They take 30% of revenue from small businesses, and they also charge a delivery fee to customers. They pay the workers shit. They advertise rubbish like 'deliveroo plus' and 'uber pass', where you pay a subscription for 'free delivery'. Then they add a 'service fee'.
Stop using these and enriching tools like Elon Musk (insert any tech billionaire twit).
and sometimes the business as well. Few of my favs now have their own apps, with loyalty programs.
There’s a difference between not wanting to cook and physically going to get takeaway, compared to not wanting to cook and getting food delivered.
Yeah few times i was too lazy to cook and couldn't find a good deal on takeaway food apps so i just ended up making a basic sandwich…
Physically going out to get takeaway i might as well go to Coles/Woollies for some quick to cook ingredients like stir fry veggies etc
Nail - Head
If you can find a way to make money off people's laziness and stupidity, you'll be a millionaire.
Call it lazy all you want, but it's actually the opposite. It's much more efficient to have skilled professionals (in huge demand) working and using their skills to provide services instead of wasting their valuable time slaving over a stove/washing up sink.
This is the same reason we have childcare, to allow people to work more hours. Perhaps we should start subsidising these services (like we do childcare) for the economic productivity gains they provide?
So no students, hungover or lazy people are using these services then, only highly productive professionals 😂😂😂.
And yes, let's create a society where work is God and you ship your kids off to strangers so you can do more of it for the benefit of "the economy". What a time to be alive!
let's create a society where work is God and you ship your kids off to strangers so you can do more of it for the benefit of "the economy"
And letting those establishment funded strangers instil their values in your kids and then these same parents wonder where it all went wrong when their own kids grow so far apart from them.
And yes, let's create a society where work is God and you ship your kids off to strangers so you can do more of it for the benefit of "the economy". What a time to be alive!
This sounds like it was written by my MIL.Values work above all else, you should be working 60 hours a week and earning every single cent you possibly can, or else you're a slacker.
But we’re living in the best time ever right, right?
So no students, hungover or lazy people are using childcare subsidies then, only highly productive professionals?
We should be doing the opposite. We should make affluent people pay the full cost of childcare. The government doesn't subsidize the food I buy (it wacks me with a 10% GST), the government doesn't subsidize me to hire plumbers to fix a water related issue at my house, why should it subsidize childcare for a family raking in $5000,00 a year.
Your points sound convincing but hide the fact that gig economy work is unregulated. They operate without the costs paid by small business. Read the nsw legislative committee report about gig ecomony. The safety and welfare issues. There is no efficiency. It is leaving a trail of carnage without social responsibility of an even playing field
Learning to feed yourself is a basic life skill.
I like to cook but my food isn’t always as tasty as cooks who do it for a living.
Reeeeeeee
Maybe his KFC order had 'poorly-filled chips' again.
🤣🤣🤣
Breeee
Nah it’s heaps convenient
its convenient, but paying $25 for a burger to be delivered is ridiculous
if you're only ordering 1 burger, then of course its terrible value.
when im hungover as hell on a sunday arvo though I will happily pay the $12 or so for delivery of a meal.
You can eat when you're hung over? I definitely can't, I will end up just vomiting it out
@Homr: Can’t say no to eating a cheeky zinger box with an extra side of wicked wings at Sunday arvo while sobering up in the shower
When you're drunk and hungry, the price isn't much of a concern! haha
Stop being hungry.
I don't know who does that. We usually get something like 3 order of a kebab or some large pizzas for under $40.
convenient but massively expensive. the fees plus inflated prices compared to getting it yourself means you are paying a very hefty premium for it. I look at it every now and then but just can't bring myself to throw that much extra money away just to save a 10 min trip to pick it up myself.
Sure, but the option is there, so even if you don't use these services all the time, it's a net benefit they exist. Which is something even the OP, who seemingly loves whingy shit posts, can't even bother to argue against.
