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I never understood why these delivery services are popular. Yes people are lazy. But lazy to the point of paying an additionnal fee to be waiting twice the tim

I never understood why these delivery services are popular. Yes people are lazy. But lazy to the point of paying an additionnal fee to be waiting twice the time it gets to fetch the same food yourself and receive dishes that are cold instead of hot? What is the incentive really? If only those delivery services would use devices that keep food warm and deliver from somewhere far from home, I would maybe understand, but they aren't even available in a wider than a small radius around your house, so it is always more convenient to walk/cycle/drive to wherever you would order that food anyway. The only ones that do it relatively well are pizza joints and they usually have their own delivery service so you don't even have to use these apps.

adzm 2y ago
My car broke down and it's taking forever to fix! Delivery services have made this much less of a problem.
alt227 2y ago
> Yes people are lazy. You dont seem to understand just how lazy people are.
- ghaff 2y ago
  They are and I include myself in this category every now and then. But even when I had to go into an office every day, I had quite a few things I could toss into the oven or skillet and have ready in a few minutes. Have some friends over and want to get a couple pizzas that everyone is happy with? Sure I get that rather than someone having to go out and pick them up. But, as a routine thing, I've never gotten the attraction of delivery.
  - aaronbaugher 2y ago
    Same here. I prepare 2-3 meals for myself every day. Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs. It took maybe 15 minutes, and for part of that time I was also checking emails and getting dressed for the day. For lunch I'll throw together a salad in a few minutes. Meal prep just isn't the hardship people seem to think it is, and by doing my own, I spend about a tenth as much on food as my co-workers who get everything delivered. That doesn't mean I begrudge them their use of these services. If that's what they want to spend their income on, that's their business. I just think it's foolish and based on misconceptions.
    - theshackleford 2y ago
      > Meal prep just isn't the hardship people seem to think it is For you, and your circumstances. For other people, it’s exactly as hard as they think it is. I can’t use a knife, or look down to prepare food without risking the inability to use large parts of my body for the rest of the day and potentially the next. Though my answer to this is shakes, not food service to be fair. > based on misconceptions You don’t say?
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    >I had quite a few things I could toss into the oven or skillet and have ready in a few minutes. I don't. That was eggs for me, but alas. At best I have oatmeal ready.
    - wiether 2y ago
      Chickpeas! Even cheaper than eggs and much longer shelf life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Y1Gsjj5iU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Y1Gsjj5iU
      - johnnyanmac 2y ago
        Interesting. Sure. I'll grab a can next time I go for groceries and see if I like the taste.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      Buying a dozen eggs and maybe some cheese and associated veggies is still a lot cheaper than getting meal delivers. Also sautéed shrimp. Pasta with even store bought sauce. I sometimes don’t feel like cooking either but it honestly doesn’t need to take a lot of effort or money.
      - johnnyanmac 2y ago
        Yes, but it feels a lot worse. What's competing when I'm at the grocery is different from when I'm ordering delivery. I've cut down my Doordash substantially but I still have my down days a few times in a month where I'm either really lazy or really crunched for time at work. I do in fact have pasta but I wouldn't call it much of a meal by itself. I usually cook it with some ground beef or turkey and try to keep some leftovers, but that leaves the realm of "quick 10 minute meals". I'll keep the shrimp in mind when going for groceries next time as well. I'm all ears for some quick and tasty sources of protein.
        ghaff 2y ago
        Frozen shrimp was good when I had a priority on quick dinners; usually some shrimp scampi variant. Have a turkey farm in town so a frozen turkey pie isn't a bad option. You do have the option of refrigerated ravioli or tortellini with some store-bought pasta sauce which comes closer to being a whole meal. After all, not every meal needs to be a complete/balanced one. I've also found other frozen stuff like soup dumplings that are really quick/easy to prep.
Peanuts99 2y ago
What's more, these services only go to make the customer experience of people who have actually turned up at the restaurant worse because the same staff are now having to cater for twice the amount of orders while they manage a long line of motorcycle drivers crowding around the entrance. Personally to me it's wild, spending restaurant money to eat at home.
- braza 2y ago
  +1. Someone nailed it in the thread above related to the -time/+money, but after a couple of years working on it, I realized that the people that use those services are not the public that would go to a restaurant for a gastronomic experience, and that's ok. At least for me, the biggest 3rd or maybe 4th order effect of the food delivery industry and their dark/gray kitchens is that the concept of having a nice cooked meal locally is almost over, with some exceptions. Due to the over-optimization of the kitchens and the offset in terms of revenue that restaurants can have (i.e., orders without increasing the real estate), we have a bunch of pre-set mounted meals in almost all restaurants, and the probability of eating something tasty and unique is very low due to that. The irony is that, at least in my experience, the best non-chain and/or fine restaurants that I found were the ones in some shopping centers in the Nordics for a simple accidental association: none of those has any possibility to have food delivery due to hard physical constraints, and my assumption is that, since they do not have this possibility, they have to deliver the best meal possible to have people return and build a positive reputation.
  - LightBug1 2y ago
    5th order effect - enabling shut-in's to stay shut in.
  - vidarh 2y ago
    I am the type who would both go to a restaurant for a gastronomic experience and order from Deliveroo. When I want "an experience" I travel to a high-end restaurant. A local restaurant does not deliver that experience, whether I order home or go eat there. When I feel like that quality food, I order it because I don't want to spend my time for that quality food.
amjnsx 2y ago
Are you talking from experience with DoorDash or Deliveroo? This has not been my experience with Deliveroo in London, UK. There’s just no way I could get the same food quicker, everyone is on motor/pedal bikes so delivery is usually about 20-30 minutes. Food is always hot on arrival bar the odd item (Nandos chips specifically, always cold). Also I’m ordering Deliveroo specifically so I can get the time back, that’s the price you’re really paying - I had a long day at work and I want the time to relax and not spend it sourcing and making dinner.
- danielbln 2y ago
  Yeah, I never had cold food delivered. Maybe that's a US thing where you live 50km away from the restaurant or something.
  - prmoustache 2y ago
    I am in Spain and the only restaurants that these services propose are in a 5km radius so it is often easier/faster to walk, cycle or take the motorbike to said place. The apps hide all stuff on other sides of the city so I wouldn't be able to order from 50km away anyway.
  - tssva 2y ago
    In the US and none of the food delivery services deliver from some place as far away as 50km. I don’t know why you think that would be necessary in the US. That being said I have never received a food delivery that was cold or that wasn’t delivered in a timely manner.
    - danielbln 2y ago
      I was poking fun at the fact that distances in the US tend to be bigger than e.g. in Europe, I figured that the delivery apps don't allow for that much of a range. Since I've read the complaint about cold food frequently, but like you have never received cold food, I figured it must be some US specific thing (but I guess not).
  - tshaddox 2y ago
etaioinshrdlu 2y ago
If you have more money than time, and you don't mind the quality, it seems like not a bad trade.
braza 2y ago
