A restaurant owner went on a viral rant about how terrible DoorDash is. To bastardize Winston Churchill, though, delivery apps are the worst form of business for a restaurant except for all the others. The problems laid out in the video are real:
- Restaurants charge higher than menu prices because DoorDash and other app delivery services take so much of the order value. They are charging the consumer and the restaurant, both sides of the transaction.
DoorDash charges restaurants 15%, 25%, or 30% commission on delivery orders, with pickup at 6% for qualifying partners, while consumers separately pay delivery and service fees. (Large national chains will negotiate separate pricing deals.)
- Drivers are rude and restaurants are busy dealing with ‘real’ customers when the runner arrives.
- The food doesn’t get delivered at the same quality it’s prepared, sometimes because of pick up delays and sometimes because of poor handling by the driver enroute to you. And the restaurant gets blamed.
Here’s the rant:
North Carolina high-end restaurant owner sounds off about DoorDash
by
u/lowkeysciguy in
restaurantowners
Personally I loved the rant set to Phil Collins, “In The Air Tonight.” But as one commenter on Reddit observes, the video ending right before “one of the most iconic drum solos of all time” was “cruel.” The other best takes:
“Short of disability or trauma… stop ordering a private taxi for your tacos.”
“If I had a nickel for everytime I have used door dash I would have no nickels because I am not dumb.”
“Yeah is doordash holding this man hostage forcing him to work with them? Where is this man? Is he safe?”
Ultimately the restaurant owner is right about margin pressure and loss of quality control. But if delivery is degrading their brand, continuing to participate is an odd business choice.
They could offer their own delivery service instead, but then they’d incur those expenses and would give up the DoorDash distribution platform – consumers who see the restaurant in the app and discover it, bringing them incremental business they’d never otherwise see.
And treating orders as an annoyance and a distraction from serving their ‘real customers’ is probably a mistake. The people ordering delivery and eating their food are their customers. They will decide whether to order again. They’ll tell their friends whether the place is any good or not. And they may even be the same people who come into the restaurant in person. They might like it so much that they want it even when they can’t show up for a sit down meal.
A real problem for the restaurant though isn’t just the economics. App delivery is challenging because it’s terrible for everyone involved.
- The drivers are very poorly paid. These services offer far less than they did 8-10 years ago.
- This is expensive to the restaurant, which is what the video is complaining about.
- It is expensive to the customer (assuming an added 30% – 50% versus eat-in and you aren’t consuming service
- The food is also not as good. Many types of food do not travel well, those that do still need to be packaged correctly, and handling usaully isn’t high quality.
But for a restaurant the person doing the order really is a customer of the app, and not their customer. They do not get contact information from the customer. They do not establish a marketing relationship. They do not know who is it!
These services do have value, but it’s very specific. Restaurants usually run profit margins of 3% – 5%. Taking 30% of an order is tough. But most of the restaurant’s costs are fixed. If they can fill in gaps in orders without hiring additional staff, they’ll earn more than their food cost. They’ll keep staff busy and employed, positioned to make money on dine-in. And they’ll introduce themselves to new customers as well.
Convenience. More restaurants near me deliver themselves again and opt out of DoorDash or uber delivery and just pay and pass on a user fee because of it. Everyone is used to being nickeled and dimed. Or in this case dollared and five dollared.
But hey… Chase credits…
I only use it if someone gives me a gift card otherwise no. I’m too much of a cheapskate and between the delivery fees and increased menu costs, it just isn’t worth it. I usually just call up a restaurant, place a to go order, and go pick it up myself.
I am going to interpret DoorDash as standing for the various services that operate in various countries (Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat, Skip the Dishes, etc.). The question is, why do customers use it if they don’t get value from it.
The answer is: we do. When I go onto Skip’s website or app, I have a food search service. I can search by cuisine, by location, or even by dish! I have a convenience service (I don’t have to go outside when it’s raining or snowing). I have a translation service (when I order in foreign countries): I don’t have to understand the menu and the person taking my order doesn’t have to understand me.
I agree that some food does not travel well. I never order a hamburger via a food-delivery service. I love lamb biryani delivered right to my door; that travels well.
Why do restaurants keep using it? Because they want to be found? It’s like the question from the 1980s, why advertise in the Yellow Pages?
Why do drivers keep accepting drives for these services? Because they don’t need a lot of skill or experience to get these jobs. Also, when comparing Uber to Uber Eats, you don’t have to deal with people in your car.
You may not like DoorDash, Gary, but I love Skip the Dishes. I pay a monthly subscription fee, in exchange for which I become a preferred customer, pay no delivery fees, and earn points towards free food. It’s the free market and it tastes delicious.
I always thought DoorDash’s target market was stoners and other people who didn’t want to put pants back on to get food.
It sucks but I gotta justify my high fee credit card.
Sitting back and collecting money, thats what DoorDash, Uber eats, whatever is doing. They do not spend the profit margins increasing customer/restaurant relations. Heck, even if you manage to get someone on the phone, it is outsourced. It is a necessary evil and the only improvement would be for a lower percentage of the meal but we know those greedy pigs will never do that.
