Restaurants Bled Dry by Delivery Apps
Restaurant owners are investing in direct ordering platforms to avoid commission fees, but these platforms fail to attract customers. This leaves them with lower prices and no increased order volume, negating the intended benefit of bypassing third-party delivery services. The lack of visibility and customer acquisition is a significant hurdle.
SOURCES (60)
“i decline a couple hundred orders per day and only take orders that are at least $1.75/mile. this doesn’t even account for orders coming through the platform while i’m on an active dash. i know for a fact there aren’t enough drivers to account for…”
“I took an order yesterday that guaranteed $5~ and when I completed delivery I was only paid $2. Has anyone else ran into a customer zeroing the tip after pickup? It’s a first for me. submitted by /u/Ging3rLord [link] [comments]”
“With the $10 UE or $10 GH or $10 DD. You should never do delivery. Even if the delivery is free, there is service charges + tips. It eats at your credits. You should do local pick up. That is the only way to maximize your credits.”
“That’s all you can do. I had a person ask for catering and they were on a tight budget. We made it work at about $13 per person. They turned around and said they found someone that could do it for 10. I said be my guest and I’ll be here if you change your mind. I actually found out someone i knew that attended that party and they said the catering was disappointing.”
“yeah this is the core question, if restaurants can already do this themselves theres not a lot of room for a middleman”
“Well just let the customer pay you at first then you take the money needed for your operation and send the other to the restaurant”
“For about a full month, everyday i did doordash i’d get either 1 horrible order, or NO orders. - ive talked to agents over and over again and got horrible advice.. I figured out that it was the fact my background app refresh was off.. so when i was waiting for hours and i wasnt on the app.. despite it truly looking like i was dashing everytime i came out the app, i wasnt. - I also figured out having LOW POWER MODE makes it so background app refresh is off, which i always had my phone in. - I tur”
“For those that work for or did work for Diligent Delivery Service, what has your experience been like? Mine? It's been pretty awful... submitted by /u/Marcuuspolo [link] [comments]”
“For me to accept an order, it has to be over five dollars guaranteed, and at least one dollar per mile. Does anyone else have any rules for themselves? submitted by /u/Fx-King [link] [comments]”
“Hey, I use the app like almost everyday and never get an order. I called and asked. They say my area is slow, so you’re telling me all 5 towns I go to every day are slow? Yeah, bs. submitted by /u/TimeDebate [link] [comments]”
“I received late order violations for restaurant orders 15 minutes late. On the other hand, I've delivered grocery orders 45 minutes late and receive no type of violation at all. I'm wondering if it's even possible? submitted by /u/varukers7 [link] [comments]”
“This would obviously require legislation, since Uber/Lyft/Delivery apps aren’t going to voluntarily give up control over pricing. Drivers could set their own flat rate + $/km or $/mile , or just a distance-based rate. The platform would handle matching, payment, navigation, etc., while clearly disclosing its commission. There should be two minimum protections: - Minimum distance rate: The overall effective $/km or $/mile couldn’t be below the tax-deductible mileage rate. Drivers could charge any”
“Total bullshit. Papa Gino's would not give me my orders tonight. I got an order and pulling in got a double dash order. Walk in and let them know I have two pickups. Few minutes go by and the manager comes over. He asks how many hot bags I have. I tell him 1. He says he won't give me both orders, I need 2 hot bags for 2 orders. I've never heard of this let alone experience it before. I flat out told him it was bullshit. I cancelled the second order and left with the 1 order. I think”
“I was trying to order some Chipotle and with it delivered it was like $25 but if you just pick it up yourself with the 30% off it becomes like $13! If I did it without guac & chips & 3x tortillas it's only $8+ the 30% works strong when you pickup yourself. submitted by /u/BasicInevitable2226 [link] [comments]”
“As someone who did DD for a while. We’ve gotta stop being complacent about the tipping. The majority of the time I worked DD I never ordered off the app and when I did, it was still Covid, so the prices hadn’t gotten too bad. Recently bought a burrito… 10 bucks… 9 miles away ($8 service fee, $3 farther away fee, $7 delivery fee, tax etc.). So for the first time ever, I only tipped a $1 cause that’s completely ridiculous and the driver wasn’t even that good. Missed the house twice, order was mess”
“I have noticed this before and I’ve noticed it with restaurants with apps and websites that say there will be a small to go fee but I just got charged doubly for My to go food. The Restaurants website charges about $1.50-$2 more per entrée for to go food without notating it anywhere and when I questioned this inside the restaurant they say that when they enter a to-go entree, they have to hit a to go button for each item which adds another 50¢ I have stopped going to restaurants that do this in”
