The cost of convenience is adding up for millions of fast-food customers in the United States.
Online food delivery has become a trillion — yes, trillion — dollar business. But with each order comes a slew of fees that can quickly take the cost of an otherwise quick, affordable meal and make it … less affordable.
According to Chowhound, delivery services often include fees that aren’t immediately obvious. They can range from service fees to small order fees and even higher menu prices compared to in-store purchases.
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I'm sorry, I don't get the whole food delivery thing. If I'm that fucking hungry, I damned sure can put my ass in the truck and drive down there to get it myself. The only exceptions I can think of are shut-ins and drunks.
I have done DoorDash, Uber eats. There’s good money in it. Ordering your lunch in or having dinner delivered about the same time as you get home. It’s really convenient when you have a busy schedule. But the prices they’re charging are not coming out to us drivers I assure you that
ReplyDeleteYes, we use Grub Hub almost every day. We are staying at a hotel, while my Wife is getting cancer treatments. We order through Amazon and get discount on delivery fees, but there are "service" charges and it seems other fees, plus tips. It is expensive (it is subsidized for us) and I feel prices are higher than what instore prices are.
ReplyDeleteI dont get food delivered simply because I live too far out for it.
ReplyDeleteBut I see food sitting on the pickup shelf when I enter a restaurant and sometimes it sits there most of the entire time I am eating. Why pay extra for cold food?
I don't understand the delivery thing either, if we eat Pizza then we go pick it up. If we are unable to get to the pizza place then we coordinate with neighbors who are getting pizza and they will pick up the food for us if we can't get there. Other wise it isn't that high on the list of things we have to have. If we eat from a restaurant, then we go there, sit and eat and pay less and they do the dishes
ReplyDeleteA lot of the users of these services are either disabled in some way, or live in a place where using them instead of going to the restaurant themselves is an example of following Jeff Cooper's (I believe) advice to not be in stupid places where stupid (or evil) people do stupid (or evil) things. Would it be better to leave the city entirely? Of course. But there's a multitude of reasons that's easier said than done. They'll only be able to afford a home after the bubble collapses.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid in the Fifties a hamburger at a restaurant was a rare treat and that was when they used real beef. Fast food tasted terrible next to that and in my bachelor days I learned to cook up something quick and good and I seldom eat fast food these days though I do patronize the local steak house that actually makes most of their food from scratch. But then, I'm ten miles away from a city of 24K and three miles away from a village of 1.2K and have no desire to drive to either regularly.
ReplyDeleteI'm always impressed with how much people eat out these days, and then cry poor. Growing up, we ate out regularly 3 of 4 times a year. You just couldn't afford it.
DeleteBunch of places pushed "Since you can't go out because of the virus be a Hero and order to save a small business"! And a lot of people bought into it(even when they really couldn't afford it), and got in the habit, I suspect.
ReplyDeleteWhen I get hungry, I just go to the kitchen...
ReplyDeleteWhat's this thing? A stove, you say?
ReplyDeleteThis lazy activity grew exponentially courtesy of DotGov's covid-19 lockdowns.
ReplyDelete- WDS
Cook my own damn food???? Ain't nobody got time for that!!!
ReplyDeleteI went on a rant one time about it and got a response that did give me pause for thought...
ReplyDeleteYou get pizza delivered to your home w/o thinking anything of it, this is no different. Instead of the restaurant having their own deliver staff, cars, etc., a 3rd party saw a need and jumped in. Capitalism!
It doesn't take a genius to realize everytime a middleman comes between supplier and consumer a fee is applied. Covid introduced a laziness in to society that baffles us boomers. The young generations are blind to the middleman concept. They either don't see it or don't care
ReplyDeleteThe rationale seems to be 'my time is valuable'. Which is true IF you're being paid for it. That is, IF you are paid for the hour you 'save'. Mostly that's not so- your earnings don't go up when you use a delivery service. That hour you save is worth nothing- you didn't get paid for it. So, girl math: bought a $90 item for $30, 'saved/earned' $60. Uh, no: you spent 30 bucks. There's nothing wrong with deciding to spend 20 bucks to get a 10 dollar item delivered- just don't delude yourself about what you've done.