I would argue they are most definitely NOT a net benefit, they drain money away from businesses, many of which basically have no choice but to participate driving up costs and prices for everyone. Their own home delivery options more often than not cannot afford to operate as these services reduce the volume to make them non financially viable.
they drain money away from businesses, many of which basically have no choice but to participate
Uber isn't holding a gun to their heads. Pick up and dine in options haven't disappeared. If you'd prefer to order directly and give them your money, the option is still there.
Restaurants aren't starving because of Ubereats. They've done the maths and collectively decided that the increased exposure and additional business that comes with uber, is worth the cost. They're not taking a loss, they pass those fees onto consumers, so it's up to us to decide whether that convenience is worth it.
As for in-house delivery, of course it isn't viable. Why employ a driver and also stay on Uber, you'd effectively be paying twice to offer a delivery service.
These apps give exposure to businesses that might normally struggle for it. I've discovered several restaurants through Ubereats that I've since ordered directly from. During lockdown and the bans on dine in, it's also helped businesses stay afloat. You still think it's a net negative?
@SydStrand: Uber absolutely is holding a gun to their head. We have so many lazy people now that they are sucking business into these apps, the businesses either have a choice to opt in or have reduced traffic. No they have done the maths and worked out that Uber have already sucked in the consumers, if they are not onboard they completely lose out as apposed to partly losing out while on the platform. So they have a choice of losing some or losing lots.
We have so many lazy people now that they are sucking business into these apps, the businesses either have a choice to opt in or have reduced traffic.
Firstly, you cannot seriously blame anything but the internet for changing consumption habits. Amazon and Uber aren't the cause of online commerce, they're the symptoms of peoples' desire for convenience.
A restaurant can choose to not be on UberEats. They can hustle the old-fashioned way by dropping menus, word of mouth, or do what every food truck does now and have an Instagram profile. You're acting like UberEats is stealing business, when it's introducing them to an entirely new audience on a platform that didn't previously exist.
As for businesses hurting, the whole genesis of the OP's whinge is added fees. So the restaurants aren't absorbing these fees, they're bumping up menu prices more than they'd normally get away with charging, and we pay the difference. So point out exactly where along this chain of events you think they're ripped off.
Looks like a troll post.
because today's world lives "On Demand" … hardly anyone thinks / plans / makes an effort.
Need to talk to someone - call/text - instant
Need to watch something - stream
Need food - order
Don't think any of these will go out of business
Company will not go out of business for sure, but the user might
You post as if it’s us on OzBargain who are propping up these platforms. Anyway, variety and convenience is why they’re not dead yet.
I mean there are a fair number of posts (forum and deals) on food delivery platforms that I think a fair number of OzBargain users at least occasionally use a service like this.
Of course but we're not the ones propping them up apart from maybe the guy who posted here once that ordered UberEats every day.
This. I shouldn't be made to feel bad because I order once every 2 weeks or a month when we get tired of making dishes daily with prior commitments.
I'm slowly trying to get my household participate in meal prep but old habits die hard. Delivery gives me some reprieve in the meantime.
Does anyone else on OzBargain think [obviously overpriced thing] is a waste of money?
I mean I probably am. I'll order on UberEats a few nights a week, and was doing it far more often earlier in the year and through covid lockdowns. Its expensive and convenient, and for me the convenience is worth the price. Its up to others if they think the value is there, but clearly people think it is because the services are getting used. It may not fit the OzBargain mindset, but for young professionals its more common than you think.
Reality is despite all these fees/charges most are still burning through money. Deliveroo has never turned a profit. Uber is probably closest to breakeven.
Wait 'til a recession hits and investor funding dries up. Then we'll know how many of these business models are truly sustainable.
The ridiculous celebrity ad campaigns from the delivery places have made me seriously question where the money is going.
Ding ding dong ring-a-ding ding-ding dong!
Go on uber eats - compile an order and then phone it in. Pay cash at the door.
Some of the places that don't do delivery outside uber eats have a bit of a marriage of convenience with the product - while the cut is massive, it opens up a new market. But pizza places and thai places that have their own delivery? They're just fleecing them.
