DoorDash to acquire Deliveroo

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/doordash-to-buy-uk-food-delivery-firm-deliveroo-in-3point9-billion-deal.html

by mfiguiere • 1 year ago

183 384 1 year ago

cnbc.com

colesantiago• 1 year ago

Most startups in the UK have either:

1. Sold to a foreign buyer

2. Shut down

3. Relocated to the US

4. Are stagnant

The UK is up for sale (at a discount)

fakedang• 1 year ago

You could say the same for traditional businesses. Or real estate. Or the farmlands. Even the political parties (for the princely sum of 50,000 quid).

The UK is up for sale.

graemep5• 1 year ago

That is how globalisation is supposed to work.

British companies have bought plenty abroad too:

pydry• 1 year ago

it works great until you realize that your country's most strategic economic assets are in the hands of a strategic rival or shut down.

mytailorisrich5• 1 year ago

And yet the UK attracts twice the VC investments the next European country does.

Bilal_io• 1 year ago

Is it because of the language?

darth_avocado3• 1 year ago

It is a global phenomenon and is a result of how capital markets work. When you have money, it’s easier to make more money by gobbling up assets. US has capital more readily available to try new things, fail and eventually build massive successes. The successes then get reinvested in the form of even more capital.

When Manchester United is owned by US billionaires, everything else is up for grabs.

Argonaut998• 1 year ago

First FreeNow and now Deliveroo. So much for European independence from US companies. It’s a wonder why these sales were approved in this climate.

StopDisinfo9102• 1 year ago

Deliveroo is a UK company. It doesn't matter to the EU. It's also very much non strategic so I don't see why it would be blocked either way.

graemep5• 1 year ago

The GP said European, not EU. Its a concern in the UK too.

fy20• 1 year ago

And Wolt.

JumpCrisscross6• 1 year ago

a wonder why these sales were approved in this climate

The EU and UK have no good options at the merger level. If they block the sale, it trashes the start-up ecosystem. If they let it through, an American company buys a local one.

The fundamental problem is the paucity of new-firm formation in the EU and UK, the scaling barriers they face that American compeitors don't, and the increased culture of risk-taking in America that lets its firms pay more for acquisitions. The last can't be addressed. The first two probably can by the EU. (The UK is not a viable sovereign entity in these regards.)

jjallen• 1 year ago

Yes as an American who’s loved in Europe for six years or so the risk taking and desire to start and do things a little differently is just night and day more than it is in Europe, generally speaking.

mytailorisrich5• 1 year ago

No-one's approval is required apart from the company's board...

louthy• 1 year ago

Not strictly true. In the UK, at least, a sale of a business needs to be signed off by the Cabinet Office if it is considered strategic or a security risk [1].

Unlikely, in the case of Deliveroo, but I went through this exact process and it took about a month or so to get sign off and to be allowed to sell my own company to a foreign buyer (health tech)

There’s also monopoly and competition regulation that could stop a sale.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-security-and-investment...

toast03• 1 year ago

Competition reviews are common, although I don't know enough about the two companies to know if they have high enough market share in any countries where they both operate.

pzmarzly• 1 year ago

FWIW there still are some popular European alternatives left, such as Bolt, Glovo or JustEat

n4r9• 1 year ago

Tangential and anecdotal, but despite supposedly being the UK market leader JustEats is pretty terrible. I've used them twice in as many years and the experience was awful both times. Missing items, meat in vegetarian dishes, late delivery, cold food etc... . You can report issues via the app but have to select one of a generic list of issues and only get a paltry partial refund - think 33% off for an order that was stone cold on arrival. The app doesn't seem to be able to handle more than one issue per order. There is a well-hidden customer service chat but they don't seem to be any more flexible than the ap.

pkaye• 1 year ago

From what I read Deliveroo was founded by two Americans and they got their VC investments from the US. Its just that they focused their operations in Europe.

Spivak2• 1 year ago

We’ll cover more than 40 countries with a combined population of more than 1 billion people, enabling us to provide more local businesses with the tools and technology they need to thrive,” said Tony Xu, CEO and Co-founder of DoorDash.

This makes zero sense to me for a logistics company specializing in local to local deliveries. Being bigger in a given geographic area grants some benefits of scale and efficiency but being in Seattle and Bangkok there's really no difference than two separate apps. Just with the nature of the business you probably want this to be as local as possible so the profits aren't siphoned out of your community.

like_any_other3• 1 year ago

Being bigger in a given geographic area grants some benefits of scale and efficiency

And dictating terms to local restaurants and delivery workers, with the threat of shutting them out of the largest market.

ta12432• 1 year ago

Both my local Indian and Chinese use justeat. I don't select them because they're on justeat, I use justeat because it has them.

If they changed to another platform then I'd simply move to that platform. Of course these companies did deliveries far before techbros decided to "disrupt" the industry.

carlosjobim2• 1 year ago

If you've made your restaurant dependent on any deliver app, you've already made a fatal mistake in a cutthroat industry.

It doesn't take great effort for a restaurant to do good without being on these apps. But some owners want to pay 15-20% of their gross revenue to a megacorp for the rest of their lives rather than invest a few hundreds or thousands in getting their own customers. We see the same thing in a ton of industries.

ReptileMan• 1 year ago

People often travel outside of their town. Having the same app in the next place you are offers some benefits for the users. And potential for earnings.

morpheuskafka2• 1 year ago

As an example, US has Uber and Lyft and Mexico has Uber and Didi. When someone from Mexico goes to US, they probably wont have Lyft, and someone from the US won’t have Didi. So Uber gets most travellers’ business automatically.

Likewise even though Uber in Japan is (almost) all taxis and not actual Uber drivers, most global tourists have Uber and not something like Go that’s specific to Japan. So they are profiting off almost all the taxi rides from Western visitors.

morpheuskafka2• 1 year ago

Note that Deliveroo’s Hong Kong business was sold to Foodpanda a few weeks earlier. So it looks like DoorDash only wanted to buy certain markets.

bastawhiz2• 1 year ago

It makes sense that they wouldn't buy the HK business. Operating in HK essentially means entering the Chinese market, which feels like a bold responsibility for Doordash to take on. Better to let a company that's better positioned to buy out that part of the business.

AStonesThrow4• 1 year ago

Interestingly, here in the Phoenix market, with plenty of competing delivery services, there is at least one Chinese native service that competes with the “round eyes”.

Next door in Mesa, there is a significant designated Asian Quarter. So there is a high concentration of Asian restaurants and grocery stores. On a few occasions when ordering DoorDash from one of the big Chinese places, someone from the Chinese service delivered it instead; all receipts were printed in Chinese and sometimes I apparently received someone else’s order entirely.