> What is the incentive really? > I would maybe understand, but they aren't even available in a wider than a small radius around your house, so it is always more convenient to walk/cycle/drive to wherever you would order that food anyway. I know that you mentioned the incentive from the customer perspective, but since I've worked in 2 of the top 5 world food delivery companies, I can have some insights about it beyond people's laziness. 1) Availability of different cuisines regardless of distance: If you're talking about a bikeable, small-sized European capital or city with a limited number of restaurants, yes—you can place your order in person without any issue. But if you're in a mid-sized city with a high variety of restaurants, like Berlin, that’s not feasible. Most of the time, people don't use the app to order from the local pizza place; they use it to get a nice Indian, Japanese, Nepalese, or Thai dish from a restaurant 6 to 10 km away, especially on a rainy Friday. 2) It’s hard for restaurants to coordinate table bookings with walk-ins: Many restaurants join the platform because, while they can manage bookings and some fixed demand, they also risk losing walk-in customers (dynamic demand) when there's no space available. What restaurants do now is manage both bookings and walk-ins without worrying about losing revenue—because delivery can make up for no-shows or frustrated walk-ins. 3) Food delivery removes waiting logistics: If you walk, cycle, or drive, you incur the full logistics cost plus the opportunity cost (e.g., if you're organizing an event and need to set aside an hour for food). With delivery platforms, you can "actively wait"—you place the order through the app and do other things while waiting. You’re paying for both the logistics and the saved opportunity cost. 4) Restaurants can optimize menus and kitchen efficiency instead of real estate: This relates to point 2. In my experience, restaurants are becoming more like a front-end experience for dine-in customers, but many are transforming into what could be called "kitchens as a service." Customers order remotely, and a highly optimized kitchen, in terms of logistics and execution, prepares a specific dish. One thing I've noticed—and personally feel conflicted about—is that restaurants are betting on hyper-optimization by selling more of what I call "pre-mounted standardized dishes." In other words, instead of restaurants thinking about increasing their space to accommodate potential walk-ins, they will move towards maximizing kitchen efficiency. Example: In Brazilian food restaurants, they have preset portions of rice, beans, French fries, and salad, and just reheat pre-cooked steak. For Thai food, they keep cold dressings in containers, and all noodles are pre-cooked and stored in warmers, and so on.
rtpg 2y ago
I mean in bigger cities lots of people don't have cars, they might also be in the middle of something and so having someone else get the food makes sense. And a lot of people have "too much money", leading to them being like "yeah I'll pay like 40 bucks for somebody to bring these burgers to me so I can just keep on playing something with a friend". And you know... if food is cold, you probably have a microwave? Whether this is a good use of money is debatable but I think it's pretty easy to imagine scenarios in which this would be used.
- itsoktocry 2y ago
  >if food is cold, you probably have a microwave? Order $40 of mediocre food and pop it in the microwave when it gets to you, cold. No surprise this is the community that brought us Soylent. Do these people even like food? Fine if not, but in that case stock up on broccoli, rice and chicken and eat it every day; you'll save money and be healthier.
  - wiether 2y ago
    > Do these people even like food? They don't. Basically they _consume_ food like they _consume_ shows on Netflix. They want tons of choice, they want something constantly new, but they never actually enjoy what they consume. Ask them what they ate last week and they can't tell you. Ask them what they thought about what they just ate, same result. It would be fine if it wasn't for the tons of trash that creates and the cooks/delivery people that are exploited by this system.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      I'm not sure the comparison with Netflix is fair as the latter does have some good shows. But, in the case of food delivery, yes, some subset of people are neither choosy nor especially price-sensitive and they're an ideal target audience.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  OTOH when you are in a big city you usually have food available virtually at your doorstep. That is my experience at least.
tokioyoyo 2y ago
You’d be extremely surprised if you saw internal dashboards. Kinda opens up your mind to society’s decision making processes when you see the numbers.
fergie 2y ago
* Dons tinfoil hat * They want you scared alone and staring at a screen. These services allow people to withdraw from the social interaction of ordering food in person- they feed off of and encourage social anxiety.
- m000 2y ago
  You make it sound like a therapists' conspiracy. I think the DoorDash culture is promoted because it means you can now work an hour more of (often unpaid) overtime, without worrying for your dinner. Or that you won't resist the extra time commuting to a far office location, so that your employer can save on their office space rent. Or won't complain for being forced to live out of the city because funds have bought up all the housing for "investment" and you can no longer afford a place in it.
- CalRobert 2y ago
  Honestly when I lived in Ireland I sometimes preferred an app because there were times I couldn’t tell what people were saying (loud background noises, accents, etc)
jbs789 2y ago
Live in a major city without a car/bike. Many restaurants within close physical proximity.
postexitus 2y ago
Food delivery is a game changer with little kids to feed.
- itsoktocry 2y ago
  >Food delivery is a game changer with little kids to feed. Can you elaborate? I have little kids. We buy food at the grocery store and cook it. What game is being changed? You're talking about ordering takeout.
  - bluedino 2y ago
    Easier to put chicken nuggets in an air fryer than order them from DoorDash last time I checked
    - ghaff 2y ago
      My mother cooked but, when I was growing up, tossing a Swanson TV dinner or some Stouffer's frozen thing in the oven if my parents were going out was pretty routine. I'm sure I'd turn up my nose today but I probably regarded it as a bit of a treat at the time.
    - AStonesThrow 2y ago
      Is it, though? Is it really? First you have to have frozen chicken nuggets on hand at home. That means that you've already been to the grocery store, picked some up, and brought them home somehow to be stored. Now you've also got a working and clean air fryer, sink, utensils, and other kitchen accoutrements that can be used on the nuggets. You may also find it necessary to have, on-hand, some condiments or side dishes to make a complete meal of the nuggets you're trying to make. Then you put them onto a plate -- hope you got a plate -- and eat them with clean utensils, and then you clean that stuff up, wipe the counter, wash and put away dishes. Then you make a note on your shopping list or inventory, to replenish what you just ate. It's not a simple proposition, all of these steps, especially when someone is a bachelor, mentally ill, isolated, etc. You feel it's easier for you, that is great, you've got some life skills, but other people struggle mightily with just the cleanup bits, for example.
b8 2y ago
They do use devices to keep the food warm such as the pizza like boxes. Also, my family members who DoorDash wait by popular destinations to pickup orders quicker and they deliver them within 20 minutes.
dbbk 2y ago
Have you ever had a hangover
black3r 2y ago
I live in Bratislava and order food to work everyday. Delivery times are on par or less than what would take me to fetch the food myself. All delivery services in the area use thermally insulated boxes to transport the dishes - I can't remember if I ever received a cold dish (that wasn't supposed to be served cold). And because I'm a software developer with a flexible work schedule paid hourly, the act of going to grab the food myself and not working for 30 minutes would cost me way more than delivery costs (even cooking my own meals can be more expensive when time is factored in, compared to food price at restaurant + delivery cost (for ~2 portions prepared in 30 minutes. Proper meal-prepping would be cheaper of course, but yeah I'm too lazy to do that)). Also the food delivery services often offer discounts and with them it's sometimes cheaper to order the food than going to the restaurant and eat there. Yesterday I ordered with a 30% discount - I got a dish which would cost 10.80€ at the restaurant for 7.50€ including delivery.
- klabb3 2y ago
  Ironically delivery apps to be designed for walkable (ie non US) cities. At least where I lived in the US, driving was always very congested and adds extra time for parking and such, always at least 30 min with huge variance based on traffic. Plus you have to pay for the energy to transport a 1.5 tonnes vehicle for.. usually a single meal. In Europe it’s an electric kickbike or scooter at most, and they can pick up the food without parking. Still, not perfect, but a lot more efficient and the margins can be lower. They don’t have to hit you with those deceptive fees and tip shaming - often it’s the same consumer price. To me, in the US it would make much more sense to chain deliveries similar to Amazon packages. A set daily menu, heaters in the truck, and multiple stops with TSM style route. Maybe that’s too much communism but it would at least make sense logistically.
  - vel0city 2y ago
    A lot of offices around me have food delivery services operating in the lobby of the building. This food delivery service will often only serve a few restaurants every day with the restaurants rotating daily. Everyone is supposed to get their orders in by some cutoff in the morning, the food delivery operator makes one big pickup for all the orders for the building, and it all gets delivered at the lobby. You get a text when the delivery arrives. Delivery is really cheap since its essentially a cost shared with potentially several people. The one operating in my building these days is Lunchdrop, but I've also seen Foodsby offered at other buildings. On the days I go into the office I look at the menu for the week and pick what meals I might want or I'll just plan on bringing in food. I get the email with the menu for the week either Saturday night or Sunday and can then order days ahead of time.
drooopy 2y ago
Those services have their use, and I'm glad that they exist, but it feels like people are just abusing them for convenience. It's unfathomable to me that there are people (I personally know of a few) who use a food delivery service on a daily basis for no good reason other than "i'm just lazy". The amount of money being wasted really makes my head spin.
