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Comment by karatestomp | Hacker News Reader

The one time I bought on Grubhub I had trouble getting the price to something reasonable even with the coupon I had (only reason I was trying it) because all the menu prices were way higher than at the actual restaurants. Even with (IIRC) the delivery fee waived and a significant % off (I wanna say 20 or 30?) it was about the same as going in. Does Grubhub do the menu-price adjusting part, or do the restaurants?

Unlike your average delivery joint the numbers kept getting worse the more you added, too—no "two large two-topping pizzas and breadsticks at 70% menu price" deals or anything like that.

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I noticed the same thing a while back with DoorDash when trying to order some Cracker Barrel breakfast. It was something like a 30-40% hike across the board. I emailed DoorDash to ask what was going on with the prices and got a super misleading response along the lines of "our partner restaurants set their own prices" [1]- basically deflecting the blame back at the restaurant. So I emailed Cracker Barrel, and they are not (or were not at the time) partnered with any delivery service.

[1] actual text from email: "As stated in our Terms and Conditions, the prices for menu items on DoorDash may differ from the prices on the restaurant's own menu. For example, our restaurant partners are responsible for setting the price of their menu items on DoorDash, and some restaurant partners choose to set different prices than they offer for in-store diners."

I noticed the same thing a while back with DoorDash when trying to order some Cracker Barrel breakfast. It was something like a 30-40% hike across the board.

If DoorDash or Uber Eats charges 30% (which is fucking insane if they do), where do you think that comes from? Restaurants aren't making 30% profit.

Compounding the problem GrubHub, and presumably other "gig economy" delivery services, preemptively adds non-partner restaurants against their will:

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Grubhub-Michelin-star-SF...

Actually, it may have been DoorDash I used, now that you mention it. Seemed like a really gross way to price delivery, giving fake, higher prices on every single menu item. And then still a delivery fee on top of that! I seriously had to shop around several of their restaurants and several menu combos to find one where I wasn't still paying above-menu even with the fairly "generous" coupon.

They charge a flat delivery fee, tip and an 11% "service fee". Not surprised they also have deceptive pricing.

I used the app once because I had a free delivery (that's the 1.99 waived), ending up costing a lot more than just picking it up myself.

This is US-specific. Some companies like Just Eat (UK, Canada, Mexico and others) specifically say that the price has to be the same. To avoid the situation where you use their service as a convenient menu/opening time check, and then call the restaurant directly.

Restaurants lose margin on those orders with the expectation that it's made up by more people ordering.

https://www.just-eat.co.uk/pricepromise

All of the delivery apps have much higher prices than what you can get at the place yourself. I suggest take-out or drive-thru if you're able.

The pricing was a big turn-off for me. The way it added more to the delivery cost per-item rather than being some kind of flat delivery fee, which didn't make much sense, and how it seemed like they were trying to hide the cost of delivery.

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