I believe they did this on purpose to promote use of that native service for this set of restaurants. Unfortunately I don’t feel like reaching out to them or installing their weird Chinese language app, so I decided to simply steer clear of those most authentic restaurants instead.

tokioyoyo2• 1 year ago

China’s gig-economy dwarves the west. I actually don’t think they can enter the market, simply because the competition will eat them alive.

stevenwilkin• 1 year ago

Probably related that Foodpanda announced they were shutting down in Thailand.

Raed6673• 1 year ago

It is inevitable for DoorDash to make tipping an even more annoying and intrusive part of Deliveroo. I can't wait to see how europeen users react to that.

pluc2• 1 year ago

These things are omnipresent in European capitals, it's quite striking. It might be inconvenient but it's not gonna stop people any more than the privacy concerns of the apps do.

Raed6673• 1 year ago

I live in France and use Deliveroo (or UberEats some rare times) maybe once a month.

There is already a tipping UI in the app, but it is not intrusive, nothing as aggressive as what you'd experience in the US where you're inclined to pre-tip even before the delivery happens.

As for the capitals, yes it is becoming a thing but from my personal experience it is limited to touristy places

n_ary• 1 year ago

Tipping is NOT omnipresent in the European capital I live in. Of course some apps have tipping options but I never found correlation in service quality to tipping. On the contrary, when I tipped, service quality was “less optimal” and I noticed visible entitlement.

That being said, it is cultural norm here to tip by rounding up the order(say total is 2.59/ you tip by asking to make it 3.00/) when you are ordering in person and the service is/was good and the food is/was also good quality. Alternatively, in some restaurant, it is not usual to tip as order is collected by someone near the cash register while served by someone else entirely and someone else is preparing it. Once you are done eating, you return the dishes and go home, so there is no option to tip as you simply don’t tip at the prepayment step because you don’t know the food and service yet, you don’t tip the server as they simply bring the food and walk away.

nmstoker2• 1 year ago

Will be interesting.

Back when I used Deliveroo, tipping always led to worse delivery success rates so I gave up.

They suddenly became really bad recently, which is unfortunate as they generally had the edge on Uber Eats (total charlatans!)

NavinF6• 1 year ago

tipping always led to worse delivery success rates

What does this mean? If you don't tip on doordash in the US, your order just arrives a few minutes later than usual since the auction starts at a lower price and drivers will reject the lowest prices

ramesh313• 1 year ago

It is inevitable for DoorDash to make tipping an even more annoying and intrusive part of Deliveroo. I can't wait to see how europeen users react to that.

On demand food delivery is a premium luxury service (though the platforms have done their best to market it as otherwise). Please tip accordingly. These people work their asses off and are generally from a very low income background. If you have problems with that, go to the grocery store.

JumpCrisscross6• 1 year ago

On demand food delivery is a premium luxury service, though the platforms have done their best to market it as otherwise. Please tip accordingly

I stopped automatically tipping in New York City and the Bay Area. They earn a minimum wage now [1]. If they go above and beyond, sure, I'll tip. But if they just do their job, there are now regulations that have them get paid.

[1] https://www.nyc.gov/site/dca/news/018-24/mayor-adams-first-a...

Raed6673• 1 year ago

or maybe let's not play guessing games with the livelihood of people working in these fields, and let's bake a livable wage in the price... like any other service job ?

renewiltord2• 1 year ago

If they want to deliver they can. If they don't they don't have to. There's no problem here. There's a market clearing price and a regulation to protect not being paid enough. I don't also have to guess at a price higher than that. It doesn't give me too much pain if something isn't delivered on time or at all. I can happily adjust plans and rate down the thing I can't get.

As HN frequently points out "your business model is not my problem".

Doctor_Fegg• 1 year ago

You do realise you're replying to a comment about a company operating in countries where compulsory tipping isn't normalised?

scbzzzzz• 1 year ago

My two cents, tipping should be optional and only reserved for exceptional service.

It is problem with business taking advantage of low income groups and business should be guilt into doing the right thing. Not people for not tipping.

If a company can't exist/ will be bankrupt ( or whatever the greedy business owners complain) if they can't provide livable( not minimum wage that was set 10 years ago and never account for inflation) wage to workers they should not exist in first place.

Tipping just enables this exploitation and at the same time paying billion of dollars to shareholders . I have read news about companies, owners taking share of the tip.

delivery drivers should protest and make sure government to pass bills to stop this exploitation.

these business are taking advantage of situation of vulnerable people who either have to sleep hungry and not exploited or be exploited but have a meal. No idea how we can as a society make it better.

the_gipsy• 1 year ago

Tipping culture results in far, far worse working conditions.

Either don't tip, or don't use the service. If you do tip, you're contributing to workers being exploited.

JambalayaJimbo• 1 year ago

These kinds of comments always leave me a little puzzled. The people working at the grocery store may well be low income people as well, as well as anyone on the chain of growing and transporting that food.

mejutoco• 1 year ago

Deliveroo has not operated in Germany for a while. It might go like that in other countries.

https://deliveroo.de/en/

meitham• 1 year ago

and just exited HK few months ago

mytailorisrich5• 1 year ago

Click "no" or ignore depending on UI.

The Deliveroo app already asks if you want to tip.

ricardobayes• 1 year ago

The one and only time I used Deliveroo I gave a 1 pound tip. A pound or two is a normal service tip for many places in the UK. You would tip your hairdresser or the taxi 1-2 pounds.

Xss3• 1 year ago

I usually give whatever decent change I have laying around, or a fiver if I know them and it has been a while. I never tip via the app. I do tell the driver they'll get a cash tip in the instructions though.

omneity2• 1 year ago

International operations? Is DoorDash entering new markets?

hug• 1 year ago

Outside the United States, DoorDash and its European subsidiary Wolt have operations in a combined total of 32 other countries as of the end of 2024.

From wikipedia.

omneity2• 1 year ago

Little did I know. Thanks!

modeless• 1 year ago

They ought to rename themselves Deliveroo. It's a better name.

gorgoiler• 1 year ago

This is disappointing from an innovation perspective. I know Deliveroo are just there to make money but they were uniquely positioned to do something transformative with their apps over the past ten years. Instead, we’ve basically seen little to no innovation on the consumer product other than an expansion from restaurants to now including grocery deliveries and group ordering.

What about including a human, social element? Deliveroo could have been a channel for building a relationship between customers and Frankie’s Pizza where I could hear about upcoming specials, promotions, news about their expansion to a second location etc.

There could be an integration with power users (superhosts, sort of, but the analogy isn’t exact) where consensus can form around who really is the best Chinese food in town. Let’s get the hygiene rating of the kitchen front and centre too (perhaps they do this in some markets?)