bobxmax 2y ago
i pay a bit more so I can get food to my house from wherever i want how is this hard to understand lol
- daseiner1 2y ago
  Not going to presume your lifestyle, but many regular users of food delivery are paying a steep premium to eat junk for the convenience of not having to drive 10 minutes
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    I substantially reduced my doordash, but I still have off days where I either just drove back home tired or otherwise just feel too down to order out and am low on groceries. It's a nice "once a week" kind of luxury thesse days
    - bombcar 2y ago
      It's amusing because the "luxury" of going to a restaurant isn't even being discussed - just the added luxury of delivery. But going out to eat is a big cost compared to eating at home!
- prmoustache 2y ago
  I am not arguing about the principle of getting food delivered but on the actual result. The experience is just crap between delays, errors, state of the food at delivery. It is like when you compare the picture of a burger in an ad and look at it on your tray when you actually get it at McDonalds or Burger King. But I guess a fraction of the population just want food to stay alive (at least the next day) and don't really care about the experience and enjoyment of actually eating it. Same reason some people buy and eat junk food on a regular basis. It is crazy because some societies manage to make fast food quick and easy to get while still being an enjoyable experience. Like going down the street to eat Tacos or Esquites in Mexico. The food itself may not be the healthiest one but at least it is always warm and ready when you want it and tasty and there is always a place to go close to wherever you happen to be. So you just happily fetch it in the street, have a laugh with the owners or other customers and then resume your business without having to order stuff on a smartphone and wait forever to get something crappy.
yakz 2y ago
> The only ones that do it relatively well are pizza joints and they usually have their own delivery service so you don't even have to use these apps. At least in my area, the pizza joints also use DoorDash now. They're not just available on DoorDash. It is delivered by DoorDash also when ordering directly from the pizza joint.
mooktakim 2y ago
You fire and forget. Order something for lunch, get back to work. Eventually ring at the door with food.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  Food that comes to your door when you have already starved to death or binge eaten bags of crisps or bread while waiting for it, is visually unappealling thanks to have been stored in carboard boxes and been transported carelessly, is missing the actual sauce you specifically asked for and more often than not barely warm anymore. That is the problem. After some failed attempts, I just make sure I always have stuff to pick and eat at home and if I am not feeling it, I just walk to a food place next door as it won't be worse than what is deliverable AND will be ready when I am actually hungry.
jagged-chisel 2y ago
In the US, I think you underestimate the power of lazy. But seriously, people without transportation (or whose family has a single vehicle and it’s at work with someone), people with disabilities … In any case, it’s seriously overpriced. Uber Eats offered me “$30 off” and the final bill would still have been twice the restaurant prices - and Uber likely has a markup on that as well.
- troupo 2y ago
  > In any case, it’s seriously overpriced. As someone on Twitter aptly put, "you're ordering a taxi for your burrito" What do you expect the price to be?
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    They kept it really cheap over the pandemic. But that long ended and we are indeed back to taxi prices.
    - troupo 2y ago
      Doordash's first ever quarterly profit was in late 2024, 12 years after founding. Just like most companies from ZIRP era it was held together by unlimited investor money that let it grow through price dumping.
      - ghaff 2y ago
        There are an almost unlimited number of services out there that many people want but aren't willing to pay the true cost of providing. Food delivery (in whatever form) is one such in many cases.
        johnnyanmac 2y ago
        It's fairly impressive how it isn't profitable to essentially act as a middleman between two resource centers that you do not need to directly pay for. I guess the unfortunate fact is that food service was always a low margin business and the compensation needed to survive in America never made food servicing itself viable. At least, not for the last 40 years or so. It does make me curious what the costs are on the app side, though. We keep saying tech is scalable but many such apps have this same story. Is there a cost center I'm missing for such an app that makes it so hard to profit off of, or is it just reckless abandon of spending?
gosub100 2y ago
I think you're arguing against yourself in the last paragraph. Decades of ordering pizza proves the market for food delivery. And the app makes it even easier than calling and talking to a person for both sides. I haven't used DD or ordered pizza since 2022 at the latest, but I usually got enough food that it didn't get cold. Since it was so expensive I'd load up on appetizers and extras so I could get at least 2 meals out of it. I don't get it today because I heard how expensive it got, and my apartment complex is huge and I don't trust them to find my unit.
- ghaff 2y ago
  For whatever reason, pizza and Chinese delivery seems to work--at least in reasonably dense areas. I haven't really used since college, long time ago. Don't really have reasonable options these days. I probably would now and then if they were available but I fall back on some things that I just keep in the house and basically take no time/effort.
dagw 2y ago
they usually have their own delivery service so you don't even have to use these apps Still? Around me almost all the pizza places have stopped offering their own delivery services and moved to apps.
blibble 2y ago
you also get smaller portions
wkat4242 2y ago
First of all, not everyone has a vehicle. I certainly don't. So it will take me much more time in most cases. And it's convenient when you have friends over and want to spend your time talking to them not getting food.
- wiether 2y ago
  I guess it's a cultural thing, but here in France if you invite some friends over, you are expected to cook. It doesn't need to be fancy or anything. The only time its okay to order food its when people came for something else in the first place (moving, doing some handywork...) Otherwise just set a meetup at a restaurant and split the bill.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    I think that's a French thing yeah. Here in Spain if people make dinner it's really a special occasion and you'd tell them they are coming for 'dinner'. Usually you do something really simple like finger food, get takeout or just grab some beers and snacks at the cafe downstairs. The idea is to spend the most time with your friends, not in the kitchen. But I know in France food is a bigger thing. The thing is also that here dinner is usually an afternoon thing.
    - prmoustache 2y ago
      My experience in south of Spain is that nobody invite people at home but the migrants. Spanish just like to meet outside. But maybe that is a particularity of my area where houses / appartments are small, food is relatively inexpensive outside and weather is almost always good enough to go out. Also preparing dinner doesn't mean you can't spend time with friends. As a French if I am invited to dinner and someone is cooking, I usually offer my help in the preparation. It is a nice occupation alongside a beer or a glass of wine and a great way to share an activity while having a chat with your host. Actually there are some other cultures where preparing the food is an integral part of the whole "spending time together thing". For example in latin america women would chat for hours preparing stuff in the kitchen while men would typically doing the same around the BBQ.
Ekaros 2y ago
Laziness and here they are not that much more expensive. A few euros at most. Regular discounts make it close enough. So not having to walk to my car and drive somewhere and back is reasonable effort save. And vast majority of time food is entirely fine and warm enough.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  That's actually what turned me off from Doordash as the pandemic ended. they added a bunch of extra fees to the point where some $15 order doubles in price after all is said and done. "service fee", deliery fee, and then tip. Not to mention the fast food itself is just more expensive.
shakna 2y ago
Just to add to this conversation, because I haven't seen it discussed yet - One of the groups of people using these apps are the disabled. Those aren't people who can just hop in a car. And they aren't always able to walk. But they absolutely are people who feel run ragged and too tired to cook some nights. Australia's NDIS even partners with some of them to perform that service.
- astura 1y ago
  >One of the groups of people using these apps are the disabled No they aren't, certainly not on a large scale. I know and have known a LOT of disabled people (as well as "disabled" people) in my life. I think there is very little overlap between a) the population of disabled people and b) the population of people who have enough money they can afford the cost of restaurant food + delivery fees + tip on more than a very occasional basis. It's exactly the opposite from what I've seen. I've seen the disabled people in my life get grocery delivery (with informal arrangements before apps existed). I've seen them get bulk frozen food delivery. I've literally never seen someone who is homebound order delivery food. They can't afford it.