It’s because of the silly coupon credits. That’s it. I prefer to pick-up myself anyway. DoorDash, Grubhub, Caviar, Seamless, whatever the silly service name, Uber/Uber Eats. Slightly prefer Lyft these days for rideshares (usually cheaper). But, depending on the market, Lyft could be the problem. It’s all a mess.
Never used it or any similar services. I don’t plan on ever using them.
@Gene — And you got rid of most of the cards that would force you to use ’em anyway, right? (Friends, Gene may be onto something…)
No not “everyone uses Doirdash. Many of us never have and never will, period. Why do some use it? Mostly they are simply too lazy tobgetbdressedcand journey out of their basement and into a restaurant. Thevsame ones who wear their pajamas all day, no showers, oily unwashed hair all day and get angry when their boss says, no, you want a job then get up, get showered, get dressed and COME INTO THE OFFICE AND WORK!! Slothfullness OF THE YOUNGER generation, pure and simple.
Raphael Solomon, many take those jobs as second jobs or because they can’t find any other work. I don’t know of very many drivers who like the job. They actually lose money with gas, maintenance, car wear, and insurance.
First of all it is a convenience service. Yes you pay more to have something delivered but there are times it is worth it from a situational standpoint if not from a bottom line cost. It is all about an informed consumer making the right choice under the circumstances. If you are broke and this is a leak in your budget maybe you should eat out at all. As for restaurants, yes they complain but, as you noted, it is an outsourced delivery system as well as marketing. I’ve tried many local restaurants I otherwise wouldn’t have known about except for finding them on Uber Eats or Grubhub. The alternative for the restaurant is don’t do delivery or do it themselves, both of which have business implications.
The ones that probably benefit the least are the drivers but no one is making them work for Uber Eats, Grubhub, Instacart, etc. If they don’t think the pay is enough find another job.
Overall if these companies didn’t fill a need in the overall restuarant supply chain they wouldn’t exist.
doordash can be convenient when buying big.. but not for small stuff.. I was in El Paso overnight , my flight got in late and just about all the nearby restaurants were closed. fortunately doordash was available. unfortunately I wasn’t starving. I placed a small order from a place 3 miles away..
it almost cost me double ( +87%) the regular price when you add the fees and tip.. the good news is, I didn’t have to wait 8 hours for a bite to eat.
Welcome to the world where businesses and their contractors/partners chase cash flow by converting their own assets/brand value into cash flow even at longer term personal expense for doing so.
The restaurants are hooked to online sales as they want to get closer to maxing out on capacity utilization of their capital and labor resources even if it doesn’t help with improving their profit margins. That they also risk undermining their reputation with messed up or slow deliveries doesn’t seem to bother them too much, as they can just point the finger at the delivery companies instead of owning the issue.
Theres local restaurants in my area that charge same menu prices on uber eats/doordash and I use it for pickup orders. Same places actually add a 3 to 4% surcharge for using credit cards when ordering directly so using these platforms actually makes it cheaper in these cases! This is poor business planning for the restaurants that do this since ultimately costing them more.
When the costco giftcards at 20% off were available, made for even sweeter deals.
@ 1990 — I just generally dislike eating out. The food is too loaded with sugar, salt and fat. Not good for you, portions tend to be too big, and are generally overpriced. Um, working on closing those credit cards in a strategic manner. We closed Spirit and AA conversions from Barclays to Citi. Does that count? 🙂 Planning for a 30% cut in AFs by end of 2026 and 40% within a four years.
Right on. Have never used DoorDash, never will.
@Gene — Healthy choices. Fan of Costco as well.
@ 1990 — Costco is the best, and their portions are definitely big.
Stop with the “doordash drivers are poorly paid” nonsense. Where else can you have zero job skills, no job requirements at all except transportation, no competition for the job, don’t have to not be a psychopath, and still get above minimum wage? Except being a US flight attendant of course.
These people choose this lifestyle instead of learning a skill or putting in the time to build a career, and as a result they’re mostly garbage people as you might expect. I have zero sympathy for them and their poor life choices.
Same goes for restaurants. Cry me a river. This is a voluntary service, they can set higher DD menu prices (as most do) than in person to offset all fees. It’s all incremental income. If you can’t be profitable then blame your blue state politicians for jacking up unskilled labor wage costs.
Grab in Asia is great. Maybe 20% or so higher cost than in person, unlike 100% in the US. Guess why.
Some of these same arguments are made for businesses that choose to accept credit cards. If partnering with a delivery app is so detrimental to this restaurants business, stop doing business with them otherwise stop complaining on the internet. Personally I love Doordash. It’s conveniences for me, as a customer, are very high value. Restaurants dealing with “real” customers? Anyone that chooses to patronize their business is a real customer, if they want to make delineations between in person versus delivery app patrons, what’s next, card versus cash? Amex versus Visa? This restaurant owner is in the wrong business and perhaps should get out of it.