For the riders, why has there never been a successful internal commitment to building a positive human workforce on the city streets? I feel like the brand started that way with their iconic jerseys and oversized food boxes but devolved into freelancers of the lowest common denominator. When my orders started arriving 50/50 in a just eat thermal bag, it really drove home the point that these services are never about long term value for the human workforce. We are now haggling on price in an auction against everyone else in the same way airline flights compete solely on price. When that happens, just as with airlines, any notion of a quality product or differentiation on service goes down the drain. It’s as if the major component of service differentiation is the lower price which is such a shame when there’s so much opportunity to shine as a food service app.

If these companies truly do want to race to the bottom as generic low latency courier services then perhaps we will hopefully see them exit the app layer and solely occupy the transport layer, leaving space at the app level for someone who cares about the state of restaurants, food, and quality, leaving the delivery part to the auction apps. I’d much rather have a high quality integrated service but if we’re obviously not going to get that then the sooner they stop trying the better.

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

I never understood why these delivery services are popular.

Yes people are lazy. But lazy to the point of paying an additionnal fee to be waiting twice the time it gets to fetch the same food yourself and receive dishes that are cold instead of hot? What is the incentive really? If only those delivery services would use devices that keep food warm and deliver from somewhere far from home, I would maybe understand, but they aren't even available in a wider than a small radius around your house, so it is always more convenient to walk/cycle/drive to wherever you would order that food anyway.

The only ones that do it relatively well are pizza joints and they usually have their own delivery service so you don't even have to use these apps.

alt227• 1 year ago

Yes people are lazy.

You dont seem to understand just how lazy people are.

ghaff18• 1 year ago

They are and I include myself in this category every now and then. But even when I had to go into an office every day, I had quite a few things I could toss into the oven or skillet and have ready in a few minutes.

Have some friends over and want to get a couple pizzas that everyone is happy with? Sure I get that rather than someone having to go out and pick them up. But, as a routine thing, I've never gotten the attraction of delivery.

Peanuts99• 1 year ago

What's more, these services only go to make the customer experience of people who have actually turned up at the restaurant worse because the same staff are now having to cater for twice the amount of orders while they manage a long line of motorcycle drivers crowding around the entrance. Personally to me it's wild, spending restaurant money to eat at home.

braza2• 1 year ago

+1.

Someone nailed it in the thread above related to the -time/+money, but after a couple of years working on it, I realized that the people that use those services are not the public that would go to a restaurant for a gastronomic experience, and that's ok.

At least for me, the biggest 3rd or maybe 4th order effect of the food delivery industry and their dark/gray kitchens is that the concept of having a nice cooked meal locally is almost over, with some exceptions.

Due to the over-optimization of the kitchens and the offset in terms of revenue that restaurants can have (i.e., orders without increasing the real estate), we have a bunch of pre-set mounted meals in almost all restaurants, and the probability of eating something tasty and unique is very low due to that.

The irony is that, at least in my experience, the best non-chain and/or fine restaurants that I found were the ones in some shopping centers in the Nordics for a simple accidental association: none of those has any possibility to have food delivery due to hard physical constraints, and my assumption is that, since they do not have this possibility, they have to deliver the best meal possible to have people return and build a positive reputation.

amjnsx• 1 year ago

Are you talking from experience with DoorDash or Deliveroo? This has not been my experience with Deliveroo in London, UK. There’s just no way I could get the same food quicker, everyone is on motor/pedal bikes so delivery is usually about 20-30 minutes. Food is always hot on arrival bar the odd item (Nandos chips specifically, always cold).

Also I’m ordering Deliveroo specifically so I can get the time back, that’s the price you’re really paying - I had a long day at work and I want the time to relax and not spend it sourcing and making dinner.

danielbln2• 1 year ago

Yeah, I never had cold food delivered. Maybe that's a US thing where you live 50km away from the restaurant or something.

2dvisio• 1 year ago

Not my experience in London. In any zone that is not Zone 1-2, or other Deliveroo hot spots, my experience has always been not great with times that do reach also the 45 minutes to 1h for food delivery. We still do it occasionally _because we are lazy_.

However, we did draw some lines as some foods are not enjoyable in case one of those long wait times happens (e.g. pizza, burger, cooked meat dishes, etc).

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

I am in Spain. So Uber Eats and Glovo are the most common services but they are equally bad anyway so I wouldn't expect Deliveroo to be better.

dataengineer56• 1 year ago

Nando's chips are cooked fresh when the delivery driver arrives so that they're as fresh as possible. The probelm here is that chips travel horribly.

mattl• 1 year ago

French fries don’t travel well.

etaioinshrdlu• 1 year ago

If you have more money than time, and you don't mind the quality, it seems like not a bad trade.

braza2• 1 year ago

What is the incentive really? I would maybe understand, but they aren't even available in a wider than a small radius around your house, so it is always more convenient to walk/cycle/drive to wherever you would order that food anyway.

I know that you mentioned the incentive from the customer perspective, but since I've worked in 2 of the top 5 world food delivery companies, I can have some insights about it beyond people's laziness.

1) Availability of different cuisines regardless of distance: If you're talking about a bikeable, small-sized European capital or city with a limited number of restaurants, yes—you can place your order in person without any issue. But if you're in a mid-sized city with a high variety of restaurants, like Berlin, that’s not feasible. Most of the time, people don't use the app to order from the local pizza place; they use it to get a nice Indian, Japanese, Nepalese, or Thai dish from a restaurant 6 to 10 km away, especially on a rainy Friday.

2) It’s hard for restaurants to coordinate table bookings with walk-ins: Many restaurants join the platform because, while they can manage bookings and some fixed demand, they also risk losing walk-in customers (dynamic demand) when there's no space available. What restaurants do now is manage both bookings and walk-ins without worrying about losing revenue—because delivery can make up for no-shows or frustrated walk-ins.

3) Food delivery removes waiting logistics: If you walk, cycle, or drive, you incur the full logistics cost plus the opportunity cost (e.g., if you're organizing an event and need to set aside an hour for food). With delivery platforms, you can "actively wait"—you place the order through the app and do other things while waiting. You’re paying for both the logistics and the saved opportunity cost.

4) Restaurants can optimize menus and kitchen efficiency instead of real estate: This relates to point 2. In my experience, restaurants are becoming more like a front-end experience for dine-in customers, but many are transforming into what could be called "kitchens as a service." Customers order remotely, and a highly optimized kitchen, in terms of logistics and execution, prepares a specific dish. One thing I've noticed—and personally feel conflicted about—is that restaurants are betting on hyper-optimization by selling more of what I call "pre-mounted standardized dishes." In other words, instead of restaurants thinking about increasing their space to accommodate potential walk-ins, they will move towards maximizing kitchen efficiency.