  - shakna 1y ago
    a) Australian government partners with them. Official status trumps anecdote. b) I am disabled. Please don't presume to tell me what people in my situation do or do not do.
    - astura 1y ago
      How do you afford food delivery on disability? Does a family member pay for it for you? Maybe Australia is different but here in the US people on disability only have a few hundred bucks to spend on food a month aT MOST. A single delivery meal is a quarter of that. I wasn't saying anything about you, I was talking about people I know. Disabled people, as a group, simply don't usually have nearly enough money for food delivery.
      - 1y ago
akudha 2y ago
Delivery times don't matter as much - you can always order 15-30 mins earlier, you could also microwave the food a few seconds if it is cold. That said, I am not a fan of ordering often - food quality is generally bad in my area, those extra fees are just nuts and the drivers get screwed the most, followed by restaurants.
vidarh 2y ago
I have other things to do, and don't drive. That's the incentive. Cold food has never been a problem for me with these services. I'd pick Deliveroo over a restaurants own delivery service any day because it means not having to keep track of numbers, having tracking, and trusting their customer service. In fact, to the point that while Deliveroo allows restaurants to do their own delivery, because you lose the tracking I tend to avoid ordering from restaurants that do.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  When I don't want to make my own pizza dough and order it, I just call from the google maps link. It doesn't take longer than finding any delivery app in my smarthone. And I will just wait 10 minutes, hop on my bicycle and 2 minutes later I get my pizza right out of the oven and head home directly much faster than any delivery rider would because they mutualize orders and let the first pizzas lose most of their heat while waiting to have sufficient orders.
  - vidarh 2y ago
    None of the places I would like food from are within a 2 minute, or 10 minute bike ride. Maybe a 30 minute one. And uphill most of the way back. Google Maps seems to me like an awful hassle vs. searching for the dish I want and picking a restaurant based on what they serve rather than where they are based. Also, Deliveroo rarely combines orders, but if you have a problem with that (can happen for very popular locations) you can pay for priority, so that part isn't an issue with them in my experience.
rors 2y ago
People are odd in terms of what they will tolerate. I prefer having a 15 mins stroll to pick up my coffee or food, for others it’s deal breaking. The time argument is also weird. I find that I have a maximum of 6 hours highly productive work in me a day, perhaps an additional few hours of less productive work. A stroll or cooking recharges my mind. I envy all the people here who are working a productive 12 hour day.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  It really depends on where you live. I'm in a suburb and my "15 minute stroll" consists of one mexican joint. Nothing is "walkable" from my place. A real shame because I have a plaza only a mile away... up the steepest hill possible. I get lazy. in an urban area it makes less sense. Friend's house is across the street from a plaza consisting of a grocery store, corner store, starbucks, froyo joint, and a few other eateries.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  Not having the time is usually false. They don't prioritize that time over others.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  People who say they are productve 8 to 12 hours a day with barely pause are just liars (or slaves that get whiped at the second they stop). Heck, when I became parent and decided for a couple of years to work at 80% I realized I was doing the same amount of work as before and as much or more than any other colleague working at 100%. I only came back at 100% because I realized businesses are willing to subsidize procrastination over efficiency and I didn't find normal to be paid less if all I was asked in return was spending 1/5 of my work time time doing nothing productive for the company.
thinkindie 2y ago
I personally believe that money spent on delivery food is a waste of money, unless it's an emergency or it's sushi: any type of food (excluding sushi) will arrive soggy (especially pizza or burgers) and/or cold and it will definitely be more expensive than necessary.
TheSoftwareGuy 2y ago
Your lack of empathy is obvious when you say the benefit of these services is that "people are lazy". Many many people simply don't have extra time, and taking one thing off of their plate makes life easier. For many decades, pizza was one of the only meals you could get delivered, these services just expand that to more restaurants.
CalRobert 2y ago
Who watches my kids while I get the food?
- tartoran 2y ago
  You can prepare food at home if you're not too comfortable in the kitchen. You can learn to enjoy it too after some first failed attempts, everybody fails at the beginning of this journey... I could understand getting delivery as the emergency resort but doing that on a regular basis does not make sense to me. I think of preparing food as a form of self care.
  - CalRobert 2y ago
    I love cooking but when I had a baby and a toddler I used delivery a lot
- dfxm12 2y ago
  I know there are always edge cases, but, just spit-balling here, maybe the other parent? When I was a kid, my dad got the pizza while mom stayed home. It's a tradition I brought to the next generation as well, and, by god, I hope my kids continue it as well. Also, consider if you can order from a restaurant with in house delivery instead of using Door Dash.
deleted 2y ago
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jmyeet 2y ago
You need to check your privilege. This is also a very ableist take. Some people don't want a car. Some can't afford a car. Some can't drive. Some simply don't want to pay to maintain, insure, fuel and park it. Some simply don't want to take the time to leave the house, get their car, drive to some place, pick up their food and then drive home There is absolutely both a need and a desire for delivery. Yes, you can get a bad delivery experience. I've had more than one pizza delivered where the boxes were clearly on their side, possibly because they fell off the car seat. Some drivers had hot bags. Most did not. The dedicated drivers for Dominos do, which is why that works. Where delivery works particularly well (IME) is NYC and there they most often are on bikes, sometimes scooters. It tends to be an incredibly efficient operation.
- DiggyJohnson 2y ago
  Presumably they are referring to the customers that are able bodied and own a car. You are stating the obvious
SirMaster 2y ago
>the time it gets to fetch the same food yourself Why do you think that people are simply capable of fetching the same food themselves? What if they don't have transportation, what if they are too sick?
- rezistik 2y ago
  Or people are sick, or drunk or high and want food but also want to be safe.
- bombcar 2y ago
  > What if they don't have transportation, what if they are too sick? Some customers of these would fit this, but I suspect the vast majority of the valuation is from delivering food to people who could pick it up themselves if they had to.
  - isaacremuant 2y ago
    That's just bullshit. You don't know how far away the restaurants are and how many people don't own cars or if they do, the traffic back and forth and wait time would be more than a guy on a motorbike. People want to insert morality and virtue in every stupid thing. Cold showers, delivery or not, wake up times. Get a grip and sort your own shit while other people decide to use and pay for other services that you might not. It's fine to criticize cost or experience but to pretend you're superior for your choices... Ridiculous.
    - bombcar 2y ago
      It's one thing to pay the reasonable costs (including a living wage) for things you want, it's another to demand a massive company enslave those with little other choice to provide you what you want at a low price.
      - isaacremuant 2y ago
        Wtf are you on about. Enslave? You must have never had to work a low wage entry level job in your life.
nsonha 2y ago
> waiting... dishes that are cold No wait, simply order early or hold off eating for 30 mins, while you for sure have other things to entertain yourself with. Or not, because you're busy doing work or whatever, and the exact time of the meal isn't the biggest concern. Neither is if food is hot. You eat 3 meals every day for an entire life time, not all of them needs to be amazing.
tshaddox 2y ago
Pizza delivery has been ubiquitous in small town America for decades, and pizza has nothing uniquely suitable to delivery except perhaps standardized packaging. And takeout from all types of restaurants has been even more ubiquitous. So I'm not sure why you're so confused by the popularity of a service where someone else picks up your takeout order and brings it to you. Other than valid concerns about the labor practices of these delivery companies, and of course the occasional botched delivery (this also happened every so often with traditional pizza delivery in my small town growing up in the 90s), there's nothing to be confused about. It's just paying a bit extra for convenience, a tale as old as time.
theshackleford 2y ago
> I never understood why these delivery services are popular. I don’t understand this lack of ability to think beyond your own circumstance. None of what you wrote is applicable to my life or circumstances, plus I’m disabled to boot.

