4 years ago
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As Diners Flock to Delivery Apps, Restaurants Fear for Their Future
Before the coronavirus lockdowns, Matt Majesky didn’t take much notice of the fees that Grubhub and Uber Eats charged him every time they processed an order for his restaurant, Pierogi Mountain. But once the lockdowns began, the apps became essentially the only source of business for the barroom restaurant he ran with a partner, Charlie Greene, in Columbus, Ohio. That was when the fees to the delivery companies turned into the restaurant’s single largest cost — more than what it paid for food or labor.
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It helps if restaurants have an online ordering system that's for pickup and that doesn't connect to Grubhub or Uber Eats. I've never ordered using any of those delivery options, but I've noticed some restaurants don't offer any alternatives. They're shooting themselves in the foot! I'd happily prefer to pick up my order at the restaurant if I could order online. Yet even in this day and age (and during a pandemic when they really need it), many restaurants don't even offer that option. Most do let you order over the phone for pickup, but what I don't like about that is there's no real paper trail so I worry things could go wrong or slip through the cracks somehow. Plus for people who aren't as confident with language or who are hard of hearing, ordering online for pickup is helpful yet I'm surprised that there are restaurants who don't do this. They could easily stop their partnership with Grubhub and Uber Eats if they offered online order for pickup. For people who wanted delivery, restaurants could expand into private delivery (hire a delivery driver) OR if they don't want to take on that risk and expense, point people on their ordering system toward PostMates or other delivery service that only costs the customer not the restaurant.
Lower your prices for dine-in consumers, provide guaranteed service times, etc. Not everyone wants to order from home, especially after being cooped up for months.