Example: In Brazilian food restaurants, they have preset portions of rice, beans, French fries, and salad, and just reheat pre-cooked steak. For Thai food, they keep cold dressings in containers, and all noodles are pre-cooked and stored in warmers, and so on.

itsoktocry3• 1 year ago

Your last point is the most interesting: restaurants are now optimizing for cranking out generic slop.

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

1) Availability of different cuisines regardless of distance:

That is my main problem, it doesn't work that well in my place. Food delivery apps here only propose me stuff that is in a 3 km radius or so and not the 6 to 10km ones away. So in the end if I want something different than what is in a walking/cycling distance in my neighborhood I need to move myself.

rtpg• 1 year ago

I mean in bigger cities lots of people don't have cars, they might also be in the middle of something and so having someone else get the food makes sense. And a lot of people have "too much money", leading to them being like "yeah I'll pay like 40 bucks for somebody to bring these burgers to me so I can just keep on playing something with a friend".

And you know... if food is cold, you probably have a microwave?

Whether this is a good use of money is debatable but I think it's pretty easy to imagine scenarios in which this would be used.

itsoktocry3• 1 year ago

if food is cold, you probably have a microwave?

Order $40 of mediocre food and pop it in the microwave when it gets to you, cold. No surprise this is the community that brought us Soylent.

Do these people even like food? Fine if not, but in that case stock up on broccoli, rice and chicken and eat it every day; you'll save money and be healthier.

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

OTOH when you are in a big city you usually have food available virtually at your doorstep. That is my experience at least.

adzm• 1 year ago

My car broke down and it's taking forever to fix! Delivery services have made this much less of a problem.

fergie• 1 year ago

* Dons tinfoil hat *

They want you scared alone and staring at a screen. These services allow people to withdraw from the social interaction of ordering food in person- they feed off of and encourage social anxiety.

m0002• 1 year ago

You make it sound like a therapists' conspiracy.

I think the DoorDash culture is promoted because it means you can now work an hour more of (often unpaid) overtime, without worrying for your dinner. Or that you won't resist the extra time commuting to a far office location, so that your employer can save on their office space rent. Or won't complain for being forced to live out of the city because funds have bought up all the housing for "investment" and you can no longer afford a place in it.

CalRobert4• 1 year ago

Honestly when I lived in Ireland I sometimes preferred an app because there were times I couldn’t tell what people were saying (loud background noises, accents, etc)

tokioyoyo2• 1 year ago

You’d be extremely surprised if you saw internal dashboards. Kinda opens up your mind to society’s decision making processes when you see the numbers.

jbs789• 1 year ago

Live in a major city without a car/bike. Many restaurants within close physical proximity.

postexitus2• 1 year ago

Food delivery is a game changer with little kids to feed.

itsoktocry3• 1 year ago

Food delivery is a game changer with little kids to feed.

Can you elaborate?

I have little kids. We buy food at the grocery store and cook it. What game is being changed? You're talking about ordering takeout.

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

My kitchen has never been as prepared since I had kids. I used to have a very limited stock of food but it changed when I had kids. So quite the opposite in my experience.

b8• 1 year ago

They do use devices to keep the food warm such as the pizza like boxes. Also, my family members who DoorDash wait by popular destinations to pickup orders quicker and they deliver them within 20 minutes.

dbbk• 1 year ago

Have you ever had a hangover

black3r2• 1 year ago

I live in Bratislava and order food to work everyday. Delivery times are on par or less than what would take me to fetch the food myself. All delivery services in the area use thermally insulated boxes to transport the dishes - I can't remember if I ever received a cold dish (that wasn't supposed to be served cold).

And because I'm a software developer with a flexible work schedule paid hourly, the act of going to grab the food myself and not working for 30 minutes would cost me way more than delivery costs (even cooking my own meals can be more expensive when time is factored in, compared to food price at restaurant + delivery cost (for ~2 portions prepared in 30 minutes. Proper meal-prepping would be cheaper of course, but yeah I'm too lazy to do that)).

Also the food delivery services often offer discounts and with them it's sometimes cheaper to order the food than going to the restaurant and eat there. Yesterday I ordered with a 30% discount - I got a dish which would cost 10.80€ at the restaurant for 7.50€ including delivery.

klabb3• 1 year ago

Ironically delivery apps to be designed for walkable (ie non US) cities. At least where I lived in the US, driving was always very congested and adds extra time for parking and such, always at least 30 min with huge variance based on traffic. Plus you have to pay for the energy to transport a 1.5 tonnes vehicle for.. usually a single meal.

In Europe it’s an electric kickbike or scooter at most, and they can pick up the food without parking. Still, not perfect, but a lot more efficient and the margins can be lower. They don’t have to hit you with those deceptive fees and tip shaming - often it’s the same consumer price.

To me, in the US it would make much more sense to chain deliveries similar to Amazon packages. A set daily menu, heaters in the truck, and multiple stops with TSM style route. Maybe that’s too much communism but it would at least make sense logistically.

edude03• 1 year ago

I'm a software developer with a flexible work schedule paid hourly, the act of going to grab the food myself and not working for 30 minutes would cost me way more than delivery costs (even cooking my own meals can be more expensive when time is factored in, compared to food price at restaurant + delivery cost (for ~2 portions prepared in 30 minutes

Off topic but I quit consulting because I had this exact realization. Sure making $1000 to fix a production outage in 15 minutes on a Saturday was amazing but it made me always think about life in billable hours to the point where I was not hanging out with friends or going to the gym anymore

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

And because I'm a software developer with a flexible work schedule paid hourly, the act of going to grab the food myself and not working for 30 minutes would cost me way more than delivery costs

That doesn't make sense. Quite the opposite being flexible + paid hourly means that you are free to take a decent break.

Not taking proper time for a pause in the middle of a shift is both incredibly unhealthy and extremly unefficient as we can't be at 100% for long hours at a time.

Having said that anyone can prepare a decent meal in just a few minutes, there are literally tons of recipes where you just have to crudely cut stuff and throw them in a baking dish and in the oven or cook in a wok. + when you are working at home you can always eat some dinner leftovers + a bit of pan.

Your prices seems fine but I guess that is only because your delivery services are still in the pre-enshittification phase where they are competing for monopoly and actually losing money.

drooopy• 1 year ago

Those services have their use, and I'm glad that they exist, but it feels like people are just abusing them for convenience. It's unfathomable to me that there are people (I personally know of a few) who use a food delivery service on a daily basis for no good reason other than "i'm just lazy". The amount of money being wasted really makes my head spin.

bobxmax• 1 year ago

i pay a bit more so I can get food to my house from wherever i want

how is this hard to understand lol

daseiner13• 1 year ago

Not going to presume your lifestyle, but many regular users of food delivery are paying a steep premium to eat junk for the convenience of not having to drive 10 minutes

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

I am not arguing about the principle of getting food delivered but on the actual result. The experience is just crap between delays, errors, state of the food at delivery. It is like when you compare the picture of a burger in an ad and look at it on your tray when you actually get it at McDonalds or Burger King.

