubhub et.al. have come along and used that understanding along with an implied relationship to the restaurant to deceive the customer.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    I don't really get it. Doordash or whatever says 'for $x we will put a WhateverBurger burger into your hand'. As long as that's what they achieve, this seems fundamentally honest to me. As a consumer I don't really care where that $x goes to - Doordash, WhateverBurger, delivery person... doesn't seem my business to interfere in people's private financial agreements. The diner gets offered a deal and can take it or not. The restaurant gets offered a deal and can take it or not. The delivery person gets offered a deal and can take it or not. Seems to me like everyone is acting ethically here, and everyone is accepting a deal they're presumably happy with. If they aren't, they can turn it down and go elsewhere.
    - ceejayoz 6y ago
      > Doordash or whatever says 'for $x we will put a WhateverBurger burger into your hand'. As long as that's what they achieve, this seems fundamentally honest to me. That's not what they do, though. The receipt shows line items with a cost for the food, a fee for the service, and a delivery fee. The problem is there's an additional fee for the service hidden in the supposed cost of the food; customers don't actually know what Doordash's cut really is.
      - chrisseaton 6y ago
        > customers don't actually know what Doordash's cut really is But why would you care? I don't need to know the bill of materials for all my transactions. When I buy a coffee I don't expect to know how much they paid for the beans.
        ceejayoz 6y ago
        I care because they're explicitly listing a fee for the app that doesn't accurately reflect what that fee is. If you wanna say "delivering a pizza will cost you $20" and leave at that, fine. If you tell me the Grubhub fee is $5 and it's actually $10, I'm upset.
        root_axis 6y ago
        That doesn't seem like a good comparison, the burger is not a "bill of materials" it's a final product available directly to customers by the restaurant, consumers would definently care that they are being sold a marked up burger that is available to them for 25% cheaper. If a delivery company charges me 70 dollars to deliver a flat screen tv that's fine, but if they charge me 70 dollars but also markup the price of the TV 25% I'd consider that pretty dishonest and would at least want to know that I have the option to save 25% by managing delivery on my own.
        chrisseaton 6y ago
        > If a delivery company charges me 70 dollars to deliver a flat screen tv that's fine, but if they charge me 70 dollars but also markup the price of the TV 25% I'd consider that pretty dishonest and would at least want to know that I have the option to save 25% by managing delivery on my own. ...but this is exactly how other industries already work and everyone's fine with it! When you buy a TV from Amazon they both mark it up and also charge you delivery! And they didn't give you the option to save by managing delivery on your own! Why don't you get mad at Amazon for marking up products as well as charging delivery?
- abc-xyz 6y ago
  I’m pretty sure that in most countries, a store can’t just sell another company’s products without entering an agreement with them. This agreement allows the company to set a minimum and maximum price for the product. Imagine you’re selling chocolate that you want people to associate with luxury/wealth. To achieve this you might want to limit resellers to be 5 star hotels and luxury stores rather than the 1 dollar store.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    > I’m pretty sure that in most countries, a store can’t just sell another company’s products without entering an agreement with them. Of course you can. What makes you think you can't?
    - abc-xyz 6y ago
      The fact that your company’s product end up being represented by the store and its actions. Mistreating employees and customers, discrimination, bad customer service/return policy, terrible product placement, etc. There are so many ways a store can hurt your company’s reputation by association.
      - chrisseaton 6y ago
        But I mean there just isn't any law like you think there should be. People are free to resell any goods they own (exceptions for things like controlled substances, other things with regulations etc.)
  - panzagl 6y ago
    Look up 'grey market'. Lots of companies try to do what you suggest, but in the US there are very few laws that support such a business model.
  - umanwizard 6y ago
    I don’t know what countries are like that, but that’s certainly not the case in the United States.
BurningFrog 6y ago
Finally a reasoned critique I can agree with. Took you long enough, thread!
occamrazor 6y ago
It is unethical only if Grubhub says “I will deliver joe’s 12$ burger to you for a 4$ delivery fee” when the burger costs actually 9$. There’s nothing wrong if they say “I will bring you Joe’s burger for 16$ including delivery.” In general we don’t expect resellers to reveal their cost of goods sold.
- a_c_s 6y ago
  > It is unethical only if Grubhub says “I will deliver joe’s 12$ burger to you for a 4$ delivery fee” when the burger costs actually 9$ That's exactly what Grubhub is doing.
- pwinnski 6y ago
  GrubHub describes themselves as a delivery service company, not a reseller. With resellers, I can comparison shop. GrubHub tries to make that difficult at best.
boring_twenties 6y ago
Is Grubhub the one marking up the prices, or are the restaurants doing it (to recoup their Grubhub fees)?

by treis 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

chrisseaton 6y ago

> It's falsifying the restaurants prices. It's marking them up... yeah. Is that a problem? Do you realise when you go to a store all the products are 'falsified' by marking them up on top of what the producer sells them to the retailer for?