“Today I had the worst shop&delivery order EVER . $230 on the receipt but zero tip. 3 floor with hands overloaded and pushing a 24 of water to the oooooother side of the building ‘cause there is only one elevator for all the building. Lately everyone is buying 24, 30 or 40 water bottles and honestly is a pain in the **s move that, DoorDash doesn’t do nothing about that’, not even like charge more for “heavy item”. I’m done, no more shop&delivery. submitted by /u/Similar-Scheme”
“So, offers are presented and many don’t know whether to accept it or not. DoorDash usually tells you about how long the order will take and the total amount you’ll make (using Earn by Order ) I have a formula I use to decide to accept offers or not. I take the dollar amount, multiply by 3, and if that’s higher than the number of minutes it takes for total pickup and delivery, it’s worth it. Ex: $6.50 for an order taking 15 minutes. $6.50x3=$19.50. $19.50>15 minutes, meaning it’s worth it. Ex:”
“How do you even become a part of that? Looks like someone rents out a box truck and distributes the routes? I don’t get it, I don’t see any routes available for the area? submitted by /u/Obvious-Wish-923 [link] [comments]”
Any advice helps submitted by /u/Background-Law4708 [link] [comments]
“Whats up guys I run a restaurant with my father and wanted some tips on getting our uber eats to bring in more orders. This is our second location but its the first with uber eats. I’ve read a bit about being cautious with ads/promotions since they can tend to backfire depending the cost of your food and how many orders you're receiving. Edit: I guess im more curious on ads and if its worth it Thanks submitted by /u/Fagimusprime [link] [comments]”
“Request A way to pass the "order extras" that the DoorDash app supports but dd cli currently doesn't: Delivery instructions / dropoff notes (e.g. "leave at the front desk", gate codes) Utensils / napkins opt in Per item special instructions (e.g. "allergic to peanuts", "no onions", "sauce on the side") As far as we can tell there's no flag or field for any of these on cart creation or order submit, so orders go out without them. We ended up hiding these inputs in our UI entirely rather than coll”
“This is new to my area. Has anyone seen or done this before? lt has only appeared a few times over the last few days. submitted by /u/Responsible-Head-868 [link] [comments]”
“Anyone have regulars who book you directly instead of going through the app? Curious how you handle it — phone, text, Venmo, cash — and whether it's actually worth the hassle compared to just taking whatever the app sends you. submitted by /u/gjbfsu [link] [comments]”
“So, as the pictures show. The delivery time moved back by ten minutes. Saw this happen before so I took a pic this time. This didn’t happen a year ago, not sure when this started happening. DD wanted me to drive past a delivery, then go back to that one after the other. I did not, as to be efficient. So dashers are punished for not delivering in sequence. Got a CV a few weeks ago where a pick up time moved 10 minutes in the past with a stacked order with same issue, drive past pick up to make an”
“Hi there. This one is specifically for pizzerias who do a decent amount of their business to in person take out orders. Currently debating with my business partner about what a target time is for whoever is the pizzaiolo to send a pizza out. Assume not overly busy and a ticket with one pizza on it comes up on the kitchen printer. How soon would you expect it to be boxed up and ready to go? Obviously this depends on the style so please let me know what style you bake. submitted by /u/”
“holy awful. no customer names. no item list. bots galore stealing all the orders. app is glitchy as hell. 0/5 would not recommend. too bad they get all the EZcaters now, expedite was way better submitted by /u/MotorCaterpillar9317 [link] [comments]”
“I agree with the others. If other people still get service in time then fine. If you advertise it, then everyone will pay it and you’ll be right back in the same position, except people will be upset because they paid the rush charge and you didn’t rush. If it’s a good customer, try to work out a spot and don’t charge him a fee.”
“This could be a premium offer where you bake in a delay to orders in the standard queue to give you flexibility to take on premium urgent cases. I agree with not doing it when you weren't setup to do it that way. Giving yourself padding to allow for rush jobs isn't unethical. It's even more fair if you advertise that you do at times take on rush orders but it's subject to current workload demands. That way you can decide if taking on a given rush order would negatively impact oth”
“Take the order/ get their money, tell them a wait time, get a pager system. People are there to drink and relax, most people dont mind, and expect, to wait a bit. Especially if the food is good.”