But I guess a fraction of the population just want food to stay alive (at least the next day) and don't really care about the experience and enjoyment of actually eating it. Same reason some people buy and eat junk food on a regular basis.

It is crazy because some societies manage to make fast food quick and easy to get while still being an enjoyable experience. Like going down the street to eat Tacos or Esquites in Mexico. The food itself may not be the healthiest one but at least it is always warm and ready when you want it and tasty and there is always a place to go close to wherever you happen to be. So you just happily fetch it in the street, have a laugh with the owners or other customers and then resume your business without having to order stuff on a smartphone and wait forever to get something crappy.

yakz• 1 year ago

The only ones that do it relatively well are pizza joints and they usually have their own delivery service so you don't even have to use these apps.

At least in my area, the pizza joints also use DoorDash now. They're not just available on DoorDash. It is delivered by DoorDash also when ordering directly from the pizza joint.

mooktakim• 1 year ago

You fire and forget. Order something for lunch, get back to work. Eventually ring at the door with food.

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

Food that comes to your door when you have already starved to death or binge eaten bags of crisps or bread while waiting for it, is visually unappealling thanks to have been stored in carboard boxes and been transported carelessly, is missing the actual sauce you specifically asked for and more often than not barely warm anymore.

That is the problem. After some failed attempts, I just make sure I always have stuff to pick and eat at home and if I am not feeling it, I just walk to a food place next door as it won't be worse than what is deliverable AND will be ready when I am actually hungry.

jagged-chisel• 1 year ago

In the US, I think you underestimate the power of lazy.

But seriously, people without transportation (or whose family has a single vehicle and it’s at work with someone), people with disabilities …

In any case, it’s seriously overpriced. Uber Eats offered me “$30 off” and the final bill would still have been twice the restaurant prices - and Uber likely has a markup on that as well.

troupo4• 1 year ago

In any case, it’s seriously overpriced.

As someone on Twitter aptly put, "you're ordering a taxi for your burrito"

What do you expect the price to be?

bluedino2• 1 year ago

It seems like the neighborhood Facebook feeds are full of people complaining about incorrect orders, missing food, stolen food, food that got delivered to the wrong house, as well as drivers complaining about not getting tips, customers incorrectly reporting food as stolen or missing...

gosub100• 1 year ago

I think you're arguing against yourself in the last paragraph. Decades of ordering pizza proves the market for food delivery. And the app makes it even easier than calling and talking to a person for both sides.

I haven't used DD or ordered pizza since 2022 at the latest, but I usually got enough food that it didn't get cold. Since it was so expensive I'd load up on appetizers and extras so I could get at least 2 meals out of it.

I don't get it today because I heard how expensive it got, and my apartment complex is huge and I don't trust them to find my unit.

ghaff18• 1 year ago

For whatever reason, pizza and Chinese delivery seems to work--at least in reasonably dense areas. I haven't really used since college, long time ago. Don't really have reasonable options these days. I probably would now and then if they were available but I fall back on some things that I just keep in the house and basically take no time/effort.

dagw3• 1 year ago

they usually have their own delivery service so you don't even have to use these apps

Still? Around me almost all the pizza places have stopped offering their own delivery services and moved to apps.

blibble• 1 year ago

you also get smaller portions

wkat42423• 1 year ago

First of all, not everyone has a vehicle. I certainly don't. So it will take me much more time in most cases.

And it's convenient when you have friends over and want to spend your time talking to them not getting food.

wiether3• 1 year ago

I guess it's a cultural thing, but here in France if you invite some friends over, you are expected to cook. It doesn't need to be fancy or anything.

The only time its okay to order food its when people came for something else in the first place (moving, doing some handywork...)

Otherwise just set a meetup at a restaurant and split the bill.

Ekaros• 1 year ago

Laziness and here they are not that much more expensive. A few euros at most. Regular discounts make it close enough. So not having to walk to my car and drive somewhere and back is reasonable effort save.

And vast majority of time food is entirely fine and warm enough.

johnnyanmac9• 1 year ago

That's actually what turned me off from Doordash as the pandemic ended. they added a bunch of extra fees to the point where some $15 order doubles in price after all is said and done. "service fee", deliery fee, and then tip. Not to mention the fast food itself is just more expensive.

shakna3• 1 year ago

Just to add to this conversation, because I haven't seen it discussed yet -

One of the groups of people using these apps are the disabled. Those aren't people who can just hop in a car. And they aren't always able to walk. But they absolutely are people who feel run ragged and too tired to cook some nights.

Australia's NDIS even partners with some of them to perform that service.

astura3• 1 year ago

One of the groups of people using these apps are the disabled

No they aren't, certainly not on a large scale.

I know and have known a LOT of disabled people (as well as "disabled" people) in my life.

I think there is very little overlap between

a) the population of disabled people and

b) the population of people who have enough money they can afford the cost of restaurant food + delivery fees + tip on more than a very occasional basis.

It's exactly the opposite from what I've seen. I've seen the disabled people in my life get grocery delivery (with informal arrangements before apps existed). I've seen them get bulk frozen food delivery. I've literally never seen someone who is homebound order delivery food. They can't afford it.

akudha• 1 year ago

Delivery times don't matter as much - you can always order 15-30 mins earlier, you could also microwave the food a few seconds if it is cold.

That said, I am not a fan of ordering often - food quality is generally bad in my area, those extra fees are just nuts and the drivers get screwed the most, followed by restaurants.

vidarh5• 1 year ago

I have other things to do, and don't drive. That's the incentive.

Cold food has never been a problem for me with these services.

I'd pick Deliveroo over a restaurants own delivery service any day because it means not having to keep track of numbers, having tracking, and trusting their customer service. In fact, to the point that while Deliveroo allows restaurants to do their own delivery, because you lose the tracking I tend to avoid ordering from restaurants that do.

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

When I don't want to make my own pizza dough and order it, I just call from the google maps link. It doesn't take longer than finding any delivery app in my smarthone.

And I will just wait 10 minutes, hop on my bicycle and 2 minutes later I get my pizza right out of the oven and head home directly much faster than any delivery rider would because they mutualize orders and let the first pizzas lose most of their heat while waiting to have sufficient orders.

rors• 1 year ago

People are odd in terms of what they will tolerate. I prefer having a 15 mins stroll to pick up my coffee or food, for others it’s deal breaking.

The time argument is also weird. I find that I have a maximum of 6 hours highly productive work in me a day, perhaps an additional few hours of less productive work. A stroll or cooking recharges my mind. I envy all the people here who are working a productive 12 hour day.

johnnyanmac9• 1 year ago

It really depends on where you live. I'm in a suburb and my "15 minute stroll" consists of one mexican joint. Nothing is "walkable" from my place. A real shame because I have a plaza only a mile away... up the steepest hill possible. I get lazy.

in an urban area it makes less sense. Friend's house is across the street from a plaza consisting of a grocery store, corner store, starbucks, froyo joint, and a few other eateries.

