Cutting Last Mile Delivery Costs

I posted this because I've been wondering recently why every food delivery app tries to encourage orders of $12 or more. As someone who often orders just for myself, I think these policies encourage people to order more food and get fat.

Turns out they're trying to optimize last mile delivery costs by encouraging people to make larger orders, probably thinking that it will get the person to talk to their housemates about whether or not they want something to eat.

The thing is, encouraging larger orders works for places like Walmart, where everything being delivered is nonperishable and not time sensitive. Like, you don't want a customer to order a roll of tape, and then in another order, a pair of shoes, and then, a t-shirt. It makes sense for those things to be batched.

It doesn't make sense for a business where the value proposition is: "We can save you time by bringing you lunch." Because lunch is a set timeframe, and if you are making the person getting food delivery coordinate with a lot of other people, it's not really saving any time.