I've never not ordered from somewhere I was keen on based on their choice of delivery service.
If the consolidation results in price hikes and poor service, what's the lock-in? Why can't the takeaways just go rogue and offer independent deliveries?
Because many of these delivery 'ad-hoc contractors'[0], sometimes even eating cost [1].
Pre-covid, you were often best off as a business either doing something that was 'known' to be delivery offered (i.e. pizza) or your next best option was to aggressively advertise it and have an extra staffer on hand willing to do the deed.
Then, you've also got the other form of arbitrage (or perhaps a cost thereof), of smaller independent restaurants/chains being unwilling or unable to handle the costs of properly covering drivers [2] and their pay when not driving [3].
Some restaurants started doing delivery during covid and kept it going. However most around here dropped because the volume wasn't worth it to them, on top of the 'streamlined flow' (don't need to give a route, the app the person picking up the 'pick-up' order is handling, does that for them.)
I'm not saying I like it but I get how it got here.
[0] - Remember that in the early days some of these companies would do all sorts of weird things like just have someone order on behalf.
[1] - There's an article about this involving 'pizza arbitrage' here https://www.readmargins.com/p/doordash-and-pizza-arbitrage
[2] - To be clear, both the startups as well as locals have a checkered history when it comes to proper coverage...
[3] - One can argue that such a person can be made 'useful' during the waiting time, however it becomes a complicated equation between 'what can this person be paid to do' vs 'are they willing to do it for that base'.
DoorDash and Pizza Arbitrage (2020) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40806356 - June 2024 (147 comments)
DoorDash and pizza arbitrage (2020) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32086170 - July 2022 (230 comments)
Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23216852 - May 2020 (518 comments)
Because delivery is really expensive. To do it well over a large area you have to have a lot of staff. You also want to keep them all busy, so it works better with a lot of resturants. Margins are thin, lots of risk in an area that is very different from the core activity of the resturant.
Its an almost textbook example of a situation where a specialist company makes sense.
AFAIK there’s no well-supported open source order/delivery management software. The companies that were ready during covid took all the extra, enormous demand for building delivery and order online systems built atop a typically antiquated order management system and have stuck around since
Sometimes i’ll get a cheaper delivery/food cost calling vs ordering online, but now some places are just raising their other prices to match online
In the 80s, I delivered pizza with no software. The place had a normal cash register, for pickups.
People would call, order, and we'd write it down. They it'd go on a wire with a clothes pin, until made. Then it went with the driver.
Each delivery was written down before leaving with it.
This worked for decades for everyone in the industry, flawlessly, perfectly, without issue.
Why is software required? Any given reasons are an unneccessary complication.
And here's the thing. Even in Palo Alto I order from companies still doing it this way.
The above system, paperwork wise .. again, is perfect. It's been done forever. It is faster and far less expensive than any unified payment and order system.
Seems to me, they're the smart ones.
I can imagine some type of open protocol that lets them self-host an order service though, or at least an open solution that’s hosted by many providers and many separate apps. That would be nice for everyone
Maybe making the world a better place, means human interaction and less automation.
And phones in particular suck when you involve real-world connection quality and accents.
the utility of the apps is to distribute the load from multiple restaurants across a shared pool of delivery drivers, so a restaurant who otherwise wouldn't be able to offer delivery can tap into that labour pool for infrequent delivery orders. food delivery apps have greatly expanded the number of places that offer delivery. most restaurants simply didn't offer it before the apps.
But there are so many independents. And they make very good food. And they still do it without apps, and do very well.