I don't really understand the appeal of these delivery services.
Whenever I try them my food usually arrives cold and more than once has apparently gotten stolen and then I have to spend a bunch of time with delivery people messaging me saying the food is not there, and then have to talk to customer service to get a refund.
On top of that they practically double the cost of the already expensive food it seems to me.
If you live in a metro area it's really not like that. Prices are higher but my credit card gives me free Uber One, so fees + tip are managable. Plus Uber/Postmates offer (at least for me) extremely aggressive coupons pretty often, 20-40% off. Food arrives in 20-40 minutes. Don't order things that don't travel well (eg: fried food). Order enough that you'll have leftovers and can amortize the delivery cost over multiple meals.
We probably order delivery at least once a week. Usually a big batch of indian, chinese, a ton of tacos/rice/beans, etc. Stuff that keeps well. Then we'll have it for at least 2 meals each. I don't feel like it's that ridiculous honestly.
This right here. I'm in Chicago and this echo's true.
I'd also add that I've almost never needed to interact with the driver in the app. In the case there's a missing item or issue, support sorts it out quick enough.
My son has had been sick 10 days, our fridge has been emptied because it's been so hard to fit groceries into balancing work and childcare, my wife had the car on a playdate with my daughter, and for $25 someone brought a hot burrito to my door. It was worth every penny.
A great compromise would be forcing myself to schedule a grocery delivery before I place a DoorDash. The extra $5-10 my local grocery store charges would be worth it if things are that desperate. Thank you for that idea.
Wolt and Glovo is how grocery store delivery works where I live. One supermarket chain offers their own delivery, but it's next day delivery at the soonest (sometimes the day after that).
That's my 2c. I've used it only twice in the past several years:
- one when I had the flu recently and was literally, non-hyperbolically barely well enough to operate the app enough to get food (for my family, too - not for me)
- once when i was out of town on business, and my previously-arranged food for my family back home fell through one day.
All your points are why I don't use it: it's already barely food (fast food), arrives cold, delivery issues, and EXTREMELY expensive. And in an era where, despite multiple raises, due to inflation I am STILL not making more CPI-adjusted income than I was in 2019, I'm not about to be lifestyle creeping for shitty cold wendy's.
My experience is similar. Unless it's something that delivery was solved for (e.g., literally Dominos or Chinese) it arrives in just an embarrassingly bad condition.
This is probably very location dependent. I live in an urban area and my food comes hot.
However, since I live in an urban area I have been just doing takeout and picking it up myself. The cost of these delivery apps went up radically over the last few years.
It’s so much cheaper to do takeout. I just do delivery when I have a huge time crunch.
I make 300K-600K/year based on the stock price as a senior software engineer. There are >100,000 software engineers like me in Seattle, New York, and San Francisco.
Yeah, the food and delivery fees are expensive... but we can afford it.
Same with the rent. Yeah, it's high but we can also easily afford it...
People just don't understand how wealthy people are in these 3 cities.
Depends on where you order from. Most places don't have delivery packaging so you just get some cold food. Places that actually package for delivery usually arrive hot. Those places are also stupid expensive.
I wish DoorDash would sell their drivers some kit to keep hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold. When I bring stuff home on the bike I'll bring two insulated bags. One for hot and one for cold.
Rainy / cold days, busy families, and being able to access a greater variety of food in urban areas. These are scenarios with a high degree of pain that have not yet been solved by modern urban or surburban lives.
Don’t ignore food addiction, the app turns into a button you can press on your phone and in a bit you’ll have a dopamine hit from the food. You don’t have to get dressed or confront the reality of your situation.
Whenever I try them my food usually arrives cold and more than once has apparently gotten stolen and then I have to spend a bunch of time with delivery people messaging me saying the food is not there, and then have to talk to customer service to get a refund.
On top of that they practically double the cost of the already expensive food it seems to me.