adzm 2y ago

My car broke down and it's taking forever to fix! Delivery services have made this much less of a problem.

alt227 2y ago

> Yes people are lazy. You dont seem to understand just how lazy people are.

ghaff 2y ago
They are and I include myself in this category every now and then. But even when I had to go into an office every day, I had quite a few things I could toss into the oven or skillet and have ready in a few minutes. Have some friends over and want to get a couple pizzas that everyone is happy with? Sure I get that rather than someone having to go out and pick them up. But, as a routine thing, I've never gotten the attraction of delivery.
- aaronbaugher 2y ago
  Same here. I prepare 2-3 meals for myself every day. Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs. It took maybe 15 minutes, and for part of that time I was also checking emails and getting dressed for the day. For lunch I'll throw together a salad in a few minutes. Meal prep just isn't the hardship people seem to think it is, and by doing my own, I spend about a tenth as much on food as my co-workers who get everything delivered. That doesn't mean I begrudge them their use of these services. If that's what they want to spend their income on, that's their business. I just think it's foolish and based on misconceptions.
  - theshackleford 2y ago
    > Meal prep just isn't the hardship people seem to think it is For you, and your circumstances. For other people, it’s exactly as hard as they think it is. I can’t use a knife, or look down to prepare food without risking the inability to use large parts of my body for the rest of the day and potentially the next. Though my answer to this is shakes, not food service to be fair. > based on misconceptions You don’t say?
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  >I had quite a few things I could toss into the oven or skillet and have ready in a few minutes. I don't. That was eggs for me, but alas. At best I have oatmeal ready.
  - wiether 2y ago
    Chickpeas! Even cheaper than eggs and much longer shelf life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Y1Gsjj5iU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Y1Gsjj5iU
    - johnnyanmac 2y ago
      Interesting. Sure. I'll grab a can next time I go for groceries and see if I like the taste.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    Buying a dozen eggs and maybe some cheese and associated veggies is still a lot cheaper than getting meal delivers. Also sautéed shrimp. Pasta with even store bought sauce. I sometimes don’t feel like cooking either but it honestly doesn’t need to take a lot of effort or money.
    - johnnyanmac 2y ago
      Yes, but it feels a lot worse. What's competing when I'm at the grocery is different from when I'm ordering delivery. I've cut down my Doordash substantially but I still have my down days a few times in a month where I'm either really lazy or really crunched for time at work. I do in fact have pasta but I wouldn't call it much of a meal by itself. I usually cook it with some ground beef or turkey and try to keep some leftovers, but that leaves the realm of "quick 10 minute meals". I'll keep the shrimp in mind when going for groceries next time as well. I'm all ears for some quick and tasty sources of protein.
      - ghaff 2y ago
        Frozen shrimp was good when I had a priority on quick dinners; usually some shrimp scampi variant. Have a turkey farm in town so a frozen turkey pie isn't a bad option. You do have the option of refrigerated ravioli or tortellini with some store-bought pasta sauce which comes closer to being a whole meal. After all, not every meal needs to be a complete/balanced one. I've also found other frozen stuff like soup dumplings that are really quick/easy to prep.

Peanuts99 2y ago

What's more, these services only go to make the customer experience of people who have actually turned up at the restaurant worse because the same staff are now having to cater for twice the amount of orders while they manage a long line of motorcycle drivers crowding around the entrance. Personally to me it's wild, spending restaurant money to eat at home.

braza 2y ago
+1. Someone nailed it in the thread above related to the -time/+money, but after a couple of years working on it, I realized that the people that use those services are not the public that would go to a restaurant for a gastronomic experience, and that's ok. At least for me, the biggest 3rd or maybe 4th order effect of the food delivery industry and their dark/gray kitchens is that the concept of having a nice cooked meal locally is almost over, with some exceptions. Due to the over-optimization of the kitchens and the offset in terms of revenue that restaurants can have (i.e., orders without increasing the real estate), we have a bunch of pre-set mounted meals in almost all restaurants, and the probability of eating something tasty and unique is very low due to that. The irony is that, at least in my experience, the best non-chain and/or fine restaurants that I found were the ones in some shopping centers in the Nordics for a simple accidental association: none of those has any possibility to have food delivery due to hard physical constraints, and my assumption is that, since they do not have this possibility, they have to deliver the best meal possible to have people return and build a positive reputation.
- LightBug1 2y ago
  5th order effect - enabling shut-in's to stay shut in.
- vidarh 2y ago
  I am the type who would both go to a restaurant for a gastronomic experience and order from Deliveroo. When I want "an experience" I travel to a high-end restaurant. A local restaurant does not deliver that experience, whether I order home or go eat there. When I feel like that quality food, I order it because I don't want to spend my time for that quality food.

amjnsx 2y ago

Are you talking from experience with DoorDash or Deliveroo? This has not been my experience with Deliveroo in London, UK. There’s just no way I could get the same food quicker, everyone is on motor/pedal bikes so delivery is usually about 20-30 minutes. Food is always hot on arrival bar the odd item (Nandos chips specifically, always cold). Also I’m ordering Deliveroo specifically so I can get the time back, that’s the price you’re really paying - I had a long day at work and I want the time to relax and not spend it sourcing and making dinner.

danielbln 2y ago
Yeah, I never had cold food delivered. Maybe that's a US thing where you live 50km away from the restaurant or something.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  I am in Spain and the only restaurants that these services propose are in a 5km radius so it is often easier/faster to walk, cycle or take the motorbike to said place. The apps hide all stuff on other sides of the city so I wouldn't be able to order from 50km away anyway.
- tssva 2y ago
  In the US and none of the food delivery services deliver from some place as far away as 50km. I don’t know why you think that would be necessary in the US. That being said I have never received a food delivery that was cold or that wasn’t delivered in a timely manner.
  - danielbln 2y ago
    I was poking fun at the fact that distances in the US tend to be bigger than e.g. in Europe, I figured that the delivery apps don't allow for that much of a range. Since I've read the complaint about cold food frequently, but like you have never received cold food, I figured it must be some US specific thing (but I guess not).
- tshaddox 2y ago

etaioinshrdlu 2y ago

If you have more money than time, and you don't mind the quality, it seems like not a bad trade.

braza 2y ago

> What is the incentive really? > I would maybe understand, but they aren't even available in a wider than a small radius around your house, so it is always more convenient to walk/cycle/drive to wherever you would order that food anyway. I know that you mentioned the incentive from the customer perspective, but since I've worked in 2 of the top 5 world food delivery companies, I can have some insights about it beyond people's laziness. 1) Availability of different cuisines regardless of distance: If you're talking about a bikeable, small-sized European capital or city with a limited number of restaurants, yes—you can place your order in person without any issue. But if you're in a mid-sized city with a high variety of restaurants, like Berlin, that’s not feasible. Most of the time, people don't use the app to order from the local pizza place; they use it to get a nice Indian, Japanese, Nepalese, or Thai dish from a restaurant 6 to 10 km away, especially on a rainy Friday. 2) It’s hard for restaurants to coordinate table bookings with walk-ins: Many restaurants join the platform because, while they can manage bookings and some fixed demand, they also risk losing walk-in customers (dynamic demand) when there's no space available. What restaurants do now is manage both bookings and walk-ins without worrying about losing revenue—because delivery can make up for no-shows or frustrated walk-ins. 3) Food delivery removes waiting logistics: If you walk, cycle, or drive, you incur the full logistics cost plus the opportunity cost (e.g., if you're organizing an event and need to set aside an hour for food). With delivery platforms, you can "actively wait"—you place the order through the app and do other things while waiting. You’re paying for both the logistics and the saved opportunity cost. 4) Restaurants can optimize menus and kitchen efficiency instead of real estate: This relates to point 2. In my experience, restaurants are becoming more like a front-end experience for dine-in customers, but many are transforming into what could be called "kitchens as a service." Customers order remotely, and a highly optimized kitchen, in terms of logistics and execution, prepares a specific dish. One thing I've noticed—and personally feel conflicted about—is that restaurants are betting on hyper-optimization by selling more of what I call "pre-mounted standardized dishes." In other words, instead of restaurants thinking about increasing their space to accommodate potential walk-ins, they will move towards maximizing kitchen efficiency. Example: In Brazilian food restaurants, they have preset portions of rice, beans, French fries, and salad, and just reheat pre-cooked steak. For Thai food, they keep cold dressings in containers, and all noodles are pre-cooked and stored in warmers, and so on.