Such a shame though cause being able to customise the order, leave notes and track the delivery are great features. 30% is insane. 10% should be enough.
They pay the workers shit.
Drivers/riders aren’t employees but private contractors…
But I understand where you are coming from and I agree.
like Elon Musk
What does he have to do with ‘Delivery platforms’
You might as well have mentioned Warren Buffet for that matter.
at least his name is food related
Just because people can be exploited doesn’t mean we should do it.
Just FYI, people working full time as riders using those motorised bikes/scooters in and around the city make a very good living…
For the ones that don’t make as much, it’s all predicated on free will.
These ‘delivery platforms’ hike up bonuses substantially if and when they don’t have enough people to deliver for them.
This is an objective argument, isolated from the very valid point of how these companies charge as much 30%+ in commissions.. which is an absolute abomination.
We are absolutely not making a living.
Look at the hours worked, look at the pay.
$35-$45 an hour average with costs of about $3-$5/hr is fkn ridiculous (not including tax deductions) crazy shit, we should be earning closer to $80/hr. How can we afford to live.
That assumes 'we' have any say in the matter.
I always find this 'we' utterly useless and powerless in pretty much everything.
Pros: There's no waiters to too quickly remove the water bottle from your (dining) table.
Cons: You find out too late the chip packet isn't filled all the way up ("0/5 Stars, restaurant did not shake chip box to fit more in")
I am sure if we are willing to tip the waiters 30% service fee, we will get good service.
Why Aren't Food Delivery Platforms Dead Yet?
Because people are using them.
You cited a lot of reasons why you shouldn't use them, but for the same reason people still buy $5 shirts from Target that are most certainly made using unscrupulous methods, people will use Uber etc. convenience.
Not ALL people can't afford.
Please do not argue with the word "practical".
It's not for poors. I agree that they are expensive and predatory. I also agree there is a demand for the service and they will continue to exist.
I have used Uber Eats exactly once: I was isolating with COVID and couldn't go get a pack of sushi. Yes, the delivery fees are enormous, but Cashrewards was giving a $9 cashback on that. Still, CR only pays out once, so I have never used Uber Eats again.
The best Thai place in our area offers 15% discount for take-away, if you order online and pick up, and they still get smashed with Uber-eats.
Advertising works
Compared to uber eats pickup?
Food delivery services have two massive markets:
You've consumed alcohol and really shouldn't drive to pick up dinner
Your favourite team is playing and getting food will make you miss 30 minutes of the game
This is why I found DoorDash.
I thought there are economies of scale if multiple individual deliveries are going out in a single vehicle/bike.
Hopefully we get robots delivering our food soon
Yeah imagine a robot going down the street, I'm sure that it will be left alone, like ebikes.
Already exists. But there's problems with it…
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/queensland-residen…
I know a guy screaming poor and how he can barely afford to eat… and literally orders in food by delivery on average once per day. I have been at work and seen him uber in a Boost juice… and it was something like $28 delivered.
While ever there are idiots out there, there will always be the scams of just raking cream off the top at other peoples expense.
And if the small restaurants/cafe/fish and chip shops were not making money from it, they wouldn't be using it, so I don't really shed a tear for the "wont someone think of the small shops" fallacy.
I also don't have much sympathy for the delivery drivers either. The fee per delivery is set out in the terms and conditions. If you want to make $3/h delivering food, have at it, but you have no one to blame but yourself.
Don't like it, or don't agree with it? Don't use it, it really is that simple.
Wholeheartedly agree ^
Is he youngish or late 20s+? I've noticed a lot of the younger people I know seem to be more content with using these services.
I've always been fortunate enough to live in areas where I've had easy access to take away if needed. I can't justify paying a premium for food that is typically cold or disappointing (just my experience overall).
I used to feel bad for the stores, but it seems most have figured out how to build the extra costs into their meals.
Regarding drivers, I think the attitudes are mixed. I knew an international student who would make more doing deliveries a few nights a week than he would in his traditional part time job.
