3 ms·

GrubHub, Doordash, Ubereats etc are unnecessary middle men. What's their actual value to the consumer? An organized list of local menus.

caturopath 5y ago
They, as you say, organize a list of local menus. They centralize ordering. They save payment information. They broker disputes. They offer delivery. They are super value-adding as middlemen go.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  If they are not value adding, then there should be local competition springing up that's cheaper. In point of fact, I have added some random similar apps that turned out to be local alternatives (other end of the country from SV) and I presume the smarter restaurants are paying them less.
  - lupire 5y ago
    If they are not value adding, the alternative is "do nothing" not "launch a competitor".
    - perl4ever 5y ago
      Why would a business that destroys value preclude competitors that don't?
- CaptainZapp 5y ago
  > They are super value-adding as middlemen go. If they are so "super value-adding" as you claim then why exactly do they have a need to sign up restaurants without even asking those restaurants? It may be value adding for those companies, but reading all those complaints from restaurateurs there seems to be very little value add for them. Especially if they're not even asked to be listed.
  - bobthebuilders 5y ago
    Nobody asked to be listed on Google in the early days.
  - dagw 5y ago
    They're adding value to me, the end user, not necessarily to the restaurant in question.
  - caturopath 5y ago
    When I say 'value adding', I don't mean that everyone is happy with their business practices, just that they are actually doing something.
- CogitoCogito 5y ago
  > They are super value-adding as middlemen go. I think this might be a generational/personality thing. Many younger people seem to like all this. I prefer just talking to someone at the restaurant itself. For me human interaction will always be better than some computer interface. (I say this as a 36 year old so I'm not a dinosaur, but in this instance I feel like I'm part of the older breed.)
  - valdiorn 5y ago
    How did you find the restaurant? Do they take CC numbers over the phone? In which case, how much do you trust them to keep it safe? Do they even have delivery services? because most of my favourite restaurants never did until deliveroo/Just Eat came along. think about it, AFAIK you couldn't get KFC or McDonalds delivered in the UK, now they're the biggest players in food delivery. It was really only pizza that people expected to have delivery. So if a big chain like KFC can't manage to do deliveries on their own, how do you expect "Aunt Jessie's diner" to do it?
    - CogitoCogito 5y ago
      I found the restaurant using the internet usually and then I called. And no I never tended to give my credit card because basically everyone would take payment on delivery. Though honestly I almost always pick up the food myself and almost never use delivery. This I still do today and basically no one asks for payment ahead of time so the whole credit card thing is entirely a moot point. Now if you specifically want to use delivery services for restaurants that don't want to run their own delivery services, then yeah I guess you'll need a third-party. I tend to pick up so that's never an issue for me, but sure then use these other services. Anyway none of this is really that important to my main point that I enjoy talking directly to the restaurants. Doing it my way might mean losing certain conveniences like delivery from any restaurant. I'm fine with that. I'd rather speak to a human anyway.
  - dagw 5y ago
    I prefer just talking to someone at the restaurant itself. In my experience non-trivial orders given over the phone tend get screwed up more often than the same order via an app. But as others have mentioned the big win is getting deliveries from places than don't do deliveries. If I want take away pizza from my (second) favorite pizza place, my options are drive down and pick it up my self or ordering via a third party middleman.
sushid 5y ago
I personally order from restaurants I would have not bothered to research, call, pay (sometimes via phone by giving cc number, ugh), and order all the time via Uber Eats.
valdiorn 5y ago
- discovery. How do I discover new places I might want to try without them? dozens of flyers in the mail every week? - delivery services. not every place can retain a fleet of delivery people. Also, pooling delivery drivers is much more efficient for everyone. - security. Local restaurant websites are always shady as hell, using some outdated wordPress plugins to do their order management, I always feel worried entering my CC number on those sites. These companies do provide a value, even if they treat everyone involved in the worst way possible, but there's a reason why they've taken over the market.

caturopath 5y ago

They, as you say, organize a list of local menus. They centralize ordering. They save payment information. They broker disputes. They offer delivery. They are super value-adding as middlemen go.

perl4ever 5y ago
If they are not value adding, then there should be local competition springing up that's cheaper. In point of fact, I have added some random similar apps that turned out to be local alternatives (other end of the country from SV) and I presume the smarter restaurants are paying them less.
- lupire 5y ago
  If they are not value adding, the alternative is "do nothing" not "launch a competitor".
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    Why would a business that destroys value preclude competitors that don't?
CaptainZapp 5y ago
> They are super value-adding as middlemen go. If they are so "super value-adding" as you claim then why exactly do they have a need to sign up restaurants without even asking those restaurants? It may be value adding for those companies, but reading all those complaints from restaurateurs there seems to be very little value add for them. Especially if they're not even asked to be listed.
- bobthebuilders 5y ago
  Nobody asked to be listed on Google in the early days.
- dagw 5y ago
  They're adding value to me, the end user, not necessarily to the restaurant in question.
- caturopath 5y ago
  When I say 'value adding', I don't mean that everyone is happy with their business practices, just that they are actually doing something.
CogitoCogito 5y ago
> They are super value-adding as middlemen go. I think this might be a generational/personality thing. Many younger people seem to like all this. I prefer just talking to someone at the restaurant itself. For me human interaction will always be better than some computer interface. (I say this as a 36 year old so I'm not a dinosaur, but in this instance I feel like I'm part of the older breed.)
- valdiorn 5y ago
  How did you find the restaurant? Do they take CC numbers over the phone? In which case, how much do you trust them to keep it safe? Do they even have delivery services? because most of my favourite restaurants never did until deliveroo/Just Eat came along. think about it, AFAIK you couldn't get KFC or McDonalds delivered in the UK, now they're the biggest players in food delivery. It was really only pizza that people expected to have delivery. So if a big chain like KFC can't manage to do deliveries on their own, how do you expect "Aunt Jessie's diner" to do it?
  - CogitoCogito 5y ago
    I found the restaurant using the internet usually and then I called. And no I never tended to give my credit card because basically everyone would take payment on delivery. Though honestly I almost always pick up the food myself and almost never use delivery. This I still do today and basically no one asks for payment ahead of time so the whole credit card thing is entirely a moot point. Now if you specifically want to use delivery services for restaurants that don't want to run their own delivery services, then yeah I guess you'll need a third-party. I tend to pick up so that's never an issue for me, but sure then use these other services. Anyway none of this is really that important to my main point that I enjoy talking directly to the restaurants. Doing it my way might mean losing certain conveniences like delivery from any restaurant. I'm fine with that. I'd rather speak to a human anyway.
- dagw 5y ago
  I prefer just talking to someone at the restaurant itself. In my experience non-trivial orders given over the phone tend get screwed up more often than the same order via an app. But as others have mentioned the big win is getting deliveries from places than don't do deliveries. If I want take away pizza from my (second) favorite pizza place, my options are drive down and pick it up my self or ordering via a third party middleman.

sushid 5y ago

I personally order from restaurants I would have not bothered to research, call, pay (sometimes via phone by giving cc number, ugh), and order all the time via Uber Eats.

valdiorn 5y ago

- discovery. How do I discover new places I might want to try without them? dozens of flyers in the mail every week? - delivery services. not every place can retain a fleet of delivery people. Also, pooling delivery drivers is much more efficient for everyone. - security. Local restaurant websites are always shady as hell, using some outdated wordPress plugins to do their order management, I always feel worried entering my CC number on those sites. These companies do provide a value, even if they treat everyone involved in the worst way possible, but there's a reason why they've taken over the market.