rtpg 2y ago

I mean in bigger cities lots of people don't have cars, they might also be in the middle of something and so having someone else get the food makes sense. And a lot of people have "too much money", leading to them being like "yeah I'll pay like 40 bucks for somebody to bring these burgers to me so I can just keep on playing something with a friend". And you know... if food is cold, you probably have a microwave? Whether this is a good use of money is debatable but I think it's pretty easy to imagine scenarios in which this would be used.

itsoktocry 2y ago
>if food is cold, you probably have a microwave? Order $40 of mediocre food and pop it in the microwave when it gets to you, cold. No surprise this is the community that brought us Soylent. Do these people even like food? Fine if not, but in that case stock up on broccoli, rice and chicken and eat it every day; you'll save money and be healthier.
- wiether 2y ago
  > Do these people even like food? They don't. Basically they _consume_ food like they _consume_ shows on Netflix. They want tons of choice, they want something constantly new, but they never actually enjoy what they consume. Ask them what they ate last week and they can't tell you. Ask them what they thought about what they just ate, same result. It would be fine if it wasn't for the tons of trash that creates and the cooks/delivery people that are exploited by this system.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    I'm not sure the comparison with Netflix is fair as the latter does have some good shows. But, in the case of food delivery, yes, some subset of people are neither choosy nor especially price-sensitive and they're an ideal target audience.
prmoustache 2y ago
OTOH when you are in a big city you usually have food available virtually at your doorstep. That is my experience at least.

tokioyoyo 2y ago

You’d be extremely surprised if you saw internal dashboards. Kinda opens up your mind to society’s decision making processes when you see the numbers.

fergie 2y ago

* Dons tinfoil hat * They want you scared alone and staring at a screen. These services allow people to withdraw from the social interaction of ordering food in person- they feed off of and encourage social anxiety.

m000 2y ago
You make it sound like a therapists' conspiracy. I think the DoorDash culture is promoted because it means you can now work an hour more of (often unpaid) overtime, without worrying for your dinner. Or that you won't resist the extra time commuting to a far office location, so that your employer can save on their office space rent. Or won't complain for being forced to live out of the city because funds have bought up all the housing for "investment" and you can no longer afford a place in it.
CalRobert 2y ago
Honestly when I lived in Ireland I sometimes preferred an app because there were times I couldn’t tell what people were saying (loud background noises, accents, etc)

jbs789 2y ago

Live in a major city without a car/bike. Many restaurants within close physical proximity.

postexitus 2y ago

Food delivery is a game changer with little kids to feed.

itsoktocry 2y ago
>Food delivery is a game changer with little kids to feed. Can you elaborate? I have little kids. We buy food at the grocery store and cook it. What game is being changed? You're talking about ordering takeout.
- bluedino 2y ago
  Easier to put chicken nuggets in an air fryer than order them from DoorDash last time I checked
  - ghaff 2y ago
    My mother cooked but, when I was growing up, tossing a Swanson TV dinner or some Stouffer's frozen thing in the oven if my parents were going out was pretty routine. I'm sure I'd turn up my nose today but I probably regarded it as a bit of a treat at the time.
  - AStonesThrow 2y ago
    Is it, though? Is it really? First you have to have frozen chicken nuggets on hand at home. That means that you've already been to the grocery store, picked some up, and brought them home somehow to be stored. Now you've also got a working and clean air fryer, sink, utensils, and other kitchen accoutrements that can be used on the nuggets. You may also find it necessary to have, on-hand, some condiments or side dishes to make a complete meal of the nuggets you're trying to make. Then you put them onto a plate -- hope you got a plate -- and eat them with clean utensils, and then you clean that stuff up, wipe the counter, wash and put away dishes. Then you make a note on your shopping list or inventory, to replenish what you just ate. It's not a simple proposition, all of these steps, especially when someone is a bachelor, mentally ill, isolated, etc. You feel it's easier for you, that is great, you've got some life skills, but other people struggle mightily with just the cleanup bits, for example.

b8 2y ago

They do use devices to keep the food warm such as the pizza like boxes. Also, my family members who DoorDash wait by popular destinations to pickup orders quicker and they deliver them within 20 minutes.

dbbk 2y ago

Have you ever had a hangover

black3r 2y ago

I live in Bratislava and order food to work everyday. Delivery times are on par or less than what would take me to fetch the food myself. All delivery services in the area use thermally insulated boxes to transport the dishes - I can't remember if I ever received a cold dish (that wasn't supposed to be served cold). And because I'm a software developer with a flexible work schedule paid hourly, the act of going to grab the food myself and not working for 30 minutes would cost me way more than delivery costs (even cooking my own meals can be more expensive when time is factored in, compared to food price at restaurant + delivery cost (for ~2 portions prepared in 30 minutes. Proper meal-prepping would be cheaper of course, but yeah I'm too lazy to do that)). Also the food delivery services often offer discounts and with them it's sometimes cheaper to order the food than going to the restaurant and eat there. Yesterday I ordered with a 30% discount - I got a dish which would cost 10.80€ at the restaurant for 7.50€ including delivery.

klabb3 2y ago
Ironically delivery apps to be designed for walkable (ie non US) cities. At least where I lived in the US, driving was always very congested and adds extra time for parking and such, always at least 30 min with huge variance based on traffic. Plus you have to pay for the energy to transport a 1.5 tonnes vehicle for.. usually a single meal. In Europe it’s an electric kickbike or scooter at most, and they can pick up the food without parking. Still, not perfect, but a lot more efficient and the margins can be lower. They don’t have to hit you with those deceptive fees and tip shaming - often it’s the same consumer price. To me, in the US it would make much more sense to chain deliveries similar to Amazon packages. A set daily menu, heaters in the truck, and multiple stops with TSM style route. Maybe that’s too much communism but it would at least make sense logistically.
- vel0city 2y ago
  A lot of offices around me have food delivery services operating in the lobby of the building. This food delivery service will often only serve a few restaurants every day with the restaurants rotating daily. Everyone is supposed to get their orders in by some cutoff in the morning, the food delivery operator makes one big pickup for all the orders for the building, and it all gets delivered at the lobby. You get a text when the delivery arrives. Delivery is really cheap since its essentially a cost shared with potentially several people. The one operating in my building these days is Lunchdrop, but I've also seen Foodsby offered at other buildings. On the days I go into the office I look at the menu for the week and pick what meals I might want or I'll just plan on bringing in food. I get the email with the menu for the week either Saturday night or Sunday and can then order days ahead of time.

drooopy 2y ago

Those services have their use, and I'm glad that they exist, but it feels like people are just abusing them for convenience. It's unfathomable to me that there are people (I personally know of a few) who use a food delivery service on a daily basis for no good reason other than "i'm just lazy". The amount of money being wasted really makes my head spin.