Never have I used, and never will I use these inane services. People are so lazy today, and obviously don’t plan ahead at all. Paying 2X for a cold, crappy hamburger or whatever it is you are ordering is simply fiscal stupidity. Yes, I suppose there are instances here or there where the convenience is maybe a necessity, but I see people use these services almost daily and that is just plain stupid. I have also seen the caliber of the average driver and (as some have mentioned earlier) they aren’t exactly your career builder type employee, they are usually just a kid (mid 30’s now days) that is either trying to hustle a few bucks, or older people who did not want to be in the workforce in a conventional way. Either way you slice it, don’t complain about the high prices and crappy, cold food. Get off your A$$ and go pick up your own damn food. With $6.50 gas per gallon in California, I expect our amazing, brain dead, governor to come to the rescue of the oppressed Uber Eats drivers any day now and impose some new tax to fund their retirement and 401k’s….. Oh Well
@ Mantis — Why the attack on FAs?
Resto owner is being disingenuous. If they can crank out let’s say 50% more volume due to these apps, they are making a profit even with DD taking 30%.
It suck’s for the drivers but neither restaurants nor customers are being forced to do anything.
The Atlantic had a good piece on this a few months ago.
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/10/food-delivery-america/684700/
We are lazy. Super lazy generation of people. Corporations have figured that out. So now they try to take advantage every which way they can. And they get away with it too.
Drivers are rude? That is quite a generalization. As someone with a Masters Degree who drives to make ends meet while unemployed I can tell you the drivers are the most poorly treated in this collaboration. Both customers and restaurants can file complaints and you won’t even know who or why and have no platform to give your side of the story even if you know you did nothing wrong. I find most drivers just go about with their heads down b/c we have no sounding board and the small restaurants are the ones that are the most rude in my experience (I will not say All). Big companies have staffing and parking for delivery services and they are not complaining. If you don’t have either then you probably don’t have any business doing delivery or at the lease not to complain about it. Hire your own drivers and see how that goes.
I used to work in the industry (at one of the holding companies for 6 global restaurant chains) and was so disappointed to hear when some of our chains made deals with DoorDash. My wife and I had so many bad experiences with DoorDash that we refused to order from restaurants that only delivered through DoorDash. We will use UberEats or GrubHub or some other service. While of the services do result in higher to consumer prices, we found the customer service at DoorDash to just be plain terrible. We had meals that arrived missing items we paid for and they wouldn’t give us a refund, credit, or anything. It didn’t matter if the restaurant forgot to include it or the delivery person ate it. We still didn’t get something we paid for and customer service wouldn’t do anything about it.
I use DoorDash on a regular basis, but I never do delivery. I just go pick it up myself. Saves a lot of hassle of having to call a restaurant or trying to navigate a website that might be subpar.
People just love to argue about anything. If it wasn’t beneficial to all parties involved, nobody would use it. If you don’t want to use it, perfectly your right not to. No need to insult those who do or don’t use it.
@Gene — Recall that @Mantis is based in Asia (hence why he promotes Grab, which narrows him down to Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar), so he doesn’t even interact with DoorDash or our US-based crews; he’s just spreading hate for workers, usually. A few rare times he’s said something insightful. Not this time, unfortunately.
@BBT — It’s not generational warfare; it’s always been a class war. Haves vs. have-nots.
People. Get a clue. Door Dash drivers touch your food. They steal French Fries and a whole lot more you probably don’t want to know about with their grubby, dirty little fingers. It’s disgusting. Just stop.
@Mantis
I guess you’re right – flight attendants and delivery drivers should all wake up each morning and say to themselves, “Dammit. I should have been born rich and gone to medical school.”
Thanks for pointing out the obvious.
Some restaurants deserve their sphere of the blame. We ordered on DD and UE regularly and its always there same restaurants that don’t haver the order ready and leave the drivers waiting for 15 minutes sometimes. It is always the same restaurants
@Magus
Lmao, you don’t need to be born rich to go to college. The US is the most upwardly mobile society in history. Anyone can get an education from the lowest of starting points, with lots of government assistance along the way. If you or whoever victims you’re claiming victimhood credits for can’t then it’s on them… Either they’re too stupid or too unmotivated. Oh well. To quote caddyshack, the world’s needs ditchdiggers too.
I despise food delivery services. I’ve only used one once (by mistake) and will never willingly use one again. The restaurant pays out huge, the customer gets raked over the coals, and drivers get a pittance. For all this the customer gets – at best – lukewarm food that’s almost certainly past its’ prime. I just refuse to participate in this scheme where the only real winner is the delivery company.
I never use Door Dash and never will. If I want takeout, I go pick it up myself. These apps have made people lazy and pathetic.
@Mantis — “The US is the most upwardly mobile society in history.” Maybe in the past, but the present and future isn’t looking so bright. Is that why you abandoned us for Asia?
DoorDash Is GOOD For Restaurants, Drivers, And Customers — That Is Why Everyone Keeps Using It
Always check your premises.