USA: Restaurants rebel against delivery apps as cities crack down on fees

[misskit]

When Pitas and Sticks, a Greek restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, gets an order from Grubhub, owner John Stamos gives each bag a personal touch, printing out a small note with a simple message: Grubhub orders are killing his business.


"Small businesses like us need your support in this time of crisis," Stamos writes in each note. "Online apps such as GRUBHUB ARE CHARGING US 30% of each order and $9 or more on orders made using phone numbers on their app or website … please help save the restaurant industry by ordering directly with us."


Restaurateurs like Stamos are mounting guerrilla campaigns to persuade customers to skip the delivery platforms they say are squeezing their businesses at a particularly difficult time. Some are looking to use social media to get the word out or coming up with special offers. Others are ditching the apps altogether.

MORE Restaurants rebel against delivery apps as cities crack down on fees

[raycarey]

IMO, this is the greatest story about these delivery apps....

A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas from DoorDash for $16

snip
Apparently, this is one way that DoorDash does customer acquisition — by bullying restaurants. But what’s funnier about Roy’s friend’s problem (and it was a real problem because of Yelp reviews and angry customers) is that DoorDash priced the pizzas incorrectly. “A pizza that he charged $24 for was listed as $16 by Doordash,” emphasis Roy’s. And then: “My third thought: Cue the Wall Street trader in me…..ARBITRAGE!!!!”


And so the story unfolds. “If someone could pay Doordash $16 a pizza, and Doordash would pay his restaurant $24 a pizza, then he should clearly just order pizzas himself via Doordash, all day long. You’d net a clean $8 profit per pizza [insert nerdy economics joke about there is such a thing as a free lunch],” wrote Roy. They order 10 pizzas this way, and it worked! The money was free, a seamless transfer from SoftBank’s deep venture capital-lined pockets to Roy’s friend’s business bank account. Eventually, in another series of what Roy hilariously calls “trades,” they just ordered pizza dough through DoorDash for $75 in pure profit.


“So over a few weeks, almost to humor me, we did a few of these ‘trades’. I was genuinely curious if Doordash would catch on but they didn’t,” wrote Roy. “Was this a bit shady? Maybe, but fuck Doordash. Note: I did confirm with my friend that he was okay with me writing this, and we both agreed, fuck Doordash.” (I reached out to DoorDash for comment and will update this story if they reply.)

A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas from DoorDash for $16 - The Verge

[Dragonfly]

yeah, saw that a few days ago, awesome story

[bsnub]

yeah, saw that a few days ago, awesome story

You are right about that one. It confirms that unregulated capitalism is as much of a failure as communism. When massive venture capitalist douchebags can pour infinite money into a new sector of commerce they can flood out the competition.

[sabang]

So delivery fees are extortionate? Simple. Open up a competing service (or sponsor one if you're a big food provider) that charges less. Make a fortune, and help the po' customer. If you go bust, then maybe those delivery fees were not so extortionate.

Where is your belief in the Free market?

[Dragonfly]

You are right about that one. It confirms that unregulated capitalism is as much of a failure as communism. When massive venture capitalist douchebags can pour infinite money into a new sector of commerce they can flood out the competition.

indeed, it is

[harrybarracuda]

Wait till Amazon or Google move in.

[Cujo]

How would that work though? Presumably when he placed an order doordash would dispatch a delivery guy to collect the pizzas.
What happens when he arrives? They'd have to explain what they're up to and hope he went along (or give him the pizzas )

[harrybarracuda]

So delivery fees are extortionate? Simple. Open up a competing service (or sponsor one if you're a big food provider) that charges less.

A lot of the restaurants here have delivery service. When they're rammed, they will ask you to use these apps, because it allows them to handle these surges without having to take on extra staff.

[Cujo]

Wait till Amazon or Google move in.

That's what they're hoping for, the big buyout bonanza.

[beachbound]

My wife and I have been running a Thai restaurant in my hometown, for the past five years. Carry out, and curbside pick up is all we do. Postmates, and GrubHub have been bugging the shit out of me, but I refuse to do business with them.