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

Not having the time is usually false. They don't prioritize that time over others.

prmoustache22• 1 year ago

People who say they are productve 8 to 12 hours a day with barely pause are just liars (or slaves that get whiped at the second they stop).

Heck, when I became parent and decided for a couple of years to work at 80% I realized I was doing the same amount of work as before and as much or more than any other colleague working at 100%. I only came back at 100% because I realized businesses are willing to subsidize procrastination over efficiency and I didn't find normal to be paid less if all I was asked in return was spending 1/5 of my work time time doing nothing productive for the company.

thinkindie• 1 year ago

I personally believe that money spent on delivery food is a waste of money, unless it's an emergency or it's sushi: any type of food (excluding sushi) will arrive soggy (especially pizza or burgers) and/or cold and it will definitely be more expensive than necessary.

TheSoftwareGuy• 1 year ago

Your lack of empathy is obvious when you say the benefit of these services is that "people are lazy". Many many people simply don't have extra time, and taking one thing off of their plate makes life easier. For many decades, pizza was one of the only meals you could get delivered, these services just expand that to more restaurants.

CalRobert4• 1 year ago

Who watches my kids while I get the food?

tartoran• 1 year ago

You can prepare food at home if you're not too comfortable in the kitchen. You can learn to enjoy it too after some first failed attempts, everybody fails at the beginning of this journey...

I could understand getting delivery as the emergency resort but doing that on a regular basis does not make sense to me. I think of preparing food as a form of self care.

dfxm124• 1 year ago

I know there are always edge cases, but, just spit-balling here, maybe the other parent? When I was a kid, my dad got the pizza while mom stayed home. It's a tradition I brought to the next generation as well, and, by god, I hope my kids continue it as well.

Also, consider if you can order from a restaurant with in house delivery instead of using Door Dash.

jmyeet• 1 year ago

You need to check your privilege. This is also a very ableist take.

Some people don't want a car. Some can't afford a car. Some can't drive. Some simply don't want to pay to maintain, insure, fuel and park it. Some simply don't want to take the time to leave the house, get their car, drive to some place, pick up their food and then drive home

There is absolutely both a need and a desire for delivery. Yes, you can get a bad delivery experience. I've had more than one pizza delivered where the boxes were clearly on their side, possibly because they fell off the car seat. Some drivers had hot bags. Most did not. The dedicated drivers for Dominos do, which is why that works.

Where delivery works particularly well (IME) is NYC and there they most often are on bikes, sometimes scooters. It tends to be an incredibly efficient operation.

DiggyJohnson• 1 year ago

Presumably they are referring to the customers that are able bodied and own a car. You are stating the obvious

SirMaster2• 1 year ago

the time it gets to fetch the same food yourself

Why do you think that people are simply capable of fetching the same food themselves?

What if they don't have transportation, what if they are too sick?

rezistik• 1 year ago

Or people are sick, or drunk or high and want food but also want to be safe.

bombcar4• 1 year ago

What if they don't have transportation, what if they are too sick?

Some customers of these would fit this, but I suspect the vast majority of the valuation is from delivering food to people who could pick it up themselves if they had to.

dfxm124• 1 year ago

Is this a dichotomy? Door dash or get the food yourself? No. Like OP said, there are places that still have their own drivers...

nsonha• 1 year ago

waiting... dishes that are cold

No wait, simply order early or hold off eating for 30 mins, while you for sure have other things to entertain yourself with. Or not, because you're busy doing work or whatever, and the exact time of the meal isn't the biggest concern. Neither is if food is hot. You eat 3 meals every day for an entire life time, not all of them needs to be amazing.

tshaddox2• 1 year ago

Pizza delivery has been ubiquitous in small town America for decades, and pizza has nothing uniquely suitable to delivery except perhaps standardized packaging. And takeout from all types of restaurants has been even more ubiquitous.

So I'm not sure why you're so confused by the popularity of a service where someone else picks up your takeout order and brings it to you. Other than valid concerns about the labor practices of these delivery companies, and of course the occasional botched delivery (this also happened every so often with traditional pizza delivery in my small town growing up in the 90s), there's nothing to be confused about. It's just paying a bit extra for convenience, a tale as old as time.

theshackleford4• 1 year ago

I never understood why these delivery services are popular.

I don’t understand this lack of ability to think beyond your own circumstance.

None of what you wrote is applicable to my life or circumstances, plus I’m disabled to boot.

ksynwa• 1 year ago

I wish these apps allowed ordering takeout.

walthamstow5• 1 year ago

You can do that on both Deliveroo and Uber Eats in the UK

I'm not sure why anyone would pay a 30% markup vs restaurant menu + fees to pick it up themself though

voidUpdate2• 1 year ago

I've never understood why no delivery app driver can find my flat, despite me clearly marking its location with a pin, making a note of where I am, and making sure that when you put my address into google maps, it points directly at my flat. Every single delivery driver has to phone me and ask where I am while they stand on the other side of the road, looking at a house I don't live in. Are they seriously all this incompetent??

</rant>

doom2• 1 year ago

My building is at the end of the block but all the delivery apps think it's in the middle or towards the other end even though when you put my address in Google Maps the location is correct. So I've taken to standing outside when the driver is close and flagging them down.

voidUpdate2• 1 year ago

That's what I have to do as well. I'm not sure what the purpose of the "here is exactly where I am" map thing on Deliveroo is if they just completely ignore it, as well as the delivery driver instructions

okdood64• 1 year ago

A lot of them just completely ignore the written instructions and map.

mrguyorama• 1 year ago

The apps select for people who can do the most deliveries per unit time, because that's the only way to actually make anything like a living out of these apps.

People who are considerate, pay attention to instructions, care about your food, etc, can't afford to continue working, because they don't deliver often enough to afford rent.

The point of an auction model like these apps use is to drive down labor prices to the lowest bidder. There's no force pushing quality up, because people cannot ban certain "known bad" drivers and the rating system is non-functional. You will only ever get laborers who don't have better choices to sell their labor to. Specifically, the apps don't care about bad service, because it empirically has not stopped people from ordering. People will literally have a delivery driver eat the meal they paid 2X for and still order again from that service, because the entire system provides plausible deniability that "surely that was a fluke and this time I will have a different, better driver, right?"

American consumers are insanely un-discerning. They are willing to pay huge markups and get radically bad service on a burger and fries for whatever reason.

Also consider how many of the people working this "job" literally cannot read english.