Everyone loves capitalism until capitalism does things they dont like…
Stop using these and enriching tools like Elon Musk
Huh? Elon has no stakes in delivery platforms.
Why Aren't Food Delivery Platforms Dead Yet?
People are lazy.
Haven't you heard? Everything is Elons fault now
I don't normally do this… but have the time tonight… and it's worth the effort…
Dude's changing the world but people fall for the MSM soundbite drivel.
He's like any one of us - sometimes flawed. He's different to most of us - a bloody Genius.
His focus, and it's a manic intense focus, is to do the things which benefit humanity the most.
- Accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy [Tesla]
- Make Humanity a multi planet species [SpaceX]
- Provide global internet coverage to the least served (and yes to subsidise the prior mission) [Starlink]
- Create a BCI to bypass medical conditions of the brain and spinal cord [Neuralink]
- Solve Traffic Congestion [Boring Company]
- … and now.. To give us all a Town Square [Twitter]
Zip2 - sold for millions put into x.com; PayPal (merged with x.com) - sold for hundreds of millions put into Tesla and SpaceX; SpaceX - most successful space exploration organization on the planet, re-usable rockets that land on drone ships which people called nuts, only private enterprise outdoing government agencies which people also thought was nuts, Falcon Heavy - most powerful operational rocket, Merlin engine - super efficient all in-house; Raptor 2 engine - only mass produced full stage combustion engine - currently produced at 1 per day which is unheard off, Starlink space based internet for the planet +3000 satellites in orbit, Starship in full view development and promising to exponentially scale payload to orbit, R&D and manufacturing at lightspeed; Tesla - where to start - accelerated EV adoption, mass produced mainstream EV's at scale, engineering and manufacturing excellence that has left experts gobsmacked; perfecting manufacturing at scale; profitable Solar business; profitable (and huge upside) Megapack business; Full Self Driving (which surpasses what the others are trying to achieve and yes it's hard…but the progress is astonishing), spectacular in-house AI & Supercomputer teams building custom software and chip hardware; in-house developed Battery (4680 which promises major efficiency and production improvements), upcoming Semi (delayed like megapack because of global battery supply chain limitations), Cybertruck (which has some amazing engineering), and more; Neuralink - which has a working wireless BCI in animals, more to be revealed on 30th Nov; OpenAI (which he co-founded but has since parted ways with); Boring Company, which is striving for faster tunnelling and vastly lower cost than anyone else… and achieving their milestones; X-Prize - put up $100m of his own money for the best carbon sequestration idea; Twitter - to give everyone a platform to speak without heavy handed moderation.
… "so what have you achieved in your day?"
Do yourself a favour. Go listen to >>him<< speak… not the MSM… and not soundbites.
… "so what have you achieved in your day?"
I achieved quite a lot actually.
Musk is not doing all this for the 'benefit of humanity'. He has invested in companies that have made him money. He is no different to other rich investors, except he pretends to be an edgy memelord and for some reason a heap of people love him for it.
@w0lf: That is not the reality. He's neither hording nor is he massively consuming. His wealth is all IN those companies. If they fail he fails. He is objectively not like other billionaires in not taking money off the table. The general public don't bother seeking… and it's not difficult to see. It's a matter of looking past what's being pandered and seek knowledge / awareness, rather than simply onboard and parrot someone else's pov. Same can be applied to everything incl. Ukraine, bad China, covid, list goes on.
PS: What's wrong with making money? I'm sure you'd love to have more. I would too. Those "billionaires" (as if it's a swear word) have done what we have been unable to do i.e.: generate value, and in doing so, generated wealth. And let's be honest with what happens to that money - It eventually makes it back into society. They don't take it with them nor have they (in the last decades years) bequeath it to their families. I'd rather give capital to those who make the best use of that capital than those who can't (looking at you governments). Finally ask what they've contributed to the world and economies. They wouldn't be billionaires if their products didn't have value.