bobxmax 2y ago

i pay a bit more so I can get food to my house from wherever i want how is this hard to understand lol

daseiner1 2y ago
Not going to presume your lifestyle, but many regular users of food delivery are paying a steep premium to eat junk for the convenience of not having to drive 10 minutes
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  I substantially reduced my doordash, but I still have off days where I either just drove back home tired or otherwise just feel too down to order out and am low on groceries. It's a nice "once a week" kind of luxury thesse days
  - bombcar 2y ago
    It's amusing because the "luxury" of going to a restaurant isn't even being discussed - just the added luxury of delivery. But going out to eat is a big cost compared to eating at home!
prmoustache 2y ago
I am not arguing about the principle of getting food delivered but on the actual result. The experience is just crap between delays, errors, state of the food at delivery. It is like when you compare the picture of a burger in an ad and look at it on your tray when you actually get it at McDonalds or Burger King. But I guess a fraction of the population just want food to stay alive (at least the next day) and don't really care about the experience and enjoyment of actually eating it. Same reason some people buy and eat junk food on a regular basis. It is crazy because some societies manage to make fast food quick and easy to get while still being an enjoyable experience. Like going down the street to eat Tacos or Esquites in Mexico. The food itself may not be the healthiest one but at least it is always warm and ready when you want it and tasty and there is always a place to go close to wherever you happen to be. So you just happily fetch it in the street, have a laugh with the owners or other customers and then resume your business without having to order stuff on a smartphone and wait forever to get something crappy.

yakz 2y ago

> The only ones that do it relatively well are pizza joints and they usually have their own delivery service so you don't even have to use these apps. At least in my area, the pizza joints also use DoorDash now. They're not just available on DoorDash. It is delivered by DoorDash also when ordering directly from the pizza joint.

mooktakim 2y ago

You fire and forget. Order something for lunch, get back to work. Eventually ring at the door with food.

prmoustache 2y ago
Food that comes to your door when you have already starved to death or binge eaten bags of crisps or bread while waiting for it, is visually unappealling thanks to have been stored in carboard boxes and been transported carelessly, is missing the actual sauce you specifically asked for and more often than not barely warm anymore. That is the problem. After some failed attempts, I just make sure I always have stuff to pick and eat at home and if I am not feeling it, I just walk to a food place next door as it won't be worse than what is deliverable AND will be ready when I am actually hungry.

jagged-chisel 2y ago

In the US, I think you underestimate the power of lazy. But seriously, people without transportation (or whose family has a single vehicle and it’s at work with someone), people with disabilities … In any case, it’s seriously overpriced. Uber Eats offered me “$30 off” and the final bill would still have been twice the restaurant prices - and Uber likely has a markup on that as well.

troupo 2y ago
> In any case, it’s seriously overpriced. As someone on Twitter aptly put, "you're ordering a taxi for your burrito" What do you expect the price to be?
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  They kept it really cheap over the pandemic. But that long ended and we are indeed back to taxi prices.
  - troupo 2y ago
    Doordash's first ever quarterly profit was in late 2024, 12 years after founding. Just like most companies from ZIRP era it was held together by unlimited investor money that let it grow through price dumping.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      There are an almost unlimited number of services out there that many people want but aren't willing to pay the true cost of providing. Food delivery (in whatever form) is one such in many cases.
      - johnnyanmac 2y ago
        It's fairly impressive how it isn't profitable to essentially act as a middleman between two resource centers that you do not need to directly pay for. I guess the unfortunate fact is that food service was always a low margin business and the compensation needed to survive in America never made food servicing itself viable. At least, not for the last 40 years or so. It does make me curious what the costs are on the app side, though. We keep saying tech is scalable but many such apps have this same story. Is there a cost center I'm missing for such an app that makes it so hard to profit off of, or is it just reckless abandon of spending?

gosub100 2y ago

I think you're arguing against yourself in the last paragraph. Decades of ordering pizza proves the market for food delivery. And the app makes it even easier than calling and talking to a person for both sides. I haven't used DD or ordered pizza since 2022 at the latest, but I usually got enough food that it didn't get cold. Since it was so expensive I'd load up on appetizers and extras so I could get at least 2 meals out of it. I don't get it today because I heard how expensive it got, and my apartment complex is huge and I don't trust them to find my unit.

ghaff 2y ago
For whatever reason, pizza and Chinese delivery seems to work--at least in reasonably dense areas. I haven't really used since college, long time ago. Don't really have reasonable options these days. I probably would now and then if they were available but I fall back on some things that I just keep in the house and basically take no time/effort.

dagw 2y ago

they usually have their own delivery service so you don't even have to use these apps Still? Around me almost all the pizza places have stopped offering their own delivery services and moved to apps.

blibble 2y ago

you also get smaller portions

wkat4242 2y ago

First of all, not everyone has a vehicle. I certainly don't. So it will take me much more time in most cases. And it's convenient when you have friends over and want to spend your time talking to them not getting food.

wiether 2y ago
I guess it's a cultural thing, but here in France if you invite some friends over, you are expected to cook. It doesn't need to be fancy or anything. The only time its okay to order food its when people came for something else in the first place (moving, doing some handywork...) Otherwise just set a meetup at a restaurant and split the bill.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  I think that's a French thing yeah. Here in Spain if people make dinner it's really a special occasion and you'd tell them they are coming for 'dinner'. Usually you do something really simple like finger food, get takeout or just grab some beers and snacks at the cafe downstairs. The idea is to spend the most time with your friends, not in the kitchen. But I know in France food is a bigger thing. The thing is also that here dinner is usually an afternoon thing.
  - prmoustache 2y ago
    My experience in south of Spain is that nobody invite people at home but the migrants. Spanish just like to meet outside. But maybe that is a particularity of my area where houses / appartments are small, food is relatively inexpensive outside and weather is almost always good enough to go out. Also preparing dinner doesn't mean you can't spend time with friends. As a French if I am invited to dinner and someone is cooking, I usually offer my help in the preparation. It is a nice occupation alongside a beer or a glass of wine and a great way to share an activity while having a chat with your host. Actually there are some other cultures where preparing the food is an integral part of the whole "spending time together thing". For example in latin america women would chat for hours preparing stuff in the kitchen while men would typically doing the same around the BBQ.

Ekaros 2y ago

Laziness and here they are not that much more expensive. A few euros at most. Regular discounts make it close enough. So not having to walk to my car and drive somewhere and back is reasonable effort save. And vast majority of time food is entirely fine and warm enough.

johnnyanmac 2y ago
That's actually what turned me off from Doordash as the pandemic ended. they added a bunch of extra fees to the point where some $15 order doubles in price after all is said and done. "service fee", deliery fee, and then tip. Not to mention the fast food itself is just more expensive.

shakna 2y ago

Just to add to this conversation, because I haven't seen it discussed yet - One of the groups of people using these apps are the disabled. Those aren't people who can just hop in a car. And they aren't always able to walk. But they absolutely are people who feel run ragged and too tired to cook some nights. Australia's NDIS even partners with some of them to perform that service.