Frieren• 1 year ago

These purchases only goal is to reduce competition and create monopolies. And the some people will defend the companies with "but if they are the best why should not be a monopoly?". The easy answer is that they are bad but just purchased their monopoly with investor money.

Capitalism is dying.

dragonwriter• 1 year ago

Mergers and acquisitions working the way mergers and acquisitions have always worked is not "capitalism is dying".

BiteCode_dev• 1 year ago

In France we have still a bit of competition with a super small company called delicity.

They have surprisingly survived the past few years by making drivers a priority. Basically, all drivers recommend delicity in my area because they pay more, and they tell restaurants to sign up.

Don't know how they are going to compete now.

techn00• 1 year ago

I recently found out that Wolt (being available in lots of european countries) is also owned by DoorDash

panick21_2• 1 year ago

Yeah Capitalism is dying sure, because one less food delivery app. Its not like there are likes 100s of places or 1000s ways to get food. People really love to complain about everything.

gregorvand2• 1 year ago

Having lived in NYC, Hong Kong and Singapore, the best system around all of this is ..

Singapore hawker center.

Turn up to somewhere ~10 mins or less from your location. Have a great meal for $5 (US) or less.

Continue

No delivery fees, delivery emissions or waste. Talk to people... The list goes on.

valzam• 1 year ago

Danish culture has the concept of a work canteen as a basic expectation in any work arrangement, no matter the size of the company. I don't know why this isn't more popular everywhere else. Even if I had to take a slightly lower pre-tax salary I'd love not having to get takeout all the time.

kawsper• 1 year ago

I’ve worked several places, and it’s only the bigger companies that have a canteen.

Most smaller places it is “bring your food” or they get food in from a caterer to set up in the break room.

AStonesThrow4• 1 year ago

work canteen

I had a job through a temp agency back in 2019, and we were occupying a rather spacious and well-equipped office building belonging to our client. One of the perks was free sodas and well-appointed break rooms, with fridge, microwave oven and all. However, there was no cafeteria nor canteen. Worse yet, there was no restaurant or deli within any reasonable walking distance to the site. It was a vast and dedicated office park with very large corporations as tenants, and evidently most of them did typically have cafeterias, or their actual employees had other arrangements.

Therefore I found myself preparing something at home to bring as "lunch" every day, and it was difficult because I am not good at preparing food at all. We were only alotted 30 minutes total to eat, and I found that barely enough time to put it together, heat something, and wolf it down. It was the most distasteful aspect of working there, having no other choice for breaks. We were working "swing shift" into the night (off at 10pm or so) and so the choices for meals after work were quite slim, and I was riding the bus anyway.

There are many office parks and corporate centers around here that feature at least one little deli or sandwich shop on the corner, that is walking distance for employees. I really don't think I'd accept work on-site at a place that lacked a cafeteria or a nearby restaurant.

CalRobert4• 1 year ago

Whenever I have a situation like this I get fat. I’d rather not have food from the company…

LeafItAlone4• 1 year ago

I'd love not having to get takeout all the time

Why don’t you make food at home and bring it?

monsieurbanana3• 1 year ago

Hawker centers, like many other nice features of Singapore, is powered by immigrants paid much less than other citizens, while being strictly regulated in a way that only a wealthy yet tiny country can do.

I'm not saying it's necessarily all bad, just that it's not something we can replicate in western countries.

daseiner13• 1 year ago

Who do you think is delivering food?

AntiqueFig• 1 year ago

is powered by immigrants paid much less than other citizens

I mean, that's how Deliveroo and other delivery services (Uber eats and equivalents) works (at least here in Europe).

JimDabell• 1 year ago

Until this year, only citizens / PRs were eligible to work at hawker centres. Even today, it’s quite restricted.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/hawker-stalls-can-...

noobermin• 1 year ago

Partially true but not really. You're thinking about food courts, not hawker centres.

kccqzy3• 1 year ago

There are food courts elsewhere too. The main difference is government subsidized rent, and an older generation of people who are willing to work very hard for low overall income. The former can be solved by politics but the latter cannot. It is simply not sustainable. Look at the people who are working in these hawker centers: they are almost always old, and they are willing to work hard so that their children can work less hard in a nice air conditioned office. When these people retire, there will be no one to occupy these hawker centers at this price of food.

dfxm124• 1 year ago

FWIW, Door Dash drivers aren't making much either.

kylehotchkiss• 1 year ago

American mall food courts make me sad. Do you like Sbarro? What is Sbarro?

gregorvand2• 1 year ago

I take your point the majority are more middle aged / elderly working in these. However I personally know two sets of young guys running stalls and they love it. They’re from working class backgrounds and appreciate the freedom of running their own company. I think we’ll see a natural regeneration of hawkers, it only happens when the current want to give up or rents tip above their limits.

FlyingSnake• 1 year ago

Doordash and the Pizza arbitrage is a mandatory read on the economics of the delivery apps.

https://www.readmargins.com/p/doordash-and-pizza-arbitrage

Havoc• 1 year ago

Ugh. Deliveroo is a pretty borderline proposition as is already. Can’t imagine this will improve it

If it wasn’t for Amex discounts I wouldn’t use it at all

affalytics• 1 year ago

Probably a needed move (and timely with the recent upsurge in Reform UK wins). Deliveroo has been running on a regulatory arbitrage -- it got to decent size in the UK due to lax laws on low quality/illegal immigration. If that has an expiry date approaching (it looks like it does), to maintain its scale it has to plan for a technological shift in the way it operates -- it is too small to do that by itself. DoorDash isn't.

sefrost• 1 year ago

Maybe the reason your comment has been downvoted is because people on HN aren’t aware of the intersection between UK employment law, specifically independent contractors substitution rules, delivery apps and modern slavery.

An easy to follow starting point here for people interested:

https://archive.ph/2024.03.15-193026/https://inews.co.uk/new...

macsparrow2• 1 year ago

Interested to see how this plays out.

Deliveroo has been on a downslope for a while; exiting international markets and losing home market share. And despite DoorDash's US dominance, they still haven't made significant growth with their international operations.

dagw3• 1 year ago

still haven't made significant growth with their international operations

DoorDash operates under the brand Wolt in Europe, and based just on how much I see their branding on delivery people around town, they seem to have grown quite a bit and the past couple of years.

macsparrow2• 1 year ago

That's fair, and I understand their international dynamics, though brand <> growth.

They've been active outside of N.America for >5 years and aside from expanding their geo footprint, they're still far from winning in most/ all markets. Which is surely the aim.

antonyh2• 1 year ago

Here in London, we've already boycotted all the services except Dominoes. Poor practices, delivery to wrong addresses, cold food, worse quality compared to eat-out, and items often missing. It's quicker and better for me to hike up the hill and eat the same food than to deal with all the nonsense. Deliveroo was particularly bad. On top of that, it's restaurant prices for take away food. There's no advantage for me.

tnel77• 1 year ago

My neighbor has delivery (sometimes two separate drivers/services at a time when him and his wife want different types of food) at least 3 times a week. To each their own with their finances, but I just can’t bring myself to pay all of the extra fees. Also, the food is usually listed at a higher price to make up for the cut the various apps take.