Hope you see clearly the drivel pandered by the far left for what it is. Self defeating. We NEED more high performers, not less.
@w0lf: Invested? You meant Tesla already existed had cars on the road? SpaceX was already building re-usable rockets and had plans to go to mars?
@w0lf: It’s mind blowing that people will so confidently criticise Musk (not that he’s immune) while very clearly knowing absolutely nothing about his or his companies’ story. He just invested in Tesla and SpaceX and made money… lol, righto.
- Make Humanity a multi planet species [SpaceX]
Of all the hyperbole, this is probably the most egregious.
Nothing Musk is doing will have any impact on humanity becoming a "multi planet species", which is centuries away at best and will use technology that is unlikely to be invented within the lifetime of anyone alive today.
If anything, he's impairing that goal by pursuing (being generous) vanity projects over very real and potentially existential terrestrial problems.
We're not going to get off the planet at all if modern civilisation collapses. At this point there is no second chance.
@drsmithy: You clearly have a hard set point of view that's less an indictment of Elon, but humanity itself.
I'm a realist and recognize that nothing is achieved by standing still and doing only what's generally accepted as achievable. So I applaud and encourage those who do push the boundaries.
"Vanity projects"… most saw Zip2 as that, and PayPal, and Tesla, SpaceX. But they are/were the leaders in their verticals. Elon has delivered.
No clue. People genuinely seem to be bad with money and lazy af.
As Ronnie Chieng says, the next evolution for these delivery services should be the people delivering the food to shove it into your mouth. That’s what we need next. I want to be fed my pizza and burgers and I want migrants to feed me.
There’s your next skills shortage.
Old people in nursing homes already receive this service.
To me these services offer a luxury for the lazy. A convenince for the business/corporate's.
But given the fact that these services are still used so much, to be it means the economy is still relatively good or people really have such a large cash buffer that they can afford these things while rates are going up so much.
Interest rates are only affecting a minority. I'd say a lot of 20-30yo have decent incomes and no liabilities or homes loans (renting or living at home (edit: living with parents)). They aren't buying houses but are still spending, interest rates could go to 20% and they'd still spend they wouldn't care… I've got a few friends still living at home on earing over 120k pa… They could spend $500 a week on uber eats and still save more money than what I lose on interest :D
Because people are very lazy. People will genuinely get things delivered to avoid going downstairs (reference: https://youtu.be/kXHSob-TdGI?t=512).
But honestly, I think something has to give soon for at least one or two of the companies. The novelty has worn off, the deals have evaporated, the prices have risen, the service level had dropped (despite service fees increasing) and a post covid crowd are largely enjoying going out to eat again. Personally, we went from probably using them at least once a week to completely getting rid of them, and I doubt we're alone. The bloated, costly and error-prone process of delivery became more painful than just going and getting the food ourselves. So we just stopped being lazy and did that, and haven't looked back.
Because hiring your own drivers and marketing your own food is too hard for most restaurants. Seriously it is a challenge to hire drivers, make sure they don't waste time while delivering, thinking of things to do for them if you don't get many delivery orders one night, telling customers you can't deliver when you have all your drivers backed up already, and even just getting a website with a menu on it is too hard for some restaurants let alone an online ordering system.
Self driving cars will even the playing field eventually anyway, so Uber Eats is just keeping the industry warm until then.
They advertise rubbish like 'deliveroo plus' and 'uber pass', where you pay a subscription for 'free delivery'. Then they add a 'service fee'.
You get to pay the service fee if you're a pass member or not. With DoorDash, the service fee is halved for pass members. We pay $96/Year, and get good value.
Should we? Of course not. It's far cheaper to get in the car and drive, but we're lazy! We get delivery probably 3 times a week.
As for the shitty pay … people must earn enough to make it worthwhile, or they wouldn't do it. We've had deliveries come in Landcruisers and the like, but most drive sensible small cars. It's odd that in the many threads about this, we very rarely get a driver telling us just how much they make.
Because people will always be lazy and not bothered to cook. Captive market.