“Does selling pizza by the slice not work better in a food truck than making entire pizzas to order? At a certain point people will just order dominos if your line gets too long”
“So I have alcohol orders turned off specifically for this store because if I don't, 90% of the orders I'm offered come from there and its always less than like $8. So tell me why doordash decided to try and add on to my delivery even though it was turned off? submitted by /u/No-Kiwi6442 [link] [comments]”
“Been like this past few days, making decent money from 11-5, and then once dinner comes around which is supposed to be a good time, the orders are either trash and or it becomes dead. submitted by /u/Johnnyboyeh [link] [comments]”
“Doing this would be so much less painful if the restaurants weren't SO slow and inattentive like 50% of the time. If I'm waiting on an order longer than 5 or 10 minutes I feel like the order becomes less and less worth it to do as time goes on. It's so frustrating. submitted by /u/officialdraggedyanne [link] [comments]”
“In my market, at least 50% of drivers are using the bike hack to ensure they only get short deliveries and no stacked orders with non-tippers. This means normal drivers now get ONLY the long distance non-tippers. Doordash needs to fix this. submitted by /u/_BreakingGood_ [link] [comments]”
“There's a big difference between a busy day and one that leaves you wrecked for no extra money. What's your personal record for drops in one day? And looking back — was the pay worth the grind, or never again? submitted by /u/service_club [link] [comments]”
“Saturday I was delivering and had double order, an order from 2 restaurants going to 2 locations about a mile apart. Decent tip ($15 for a total 4 mile drive), restaurants have orders prepped, everything going good. I had chinese food for one and mexican for the other. Usually in my city the chinese places use the white thank you bags, and mexican restaurants have the opaque black bags. I wasnt paying close attention only going by bag color for some reason and i dropped off the chinese food at t”
“With pro shopping I could clear $120+ in about 4-5HRS with out it I can’t even break 100 because restaurants alone aren’t reliable due to long wait times. submitted by /u/VINllll- [link] [comments]”
“Is it ever worth it to take a deliver od 3.25... 5.25 for 10 miles in California that puts you about that far from a area for more deliveries. Like i would then drive 10 miles back for more orders. There is the 120% of minimum wage. This is just to the drop off site so it would not account for driving back. There is the .37 cent per mile. Currently with about 20 mile per balance city (soon to be 50+ new car). That 3.70 for half a gallon there so probably 2.50-3.00 cost there. If it is a really d”
“Would be nice if some other restaurants do this! Well I’m one delivery away from getting a free “large sandwich” whatever that means. I don’t eat McDonald’s anymore so I’ll probably give it to a homeless person. submitted by /u/SensitiveCamp1458 [link] [comments]”
“I’ve seen a lot of promotions that are $100 for 20 deliveries, 200 for 50 etc. But $100 for 100 deliveries doesn’t even cover the gas cost submitted by /u/Upstairs_Hedgehog965 [link] [comments]”
“Anyone out there able to give me the pros and cons? submitted by /u/TacoBell_Love [link] [comments]”
“I’ve declined 38 straight orders and haven’t received one offer worth taking the entire night. This app is so cooked man. Literally every order I’m getting the mileage exceeds the $ amount for the offer. And when it’s not that it’s these shitty $3/$4 orders submitted by /u/Constant_Poetry2908 [link] [comments]”
“Today I had a contact delivery, and the person showed me he added an additional $20 tip after I handed it over, and I never got it, so either they played a cruel prank or DD just didn’t give me the tip. Also orders have sucked, I had so many decent orders and my AR was above 70%, but now my AR is 30% and so many orders are slave wages, who even drives for 0.50-1$/mi if I don’t make $1.20/mi or better it’s not worth it after gas and taxes and time. I also don’t know if it’s related but I used to”
“Are they trying to figure a way to have these orders paid directly to the merchant and us not have to use the doordash card anymore? submitted by /u/Peacefullyinsane94 [link] [comments]”
The local store operators set up their price in the apps.
“Am I correct in guessing that the luxury of serving the whole crowd of 50 people will act as payment?”
“I manually give the coupons via text because I can categorize who is redeeming which coupons. I also send out a weekly coupon that helps a ton with keeping customers coming back a lot and getting regulars. I also have QR codes for Google reviews that I give out with all burritos and that gets me about 15-30 reviews a month. Those seem to help but I dunno”
“If im sitting in a busy area but im rotting and not getting orders.they send me a text message saying a neighboring town is busy and i should go there... why shoulld i believe them. Im already getting shafted in a busy area. Why shouldnt i think ill go to the other busy area i wont also get shafted? submitted by /u/VincentTakeda [link] [comments]”
“Completed onboarding about a week ago but still have not got a single order. Literally check the app multiple times a day and nothing 🙄 stayed on the waitlist for over a year just to be able to join and get ZERO work What am I doing wrong? submitted by /u/Ok_Benefit_8804 [link] [comments]”