I’d rather just call the restaurant directly and get it myself. For some of these restaurants, the savings is 20-35% by just grabbing it rather than using a delivery app.

precommunicator2• 1 year ago

So your time has no value (not just going there and back, but preparing to leave, dressing, undressing etc.)?

Your car/other transport is completely free? I wonder what's the difference, but I've calculated for myself a while back and going to a restaurant just isn't worth it.

For me often even if I literally drive by a shopping centre when this restaurant is, I would just order on my phone instead and have it delivered to my home. It takes so much time to park in multi-story garage, then go like 200+m from my car to this restaurant (the only Burger King in my city) and back, wait for the order... Doesn't make sense for me, I hate this time wasting system.

But now Uber Eats announced the One will only cover half of the delivery fee, so looking at the trend of enshittification from now in it soon might be just worth it...

Sander_Marechal• 1 year ago

Not OP, but when I order take out, I usually pick it up on my way from work. It hardly takes any extra time or mileage. It's often faster than ordering delivery. Also, somehow with delivery the food is always colder than when I pick it up myself.

2OEH8eoCRo0• 1 year ago

Time? I cook a lot. I'd argue time spent showering, shaving, cooking, etc. can be useful and relaxing "thinking" time. These are only a chore if you have the wrong mindset.

SirMaster2• 1 year ago

I don't really understand the appeal of these delivery services.

Whenever I try them my food usually arrives cold and more than once has apparently gotten stolen and then I have to spend a bunch of time with delivery people messaging me saying the food is not there, and then have to talk to customer service to get a refund.

On top of that they practically double the cost of the already expensive food it seems to me.

dfxm124• 1 year ago

I'm with you. Maybe the appeal on the restaurant side.

atomicnumber3• 1 year ago

That's my 2c. I've used it only twice in the past several years:

- one when I had the flu recently and was literally, non-hyperbolically barely well enough to operate the app enough to get food (for my family, too - not for me)

- once when i was out of town on business, and my previously-arranged food for my family back home fell through one day.

All your points are why I don't use it: it's already barely food (fast food), arrives cold, delivery issues, and EXTREMELY expensive. And in an era where, despite multiple raises, due to inflation I am STILL not making more CPI-adjusted income than I was in 2019, I'm not about to be lifestyle creeping for shitty cold wendy's.

bombcar4• 1 year ago

My experience is similar. Unless it's something that delivery was solved for (e.g., literally Dominos or Chinese) it arrives in just an embarrassingly bad condition.

extr• 1 year ago

If you live in a metro area it's really not like that. Prices are higher but my credit card gives me free Uber One, so fees + tip are managable. Plus Uber/Postmates offer (at least for me) extremely aggressive coupons pretty often, 20-40% off. Food arrives in 20-40 minutes. Don't order things that don't travel well (eg: fried food). Order enough that you'll have leftovers and can amortize the delivery cost over multiple meals.

We probably order delivery at least once a week. Usually a big batch of indian, chinese, a ton of tacos/rice/beans, etc. Stuff that keeps well. Then we'll have it for at least 2 meals each. I don't feel like it's that ridiculous honestly.

thoughtpalette• 1 year ago

This right here. I'm in Chicago and this echo's true.

I'd also add that I've almost never needed to interact with the driver in the app. In the case there's a missing item or issue, support sorts it out quick enough.

rkuykendall-com3• 1 year ago

My son has had been sick 10 days, our fridge has been emptied because it's been so hard to fit groceries into balancing work and childcare, my wife had the car on a playdate with my daughter, and for $25 someone brought a hot burrito to my door. It was worth every penny.

leosanchez• 1 year ago

I hope your son is fine now.

patmorgan23• 1 year ago

Most grocery stores do curbside pick up and delivery these days.

david2ndaccount• 1 year ago

Don’t ignore food addiction, the app turns into a button you can press on your phone and in a bit you’ll have a dopamine hit from the food. You don’t have to get dressed or confront the reality of your situation.

jfoster2• 1 year ago

You're focusing on the downsides & potential downsides. They might not be a good option, but they sure are (usually) a very convenient one.

pwthornton• 1 year ago

This is probably very location dependent. I live in an urban area and my food comes hot.

However, since I live in an urban area I have been just doing takeout and picking it up myself. The cost of these delivery apps went up radically over the last few years.

It’s so much cheaper to do takeout. I just do delivery when I have a huge time crunch.

foxyv• 1 year ago

Depends on where you order from. Most places don't have delivery packaging so you just get some cold food. Places that actually package for delivery usually arrive hot. Those places are also stupid expensive.

I wish DoorDash would sell their drivers some kit to keep hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold. When I bring stuff home on the bike I'll bring two insulated bags. One for hot and one for cold.

ergocoder• 1 year ago

I make 300K-600K/year based on the stock price as a senior software engineer. There are >100,000 software engineers like me in Seattle, New York, and San Francisco.

Yeah, the food and delivery fees are expensive... but we can afford it.

Same with the rent. Yeah, it's high but we can also easily afford it...

People just don't understand how wealthy people are in these 3 cities.

atak1• 1 year ago

Rainy / cold days, busy families, and being able to access a greater variety of food in urban areas. These are scenarios with a high degree of pain that have not yet been solved by modern urban or surburban lives.

matthewmorgan3• 1 year ago

Last time I used deliveroo I got a spam/scam phone call 20 minutes later. I presume the drivers sell customer names, addresses, and phone numbers.

daveoc642• 1 year ago

These apps don't usually give the driver or restaurant access to the customer's phone number.

They use a proxy system where the driver has to call a standard number provided by the app and then input a code to identify the specific customer.

That's typically only available while the order is in progress.

matthewmorgan3• 1 year ago

Do you know for sure that's the case for deliveroo?

p1dda• 1 year ago

It's junk food people, don't eat it!

olelele• 1 year ago

I rode for deliveroo for about a month and a half before they got out of Dodge in Europe due to breaking employment rules. The good riders who joined early were making ridiculous amounts of money in the beginning. When I came on the rider pool was diluted and it just got worse.

NoPicklez• 1 year ago

Interesting titbit, Deliveroo doesn't exist in Australia due to high running costs

patcon• 1 year ago

Why is anti-trust not kicking in? Come on Britain, why not keep your companies locally-owned.

We do not need all these rent-seeking companies buying one another. Enter the market as a competitor or fuck off

DoorDash to acquire Deliveroo

Related Stories