spideymans 6y ago
Imagine Google Shopping marks up all BestBuy items by 50 percent. And then you decide to never shop at BestBuy, whether it be in person or online, because Google’s marked up pricing lead you to believe that BestBuy’s prices are outrageous.
treis 6y ago
No, because since the beginning of retail stores that is how it has worked and everyone understands that. For food delivery it has always been that you buy from the restaurant and pay menu price + delivery charge. Grubhub et.al. have come along and used that understanding along with an implied relationship to the restaurant to deceive the customer.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  I don't really get it. Doordash or whatever says 'for $x we will put a WhateverBurger burger into your hand'. As long as that's what they achieve, this seems fundamentally honest to me. As a consumer I don't really care where that $x goes to - Doordash, WhateverBurger, delivery person... doesn't seem my business to interfere in people's private financial agreements. The diner gets offered a deal and can take it or not. The restaurant gets offered a deal and can take it or not. The delivery person gets offered a deal and can take it or not. Seems to me like everyone is acting ethically here, and everyone is accepting a deal they're presumably happy with. If they aren't, they can turn it down and go elsewhere.
  - ceejayoz 6y ago
    > Doordash or whatever says 'for $x we will put a WhateverBurger burger into your hand'. As long as that's what they achieve, this seems fundamentally honest to me. That's not what they do, though. The receipt shows line items with a cost for the food, a fee for the service, and a delivery fee. The problem is there's an additional fee for the service hidden in the supposed cost of the food; customers don't actually know what Doordash's cut really is.
    - chrisseaton 6y ago
      > customers don't actually know what Doordash's cut really is But why would you care? I don't need to know the bill of materials for all my transactions. When I buy a coffee I don't expect to know how much they paid for the beans.
      - ceejayoz 6y ago
        I care because they're explicitly listing a fee for the app that doesn't accurately reflect what that fee is. If you wanna say "delivering a pizza will cost you $20" and leave at that, fine. If you tell me the Grubhub fee is $5 and it's actually $10, I'm upset.
      - root_axis 6y ago
        That doesn't seem like a good comparison, the burger is not a "bill of materials" it's a final product available directly to customers by the restaurant, consumers would definently care that they are being sold a marked up burger that is available to them for 25% cheaper. If a delivery company charges me 70 dollars to deliver a flat screen tv that's fine, but if they charge me 70 dollars but also markup the price of the TV 25% I'd consider that pretty dishonest and would at least want to know that I have the option to save 25% by managing delivery on my own.
        chrisseaton 6y ago
        > If a delivery company charges me 70 dollars to deliver a flat screen tv that's fine, but if they charge me 70 dollars but also markup the price of the TV 25% I'd consider that pretty dishonest and would at least want to know that I have the option to save 25% by managing delivery on my own. ...but this is exactly how other industries already work and everyone's fine with it! When you buy a TV from Amazon they both mark it up and also charge you delivery! And they didn't give you the option to save by managing delivery on your own! Why don't you get mad at Amazon for marking up products as well as charging delivery?
abc-xyz 6y ago
I’m pretty sure that in most countries, a store can’t just sell another company’s products without entering an agreement with them. This agreement allows the company to set a minimum and maximum price for the product. Imagine you’re selling chocolate that you want people to associate with luxury/wealth. To achieve this you might want to limit resellers to be 5 star hotels and luxury stores rather than the 1 dollar store.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  > I’m pretty sure that in most countries, a store can’t just sell another company’s products without entering an agreement with them. Of course you can. What makes you think you can't?
  - abc-xyz 6y ago
    The fact that your company’s product end up being represented by the store and its actions. Mistreating employees and customers, discrimination, bad customer service/return policy, terrible product placement, etc. There are so many ways a store can hurt your company’s reputation by association.
    - chrisseaton 6y ago
      But I mean there just isn't any law like you think there should be. People are free to resell any goods they own (exceptions for things like controlled substances, other things with regulations etc.)
- panzagl 6y ago
  Look up 'grey market'. Lots of companies try to do what you suggest, but in the US there are very few laws that support such a business model.
- umanwizard 6y ago
  I don’t know what countries are like that, but that’s certainly not the case in the United States.

BurningFrog 6y ago

Finally a reasoned critique I can agree with. Took you long enough, thread!

occamrazor 6y ago

It is unethical only if Grubhub says “I will deliver joe’s 12$ burger to you for a 4$ delivery fee” when the burger costs actually 9$. There’s nothing wrong if they say “I will bring you Joe’s burger for 16$ including delivery.” In general we don’t expect resellers to reveal their cost of goods sold.

a_c_s 6y ago
> It is unethical only if Grubhub says “I will deliver joe’s 12$ burger to you for a 4$ delivery fee” when the burger costs actually 9$ That's exactly what Grubhub is doing.
pwinnski 6y ago
GrubHub describes themselves as a delivery service company, not a reseller. With resellers, I can comparison shop. GrubHub tries to make that difficult at best.

boring_twenties 6y ago

Is Grubhub the one marking up the prices, or are the restaurants doing it (to recoup their Grubhub fees)?