astura 1y ago
>One of the groups of people using these apps are the disabled No they aren't, certainly not on a large scale. I know and have known a LOT of disabled people (as well as "disabled" people) in my life. I think there is very little overlap between a) the population of disabled people and b) the population of people who have enough money they can afford the cost of restaurant food + delivery fees + tip on more than a very occasional basis. It's exactly the opposite from what I've seen. I've seen the disabled people in my life get grocery delivery (with informal arrangements before apps existed). I've seen them get bulk frozen food delivery. I've literally never seen someone who is homebound order delivery food. They can't afford it.
- shakna 1y ago
  a) Australian government partners with them. Official status trumps anecdote. b) I am disabled. Please don't presume to tell me what people in my situation do or do not do.
  - astura 1y ago
    How do you afford food delivery on disability? Does a family member pay for it for you? Maybe Australia is different but here in the US people on disability only have a few hundred bucks to spend on food a month aT MOST. A single delivery meal is a quarter of that. I wasn't saying anything about you, I was talking about people I know. Disabled people, as a group, simply don't usually have nearly enough money for food delivery.
    - 1y ago

akudha 2y ago

Delivery times don't matter as much - you can always order 15-30 mins earlier, you could also microwave the food a few seconds if it is cold. That said, I am not a fan of ordering often - food quality is generally bad in my area, those extra fees are just nuts and the drivers get screwed the most, followed by restaurants.

vidarh 2y ago

I have other things to do, and don't drive. That's the incentive. Cold food has never been a problem for me with these services. I'd pick Deliveroo over a restaurants own delivery service any day because it means not having to keep track of numbers, having tracking, and trusting their customer service. In fact, to the point that while Deliveroo allows restaurants to do their own delivery, because you lose the tracking I tend to avoid ordering from restaurants that do.

prmoustache 2y ago
When I don't want to make my own pizza dough and order it, I just call from the google maps link. It doesn't take longer than finding any delivery app in my smarthone. And I will just wait 10 minutes, hop on my bicycle and 2 minutes later I get my pizza right out of the oven and head home directly much faster than any delivery rider would because they mutualize orders and let the first pizzas lose most of their heat while waiting to have sufficient orders.
- vidarh 2y ago
  None of the places I would like food from are within a 2 minute, or 10 minute bike ride. Maybe a 30 minute one. And uphill most of the way back. Google Maps seems to me like an awful hassle vs. searching for the dish I want and picking a restaurant based on what they serve rather than where they are based. Also, Deliveroo rarely combines orders, but if you have a problem with that (can happen for very popular locations) you can pay for priority, so that part isn't an issue with them in my experience.

rors 2y ago

People are odd in terms of what they will tolerate. I prefer having a 15 mins stroll to pick up my coffee or food, for others it’s deal breaking. The time argument is also weird. I find that I have a maximum of 6 hours highly productive work in me a day, perhaps an additional few hours of less productive work. A stroll or cooking recharges my mind. I envy all the people here who are working a productive 12 hour day.

johnnyanmac 2y ago
It really depends on where you live. I'm in a suburb and my "15 minute stroll" consists of one mexican joint. Nothing is "walkable" from my place. A real shame because I have a plaza only a mile away... up the steepest hill possible. I get lazy. in an urban area it makes less sense. Friend's house is across the street from a plaza consisting of a grocery store, corner store, starbucks, froyo joint, and a few other eateries.
prmoustache 2y ago
Not having the time is usually false. They don't prioritize that time over others.
prmoustache 2y ago
People who say they are productve 8 to 12 hours a day with barely pause are just liars (or slaves that get whiped at the second they stop). Heck, when I became parent and decided for a couple of years to work at 80% I realized I was doing the same amount of work as before and as much or more than any other colleague working at 100%. I only came back at 100% because I realized businesses are willing to subsidize procrastination over efficiency and I didn't find normal to be paid less if all I was asked in return was spending 1/5 of my work time time doing nothing productive for the company.

thinkindie 2y ago

I personally believe that money spent on delivery food is a waste of money, unless it's an emergency or it's sushi: any type of food (excluding sushi) will arrive soggy (especially pizza or burgers) and/or cold and it will definitely be more expensive than necessary.

TheSoftwareGuy 2y ago

Your lack of empathy is obvious when you say the benefit of these services is that "people are lazy". Many many people simply don't have extra time, and taking one thing off of their plate makes life easier. For many decades, pizza was one of the only meals you could get delivered, these services just expand that to more restaurants.

CalRobert 2y ago

Who watches my kids while I get the food?

tartoran 2y ago
You can prepare food at home if you're not too comfortable in the kitchen. You can learn to enjoy it too after some first failed attempts, everybody fails at the beginning of this journey... I could understand getting delivery as the emergency resort but doing that on a regular basis does not make sense to me. I think of preparing food as a form of self care.
- CalRobert 2y ago
  I love cooking but when I had a baby and a toddler I used delivery a lot
dfxm12 2y ago
I know there are always edge cases, but, just spit-balling here, maybe the other parent? When I was a kid, my dad got the pizza while mom stayed home. It's a tradition I brought to the next generation as well, and, by god, I hope my kids continue it as well. Also, consider if you can order from a restaurant with in house delivery instead of using Door Dash.

deleted 2y ago

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jmyeet 2y ago

You need to check your privilege. This is also a very ableist take. Some people don't want a car. Some can't afford a car. Some can't drive. Some simply don't want to pay to maintain, insure, fuel and park it. Some simply don't want to take the time to leave the house, get their car, drive to some place, pick up their food and then drive home There is absolutely both a need and a desire for delivery. Yes, you can get a bad delivery experience. I've had more than one pizza delivered where the boxes were clearly on their side, possibly because they fell off the car seat. Some drivers had hot bags. Most did not. The dedicated drivers for Dominos do, which is why that works. Where delivery works particularly well (IME) is NYC and there they most often are on bikes, sometimes scooters. It tends to be an incredibly efficient operation.

DiggyJohnson 2y ago
Presumably they are referring to the customers that are able bodied and own a car. You are stating the obvious

SirMaster 2y ago

>the time it gets to fetch the same food yourself Why do you think that people are simply capable of fetching the same food themselves? What if they don't have transportation, what if they are too sick?

rezistik 2y ago
Or people are sick, or drunk or high and want food but also want to be safe.
bombcar 2y ago
> What if they don't have transportation, what if they are too sick? Some customers of these would fit this, but I suspect the vast majority of the valuation is from delivering food to people who could pick it up themselves if they had to.
- isaacremuant 2y ago
  That's just bullshit. You don't know how far away the restaurants are and how many people don't own cars or if they do, the traffic back and forth and wait time would be more than a guy on a motorbike. People want to insert morality and virtue in every stupid thing. Cold showers, delivery or not, wake up times. Get a grip and sort your own shit while other people decide to use and pay for other services that you might not. It's fine to criticize cost or experience but to pretend you're superior for your choices... Ridiculous.
  - bombcar 2y ago
    It's one thing to pay the reasonable costs (including a living wage) for things you want, it's another to demand a massive company enslave those with little other choice to provide you what you want at a low price.
    - isaacremuant 2y ago
      Wtf are you on about. Enslave? You must have never had to work a low wage entry level job in your life.

nsonha 2y ago

> waiting... dishes that are cold No wait, simply order early or hold off eating for 30 mins, while you for sure have other things to entertain yourself with. Or not, because you're busy doing work or whatever, and the exact time of the meal isn't the biggest concern. Neither is if food is hot. You eat 3 meals every day for an entire life time, not all of them needs to be amazing.

tshaddox 2y ago

Pizza delivery has been ubiquitous in small town America for decades, and pizza has nothing uniquely suitable to delivery except perhaps standardized packaging. And takeout from all types of restaurants has been even more ubiquitous. So I'm not sure why you're so confused by the popularity of a service where someone else picks up your takeout order and brings it to you. Other than valid concerns about the labor practices of these delivery companies, and of course the occasional botched delivery (this also happened every so often with traditional pizza delivery in my small town growing up in the 90s), there's nothing to be confused about. It's just paying a bit extra for convenience, a tale as old as time.

theshackleford 2y ago

> I never understood why these delivery services are popular. I don’t understand this lack of ability to think beyond your own circumstance. None of what you wrote is applicable to my life or circumstances, plus I’m disabled to boot.