Food delivery apps: helping or hurting our local restaurants?
Artwork created by Miggs Burroughs.
It’s not surprising that the Westport Chamber of Commerce recently published a letter to the community asking, almost pleading with, residents to cut down on the use of local food delivery apps and instead order directly from the restaurants.
We’ve all heard of the big three apps and many of us even rely on them daily: UberEats, GrubHub and Doordash. I agree, it’s so easy to simply open your phone, press a few buttons and, voila, your food magically appears on your doorstep shortly after. Most of the time the shopping bag literally appears behind your door with zero human interaction. Yes, it’s all pretty cool and definitely convenient. But at what cost?
Many restaurant owners desperately turned to these delivery giants during the beginning of the pandemic when restaurants sales were plummeting due to Covid lockdowns. With customers staying home, they had no way to maintain their sales other than quickly turning to offering curbside pick-up and delivery options. Many restaurants that had not offered delivery service in the pre-pandemic world had no choice but to outsource their sales to a 3rd party. It wasn’t an option for them to suddenly increase their workforce to add delivery drivers. At the time, it was better than having to close their doors. But now, it seems like these deliver apps are here to stay. And now, local customers have gotten far too used to this convenience.
The New York Times reporter Jeffery C. Mays published an Sep 10, 2021 article on the subject titled, ”Food Delivery Apps Sue New York Over Fee Limits.” In it he interviewed Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance. “This is all part of a very sophisticated approach billion-dollar companies use to redirect consumer purchases through their channels so they can control the marketplace,” Mr. Rigie said. “Restaurants feel they can’t afford to be on the platform but they can’t afford to not be on the platform.”
Some of these delivery apps have imposed fees of up to 30% on each order that is delivered via their service! In the Chamber of Commerce article, Howard Bass, CEO of Manna Toast said, “we offer pickup and delivery through our website and try our best to encourage customers to order directly, as the third-party platforms take 30% off the top.”
This convenience comes at a pretty steep cost, not only to the consumer but to the restaurants as well. And it’s not just the smaller locally owned restaurants that are feeling the squeeze. Last November, 2021, pizza giant Domino’s launched a new ad campaign urging consumers to “support local" in an effort to help support it’s peer local establishments that have been hurt. They’ve even given out $100 gift cards to small restaurants in an effort to show their support.
The implementation of these astronomical fees is forcing restaurants to increase the price of items on their delivery menus in order to recoup some of their lost profit. Unfortunately, this passes part of the fee onto the consumer. So both restaurants and their patrons are at the losing end of this situation.
I’m sure many local residents aren’t even aware how significant of a problem this is. The Chamber of Commerce is making a big effort to increase awareness locally. We’d love to know, how many of you rely on delivery apps such as the big 3 noted above? Did you know about the costly fees imposed on restaurants each time you press “submit?”
We are hoping that now you will think twice before you do and make an effort to pick up the food - and leave those times you use the apps to when you’re in a time crunch or aren’t feeling well (or waiting on your Covid test results, of course!)
