Why Can't Delivery Apps and Restaurants Just Get Along?

You might think that restaurants and delivery services are a full proof partnership that shouldn’t have to come to this. Restaurants make food. People have needs. Delivery services fill the gap by bringing food to those people. But partnerships come at a cost, and it’s come to light that online delivery services are hurting the very businesses that helped them become popular in the first place. A New York Times article reported that New York City council is looking into the rumored dirty tactics that come along with signing up your restaurant for delivery apps in order to find a solution that works best. For everyone.

So where did things go wrong? Well for starters, the profit margins are hard enough for food based businesses without the use of delivery apps. But considering they do offer a service and can help expand a restaurant’s reach, it’s common sense that there would be a fee involved. What isn’t great, and what restaurants are now becoming vocal about, is that delivery app fees have become exorbitant, and take away from any profit generated by that additional order. That’s a legitimate claim considering the extra stress, ingredients, time, and delays that come along with filling online orders. Think about it. How many times have you stood patiently in line waiting to order, only to see a delivery person breeze right past you to the front and disrupt the general flow of operations. We’ve literally seen a tray of cookies right in front of us disappear into a box because an online order had to be filled first, which makes any consumer that’s taken the time to physically go out of their way to support a business pissed off. For some businesses like chains, the impact isn’t as monumental, but for a small mom and pop business that preaches comfort and kindness, delivery pick ups are disastrous.

There’s also the whole “did we get charged for a phone call that didn’t result in an order” scandal that’s plaguing some delivery apps, where restaurants have accused apps of charging them for customers calling about basic information like hours of operation. And the whole idea that our tips for delivery previously (and possibly in some cases still do) subsidize employees base pay.

The next step it appears since these businesses don’t really want to part with profits will be for local governments to step in, and it will be interesting to see what rules, if any, will pass that can make restaurants and delivery apps work together in a way that makes sense. For now though, we must ask: who’s to blame? And while we don’t have all the answers, we agree with SNL that Mayor De Blasio makes a pretty convenient fall guy, so we’re going to go with him.