DeleteI work at a hospital emergency room as a nurse. Our 30 minute lunches are on the honor system, but remember that while you are gone, your patients are not being cared for unless they have a life threatening event. If you are gone from the floor for more than 10 minutes or so, you frequently find yourself behind the curve on your patients and it takes hours of busting your ass to get back on track.
ReplyDeleteNow couple that with the fact that the refrigerator in our break room is absolutely disgusting. There is food in there that is growing fur, and no one ever really cleans it. I refuse to put anything in there.
The hospital cafeteria can't even cook a hamburger without it being disgusting.
So I order door dash. A nice sandwich from Firehouse, some Chinese food, or even something from Wendy's gets there in about 15 minutes. You place the order, the app tells you when it arrives, and you get to scarf down a quick, mostly hot meal in 5 or 10 minutes while hiding in a room just off the floor. That way, I don't fall behind on my tasks.
My only complaint is every time you order from them is the expense. You can expect $10 or more in delivery fees, higher prices, and tip. It's the price you pay for convenience. I make up for it at the end of the night. When the time clock asks if I took a 30 minute lunch, I say no. That extra half an hour's pay takes care of the fees.
Wait- you get lunch???
DeleteNever a delivery here. But once in a blue moon my wife and I go to a nice place. Every time my wife says ours is better. I agree completely. Due to that periods between us eating fancy get longer and longer.
ReplyDeleteWhen you make big bucks at home on your computer, it makes sense to spend a little of it on services that you can afford that allow you time to continue making big bucks.
ReplyDeleteCC
This is me. No way I'm paying an extra 30% or more for one of these services to deliver to me. I also welcome the break from my screen that comes with having to drive out to a restaurant and pick up some food.
DeleteNormally I just cook though.
there is a whole generation or two that doesnt know how to cook. beyond microwaving a prepared dinner, they're lost. when i was divorced and working long hours, i got in the habit of carry out or restaurant suppers. when a burger king or rallys combo can cost $12 we dont do that very often.
ReplyDeleteI don't use delivery, but at least there's a service you're getting for those extra fees (even if the fees are exorbitant).
ReplyDeleteOn those occasions when I don't feel like cooking, but don't want to eat at a restaurant, I'll order takeout. What bothers me is when a restaurant's website isn't actually the restaurant's, and you get an extra fee (plus tip, sometimes) added for going through the third party's website to place your food order. It's why I don't even order takeout anymore if I can't call the restaurant and place the order directly.
The only time I've even used take-out was when my wife's heart failure prevented her from leaving the house. Generally the extra time takes away from the food's freshness, a trade-off I'm not willing to make. Ordering delivery simply subtracts another layer of quality. I've never even ordered a pizza to be delivered. I just can't pay more for less.
ReplyDeleteI tend to cook my own food, mainly because it's a lot more affordable that way. When I do order out, I'm driving to the restaurant and picking it up, mainly because I'm not in the mood to have to tip and pay even more.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading an article about a year ago about young people complaining how they can't afford to live. There was one guy whining about how he was always broke, and it turned out he spent $1,400 in a typical month just on DoorDash. It won't be easy fixing that level of stupid.
The last time I ate out of the house was my birthday. The only time the year before that was...my birthday. We splurged this year at the local Chinese restaurant; the year before was a lunch time all you can eat pizza buffet. We do pot lucks with our neighbors sometimes. You can save a bunch of money by cultivating a frugal lifestyle.
ReplyDelete[I probably told this story here.
ReplyDeleteIrregardless...]
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We operate a small organic teaching farm near the outskirts of Eugene Oregon.
The acreage is surrounded by goofballs in warehouse-pallet hovels covered in blue plastic tarps.
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After one squat got too disgusting even for addicts and half-wits', they abandoned the dump.
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Poking around, I saw a box from Hello Fresh, the address label intact.
I returned it to the proper recipient...
...a three bedroom apartment in a new apartment complex.
(I asked at the office, the gal said studio units start at us$1,800 a month.)
(A three bedroom apartment would be close to three grand a month.)
(FFS)
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At the apartment door, the pudgy Asian said they get several similar boxes of meals... every day.
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According to the website, a box of meals like that generally runs about is$45 or more.
Plus an equal amount in delivery fees.
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I was stunned.
Those folks are spending two or three hundred fedbux every day for food.