5 ms·

Apps Are Helping to Gut the Restaurant Industry

21 points by chrisaycock 6y ago

gnicholas 6y ago
The fees that the apps charge cover (1) delivery of the food, (2) creating and maintaining the online menu and ordering infrastructure, (3) customer service/overhead, and (4) profit (if there's anything left). Does anyone know how much of the app fees go toward (1) delivery? To the extent that the fees cover paying the driver, then it's not really fair to 'blame' the apps for 'gutting' the restaurant industry. But I have no idea if this is 30% of the fees or 5%. Just to be clear, I'm not defending the apps and I have literally never used any of them. I just think it's not right to spend so much time framing the issue as if the apps are vampires, sucking the industry dry, without analyzing the extent to which the value they provide (actual delivery of the food) accounts for a portion of their fees.
- stevep98 6y ago
  There are so many scammy ways they are approaching this. For example you think by looking up the restaurant on an app then clicking the phone number button to place your order directly, that you might avoid the fees. Nope. It’s a man-in the middle phone number, and they take the cut anyway. Go to the stores website and pick your order, and have it fulfilled via doordash? Fine, you’ll pay a fee for the delivery driver. But the restaurant doesn’t pay doordash fee since they didn’t drive the business to the restaurants website. But, next week you use doordash app and reorder the same thing? From now on the restaurant will pay the doordash fee.
  - petra 6y ago
    This isn't scammy. This is how businesses always behaved. There's this great cook/chef/engineer. He currently is the reason people come to your business. Won't you try to learn his recipes/secrets/commoditize-him in case you'll want/need to replace him with another, while still benefiting from his customers ? Business isn't fair.
  - mcv 6y ago
    I've recently started to take care to order directly from the restaurant's website if possible. If that site redirects me to some big app's delivery service, then fine. Although of course sometimes that entire website might not be from the restaurant but from the app's company. I have no easy way to fight that, I'm afraid. If that happens to a restaurant, they need to take better ownership of their brand.
- esotericimpl 6y ago
  Considering none of the delivery apps have ever turned a profit, point #4 is irrelevant. It’s just a private delivery driver subsidized with vc and soon public cash, ( doordash etc). Discounts and signups and bonuses are simply marketing expenses.
- petra 6y ago
  There are some companies that offer restaurants services of delivery/technology/content/customer service. I believe they charge significantly less than the big delivery apps. But the big delivery apps bring all the customers. That's usually the most difficult part for most small businesses.
- coolgeek 6y ago
  > Does anyone know how much of the app fees go toward (1) delivery? It depends mostly on distance (from restaurant to customer) and time spent waiting for the pickup. Deliverers get a small fraction of the charges (especially when you factor in the charges levied on the merchants). They also keep chipping away at it (e.g. wait time is 0.07/minute - aka $4.20/hour). Minimum payout for a gig (at one well-known service) is $3.00 - basically anything less than ~1.5 miles. They rarely exceed $5.50 (at least in a lower mileage urban environment).
aminozuur 6y ago
Many succesful restaurants have never delivered.
thunkshift1 6y ago
This looks like another one of nyt’s tirade against tech
petra 6y ago
In my opinion, most restaurants shouldn't expect anything from the delivery market, variations of ghost kitchens are going to win there.

21 points by chrisaycock 6y ago

The fees that the apps charge cover (1) delivery of the food, (2) creating and maintaining the online menu and ordering infrastructure, (3) customer service/overhead, and (4) profit (if there's anything left). Does anyone know how much of the app fees go toward (1) delivery? To the extent that the fees cover paying the driver, then it's not really fair to 'blame' the apps for 'gutting' the restaurant industry. But I have no idea if this is 30% of the fees or 5%. Just to be clear, I'm not defending the apps and I have literally never used any of them. I just think it's not right to spend so much time framing the issue as if the apps are vampires, sucking the industry dry, without analyzing the extent to which the value they provide (actual delivery of the food) accounts for a portion of their fees.

stevep98 6y ago
There are so many scammy ways they are approaching this. For example you think by looking up the restaurant on an app then clicking the phone number button to place your order directly, that you might avoid the fees. Nope. It’s a man-in the middle phone number, and they take the cut anyway. Go to the stores website and pick your order, and have it fulfilled via doordash? Fine, you’ll pay a fee for the delivery driver. But the restaurant doesn’t pay doordash fee since they didn’t drive the business to the restaurants website. But, next week you use doordash app and reorder the same thing? From now on the restaurant will pay the doordash fee.
- petra 6y ago
  This isn't scammy. This is how businesses always behaved. There's this great cook/chef/engineer. He currently is the reason people come to your business. Won't you try to learn his recipes/secrets/commoditize-him in case you'll want/need to replace him with another, while still benefiting from his customers ? Business isn't fair.
- mcv 6y ago
  I've recently started to take care to order directly from the restaurant's website if possible. If that site redirects me to some big app's delivery service, then fine. Although of course sometimes that entire website might not be from the restaurant but from the app's company. I have no easy way to fight that, I'm afraid. If that happens to a restaurant, they need to take better ownership of their brand.
esotericimpl 6y ago
Considering none of the delivery apps have ever turned a profit, point #4 is irrelevant. It’s just a private delivery driver subsidized with vc and soon public cash, ( doordash etc). Discounts and signups and bonuses are simply marketing expenses.
petra 6y ago
There are some companies that offer restaurants services of delivery/technology/content/customer service. I believe they charge significantly less than the big delivery apps. But the big delivery apps bring all the customers. That's usually the most difficult part for most small businesses.
coolgeek 6y ago
> Does anyone know how much of the app fees go toward (1) delivery? It depends mostly on distance (from restaurant to customer) and time spent waiting for the pickup. Deliverers get a small fraction of the charges (especially when you factor in the charges levied on the merchants). They also keep chipping away at it (e.g. wait time is 0.07/minute - aka $4.20/hour). Minimum payout for a gig (at one well-known service) is $3.00 - basically anything less than ~1.5 miles. They rarely exceed $5.50 (at least in a lower mileage urban environment).

aminozuur 6y ago

Many succesful restaurants have never delivered.

thunkshift1 6y ago

This looks like another one of nyt’s tirade against tech

petra 6y ago

In my opinion, most restaurants shouldn't expect anything from the delivery market, variations of ghost kitchens are going to win there.