Grub hub

I ordered a beef platter from BBQ joint, 5 minutes later they called me and said they were out of beef. I said no problem make it a pork platter.

This was yesterday on UberEats.
 
In short working kinks as these online ordering platforms are new to many places beyond the pure takeout model. My favorite places tend to block orders online then by turning on/off.

Be patient!
 
We've had mixed results, but some of the problems happened at the restaurant. Had one order that took close to an hour, got a text saying that one of our sides wasn't available, and when it arrived, the side was available, but was in with the wrong dish. Had one restaurant flat out staple our receipt to somebody else's bag, so what we got was certainly not what we ordered. Another time we had an order, the status showed that it was ready to be picked up, and then we got a notice that it had been cancelled, an hour after it was ordered! We did get a couple of free meals out that one, and GrubHub's explanation was that no driver was available, although the status updates we got showed the driver had arrived at the restaurant. I suspect they weren't prepared for the sudden increase in take out business, but they have improved.
 
Growing pains during a crisis is doubly bad for sure.

The old grouch in me says: Call the restaurant itself and order. Sometimes you pick it up, sometimes they deliver.

Where's the attraction to paying some app owner/developer/fat cat anything when all you want is a meal?

Hasn't that been working? I'm missing something.
 
Uber Eats has good promos all the time.

30% off $30 purchase + free delivery. Total meal plus tipping the driver is just not worth my time to drive to the restaurant and pick up meal.

Different restaurants have different deals. ðŸ‘
 
Originally Posted by Kira
Growing pains during a crisis is doubly bad for sure.

The old grouch in me says: Call the restaurant itself and order. Sometimes you pick it up, sometimes they deliver.

Where's the attraction to paying some app owner/developer/fat cat anything when all you want is a meal?

Hasn't that been working? I'm missing something.



They basically take up to a 30% cut out of the restaurant's earnings. And all those apps are losing money. Maybe it's due to the promotions they're always running. But I can't see how it can last. I never use them, just go to the restaurant. At least you get it hot and not waiting around for an hour. Although I've seen some restaurant prioritize those meals. Sometimes you see 3-4 guys in a restaurant just to pick up a meal. I either call or just place my order and wait outside.
 
The business model for GrubHub, etc is total domination of the food delivery business. The restaurants function at a loss if they use these services. GrubHub has been known to create fake restaurant websites so that the orders can go through them. They are also creating kitchens that customers think are restaurants but are kitchens operated by GrubHub assembling foods.

Quite a sleazy business model so I think they will be very successful in the end.
 
The way these gig economy work is to take advantage of 1) cheap capital after 2008 (because of inflation from QE) leads to risk taking on new economy, and 2) inflated wages make hiring too expensive, yet per job contractor is not impacted as they are self employed. Without these they are merely just "The Fruit Guys" and "Waiter.com", they didn't work without corporate catering accounts in the US (in Asia is fine as the population density is way higher).

I use these delivery service when I travel and is stuck in an expensive "resort", delivering from far away is still cheaper than eating in the hotel, if you don't mind ordering ahead and eat a wrong delivery (i.e. menu item number off by 1).

Travis start his ghost kitchen business after he left Uber, I think he knows what work and what doesn't from his time at Uber. In order for these food delivery guys to work they have to be integrated and deliver nearby, not from every restaurant to everywhere in the city. Plus, they have to focus on large order instead of a happy meal at a time.
 
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Originally Posted by PandaBear
The way these gig economy work is to take advantage of 1) cheap capital after 2008 (because of inflation from QE) leads to risk taking on new economy, and 2) inflated wages make hiring too expensive, yet per job contractor is not impacted as they are self employed. Without these they are merely just "The Fruit Guys" and "Waiter.com", they didn't work without corporate catering accounts in the US (in Asia is fine as the population density is way higher).

I use these delivery service when I travel and is stuck in an expensive "resort", delivering from far away is still cheaper than eating in the hotel, if you don't mind ordering ahead and eat a wrong delivery (i.e. menu item number off by 1).

Travis start his ghost kitchen business after he left Uber, I think he knows what work and what doesn't from his time at Uber. In order for these food delivery guys to work they have to be integrated and deliver nearby, not from every restaurant to everywhere in the city. Plus, they have to focus on large order instead of a happy meal at a time.


The contract workers doing this gig are making even less than Uber or Lyft. The only reason they're doing it is because there's no Uber or Lyft business right now. They say Uber and Lyft people were making $200-$300 a day but the food delivery people were just making around $100. They basically don't get paid while they're waiting around for orders and you can only do so many orders before lunch time or dinner time is over.

