I must be missing something about theses services given their popularity. Do you mind explaining why you use them?
Food temperature is a personal preference, some people are really picky about food being hot/fresh, some aren't. I prefer the taste of room temperature food over hot food so "sitting around for 20 minutes" would be a feature for me.
... and then jumping into his new C300 to deliver it.
I'm not sure I can process that. New Mercedes, let's put miles on it delivering fast food...
And some people like really like McDonalds and don't care for the fancy stuff.
It's not for me, but it basically it boils down to "people like different things than me."
I know someone else who can't understand why anyone would ever play video games "its time and effort for zero reward."
Some people enjoy doing work on their car, while others would rather pay someone to do the work for them.
Humans aren't the same.
Justeat delivers from fast food.
Deliveroo costs more because it's providing a delivery service for restaurants that don't normally deliver.
So I'm getting good food. When in a restaurant, things sit in a kitchen for 10 minutes waiting for the rest of your order anyway. 10 minutes in a thermal bag is the same.
"To me this ruins the meal"
shrug, I'm not sure what you're expecting anybody to say. I can't really change your mind on what is hypothetical situation for you. I've ordered plenty, it's generally no worse than the quality I would get in the restaurant (other than the presentation in a bespoke takeaway box not a plate).
Also, what kind of presentation are you expecting for a burger anyway? It's a burger, with some artfully surrounding chips? Ordered to go, it's a burger, with the chips in smaller box instead of surrounding the burger.
But at that point you're basically just objecting to all delivery food ever. Which is fine but, like, you are aware that it is a huge industry and has been for decades and people do like it? Convenience trumps artistry (and optimum temperature) for many people a lot of the time.
I want food, I can't be bothered to cook or go out?
Are you seriously struggling to understand food delivery? Or if you mean what's the benefit over e.g. ordering direct from a restaurant, is you have a lot more choice and it's much higher quality than traditional take aways (you get proper restaurant food)
You're not going to get a gourmet steak hot from the grill with precisely placed edible flowers laid delicately in it. But a bag of fries and a carton of fried chicken does not require eggs-in-space-shuttle level cushioning
"Old-fashioned"? Nice try, Grandpa. I'm approaching retirement, and delivery of restaurant food has been a thing since before I was born. Hell, Domino's was founded in 1960.
Hey, I quoted you accurately. :-) But fair enough. My counter would be that if your bar has fallen to fast food territory, perhaps warmth and presentation isn't an issue at that point for some folks. But I haven't been part of the fast food demographic for decades, so what do I know?
I would even prefer KFC bucket with 25 chicken wings delivered to me, not pizza (which is mostly bread)
I live 20 minutes outside of a small town in Norway and the restaurants/kebab shops don't generate enough take-away business to provide this service themselves.
There is another company that does that for them and services all making take-away possible at all.
Now this company actually operates with a time guarantee, that is if the food is not delivered within an hour or if the order is "refused" due to reasons the OP touches on you get your money back.
I've yet to have any that happen to me, possibly because it would actually be bad for those delivering.
I could drive and pick it up myself, but sometimes you just want to be a couch-potato and be lazy!
When you are severely hungover and your fridge is empty, food delivery is godsend, even if it is fastfood (and proper food is just priceless).
Recent McD commercial in NZ even focused on this particular case -- zombie-like people who celebrated NY 2019 all night long are getting some food delivered to their door. Dont have link right now but you can google.
People love to talk about these services as if they're only for young, single, hipsters but a significant portion of their use come from people with some kind of life limitation (same as the Whole Foods peeled oranges in a plastic box that people love to make fun of. These are a godsend for people with poor motor skills).
I live in Taiwan, where Deliveroo gives you about $3.50 off your first order, and delivery is factored into the price. A friend of mine ordered a $6 pizza that she ate half of and brought the rest of to work the next day. All told, she paid $2.50 for two lunches, and didn't even have to leave the office.
That doesn't sound better than the alternative to you?
Or they have different priorities than you and value convenience over taste, price, and quality. There's even an entire industry built on this premise, "convenience stores."
I do use Instacart for grocery delivery (Chicago), but I really dislike grocery stores and willing to pay the premium (avg +30% in my exp) to avoid that trip. Honestly, If I was in the suburbs, with a vehicle, I might be better incentivized to personally make the trip.
All my own opinion though.
Although those things are going out of fashion quite fast.
But even then you would 'understand the appeal' but be opting out of using them.
It's a weird turn of phrase IMHO, as if the person has never heard of food delivery before.
What does having a conscience have to do with whether or not you use a food delivery service?
I'm surprised that this hasn't occurred to you already at least as an issue for someone (not necessarily you, or, for that matter, me). Still, this given that this is a thread where things like "food delivery" need to be explained from first principles, I shouldn't be too surprised.
So they should do something else. Those drivers determined that delivering the food was the best use of their time. I don't think it's right to voluntarily choose this specific job and then make people feel immoral for using the service they signed up to provide.