I went to Popeyes last week and there’s just a stream of receipts from online orders constantly printing, and they have to fulfill all those while dealing with everyone that comes in. And of course they aren’t getting paid any more to do maybe 3-4x the work they did before these apps got popular.
In that world being paid per job seems better than making the same to do much more work.
I worked for $5.25 an hour as a teenager, and that doesn't mean they just employed more people and we all took it easy. I would challenge the assertion that a business would not optimize worker output just because they are cheaper (and cheaper is relative, I'm sure even when it was lower the business owners still claimed it was too high).
Lastly, there are many ways a business divides its costs and there are many ways to be successful, even if sharing more profits with workers. Just ask Costco.
We’ve suffered a breakdown of the sense of community, and a failure in education resulting in growth in the number of people that continue to believe the fallacy that a business primary function is to maximise value to shareholders.
A business is ultimately a collection of people coming together for mutual benefit. If it stops being mutually beneficial and/or only becomes beneficial for some people if some other people are exploited, it probably shouldn’t continue to be.
Also, this article isn't about making restaurants pay...it's about making DoorDash pay fairly
Restaurants have always adjusted staffing based on order volume; so while the restaurant may have 3× the order flow, the work per employee probably hasn't increased that much.
Anytime I go to a place that does heavy app delivery I remark to myself how much more frenetic all the workers seem now. I mean it was only in last 3 years this has become as widespread as it is now. It’s actually a bit depressing.
Those workers are slammed, I can see them from the window. I assumed it was just fried chicken taking forever.
I guess the deliveries are waiting in the drive thru line. I see a lot of people not order.
I had Popeye's for the first time one afternoon last week. There was a handwritten sign in the window saying they'd run out of chicken sandwiches for the day :(
It makes sense but it’s also sad to see that the best use of valuable retail-level real estate is restaurants designed for no one to go to.
They still "exploit" it but not as much. Every restaurant worker (and workers in other industries) still needs to get to and from work. They are either paying for public transportation or their own vehicle, expect when they are lucky enough to live close enough to walk. They are also not being paid for their time going to and from work.
This is to say nothing of the variation in check size. You have a whole range in full-service dining from small checks all the way to fine dining, where alcohol can add hundreds of dollars to a meal, that can make for really good tips. For the right personally type, this can be really lucrative. (Bar fending is even more lucrative. My older sister was making six figures as a bar tender at a chain restaurant in suburban Atlanta 15 years ago and I don’t even think she worked 30 hours a week.)
Food delivery has always been different. Historically, most drivers/bikers for a restaurant got an hourly wage and tips, but tips aren’t usually based on the price of the order. Sure, there are exceptions (really large orders), but if I order a $45 steak from delivery or a $15 pizza, the tip is often going to be $5 or so either way. That’s just how it works. And even then, tips are often withheld more for issues such as timing, whether food arrives hot or cold, etc.
With food delivery apps, tips aren’t guaranteed the same way they often are for non-apps, in part because the apps charge their own service fees that are often confusingly displayed to the customer (who might not understand the difference) and because the relationship between restaurant and driver/delivery service are often separate. When I call my local pizza place and order delivery, they send their own person. If the order is wrong or late or has an issue, I can call the restaurant and figure out what is going on, demand a refund or get something re-delivered. With apps, I have to deal with the delivery service, which is often a PITA — and in most cases (Seamless/Grubhub being the exception), the delivery driver doesn’t have any connection to the restaurant anyway. (I’ll say that the 7 years I lived in NYC gave me great respect for Seamless (Grubhub) because they always took care of me, but as that service has had to compete with Uber etc., it hasn’t been as good. That could also be a Seattle thing.)
For me, when I use Uber Eats or Door Dash and I’m charged a $5 order fee, taxes, whatever inflated rates the restaurant is charging over menu price, and the delivery driver is often de-incentivized to even come to my door (or in the case of Uber Eats, will not), I have to be honest and say that my inclination to tip more than a few dollars is often lowered. More to the point, if I give a large tip and the driver can’t even be bothered to come to my door (and I get it, go down the elevator and wait outside - but part of the reason I order out is to avoid putting on shoes), I’m now pissed off I’ve given someone $10 to deliver lukewarm food that came with lots of fees. And no matter how unfair it is, that is going to impact how much I’m willing to tip with those apps the next time.