I'm still scratching my head wondering how this works. The gig worker makes no money. The restaurant gets taken for about a 30% commission. The company charging those fees are losing hundreds of millions as they run promotions to increase volume. Just doesn't make sense. I'm just going to the restaurant directly. It's not like I'm doing anything important at home so I need them to save me some time.
 
Ive used it a few times in major cities and have been unimpressed. Deliveries not on schedule, high prices, etc. I'll go somewhere or get it myself.
 
Originally Posted by Wolf359
The contract workers doing this gig are making even less than Uber or Lyft. The only reason they're doing it is because there's no Uber or Lyft business right now. They say Uber and Lyft people were making $200-$300 a day but the food delivery people were just making around $100. They basically don't get paid while they're waiting around for orders and you can only do so many orders before lunch time or dinner time is over.

I'm still scratching my head wondering how this works. The gig worker makes no money. The restaurant gets taken for about a 30% commission. The company charging those fees are losing hundreds of millions as they run promotions to increase volume. Just doesn't make sense. I'm just going to the restaurant directly. It's not like I'm doing anything important at home so I need them to save me some time.


1. People driving food delivery don't have the car age limitation like the ride share guys, they are likely people who can't qualify for ride share (old cars, bad driving records, have a kid in the back seats so they don't have to pay for child care while working). They lose money in accounting sense but they are likely not going to get any better alternative, so wearing out a beater is still going to keep their family feed better than unemployed.

2. Restaurants might not even know they are doing this as they got spoofed by grub hub with their listing, and they just order it for you with a company card like another customer. This is a grow at all cost we'll figure out how to make money later model, by keeping the growth story alive they can get funding from large investors (Sequoia Capital and its 20 sovereign funds investors). As long as the growth is happening everyone is happy on the accounting.

3. People who buy food from these places usually have their reason: 1. they are too busy to go out to order food far away, 2. they don't have a car and they can expense food, 3. corporate catering, 4. they have too much money / like to experiment with new things. During this pandemic we know corporate catering is dead, even good stable places like Specialty Bakery is closing (sad, as I am a huge fan), but there are people who work from home and don't want to spend time cooking and leave their kids alone at home so they are getting more business on them. People without cars and people with too much money will likely increase their businesses as well. Restaurants with their own delivery should really do as much of it as they can but without marketing, people wouldn't know about it, and order from these delivery companies instead. I personally use them when I'm on vacation in a resort area without cars, or when I have to baby sit a toddler at home, but not when I'm just lazy or have too much money.
 
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Originally Posted by Alfred_B
The business model for GrubHub, etc is total domination of the food delivery business. The restaurants function at a loss if they use these services. GrubHub has been known to create fake restaurant websites so that the orders can go through them. They are also creating kitchens that customers think are restaurants but are kitchens operated by GrubHub assembling foods.

Quite a sleazy business model so I think they will be very successful in the end.

Very interesting.... I've not heard that before.
 
Yep, then check to make sure you got your order.

Had a local Pizza place where we did that about a month ago. They brought out "my order" and like a fool, I didn't check. (oilBabe ordered it, so I probably didn't even know, but I could have read the name on the slip.)

Anyway, I came home with two half baked pizzas and an order of wings. oilBabe really honed in on that one as we ordered one baked pizza, wings and a large salad (for health of course.)

Called them back and had to go back. Kept what we had since it would just go in the garbage. Seems they were a bit in the weeds. So we had pizza every day for about a week.

So even going there doesn't mean they will get your order right.

We did give them a $30 tip because while we didn't get what we ordered, we didn't want some struggling workers or a local small shop to totally eat it when they were just trying to keep their heads above fiscal water. Especially since they made things right.



Originally Posted by Kira
Growing pains during a crisis is doubly bad for sure.

The old grouch in me says: Call the restaurant itself and order. Sometimes you pick it up, sometimes they deliver.

Where's the attraction to paying some app owner/developer/fat cat anything when all you want is a meal?

Hasn't that been working? I'm missing something.
 
I am wondering if cyber squatting is still something you can sue for these days. The small restaurants likely can't do much without money to sue.

Like Java said, you really have to check your order no matter where you get it from. Drivers can't check order for you as they don't know the food and you need to talk to who you order from (GrubHub or Doordash if you order from them, not the restaurants, because it might be a middle man screw up, they need to eat the cost themselves).

Still, these "gig economy" won't do it in the long run if they are all forced to pay minimum wage or follow all the labor laws, unless drone delivery and driverless cars become a reality and they got there before other real tech companies (website is not tech, real tech companies like Waymo or DJI).
 
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