NYC primarily does not use cars for food delivery, there’s a 99.8% chance they will deliver it via bicycle.
Americans are too lazy to travel to their lunch. However, for the vast majority of the people, you’re not 15 minutes of walk away from a healthy assortment of food. Even in NYC, depending on where you are, it may not be possible to always go to your food. The idea of your lunch being paid is also not common, and you’re expected to be back to working (not done eating) within 30 minutes or less. In many cases, your lunchtime is timed and unpaid. Nurses and hospital staff? Eat the shit downstairs in the cafeteria or nothing; if you’re late coming back from lunch, it’s almost as bad as being late to work itself.
Delivery is good option for people with limited mobility
Of all the modern capitalistic irritations (to put it mildly), this one I really detest. And not least because of how ridiculously popular it is, wtf people? I watch folks I know, who can barely afford the food itself in the first place, then inflate the price by like 40%, just to eat the already (very!) mediocre food…cold. Solely so that they don’t have to leave the house. Just completely unhinged from my POV, and honestly produces almost a sense of alienation in me, I find it so bizarre.
Disclaimer though - I will acknowledge both that I happily enjoy various different foolish things myself, so the point about glass houses is worth my keeping in mind, and also there are some great reasons to use it (limited mobility for one, as another user pointed out).
But sheesh folks. Restaurants largely hate it from my understanding, the drivers doing it hate it (cuz the job - oh excuse me, the preferred exploitation-hiding euphemism is “gig” - is utter shit, a literal minor improvement over straight up homelessness), the environment hates it, the wear-and-tear on a likely broke person’s vehicle and the wear-and-tear on already struggling infrastructure…I mean what the fuckity fuck, seriously. How is this so popular, we’re all insane and just conveniencing our way to oblivion. SMgoddamnH.
Aside from the aforementioned reasonable uses (largely edge cases, let’s be honest), there is precisely one group of people who truly benefit in any serious way from this amazingly destructive nonsense - and wouldn’t you know it, it’s the exact same group fucking us in every other way! Weird!
Sorry. This one really gets me.
Do Americans really get their shit delivered by car?over here it’s motorcycles 99% of the time (and bicycles the other 1%)
Seems rather… Sluggish and inefficient for delivery drivers to go by car.
I assume that most deliveries in NYC are by push bike couriers and vesper type scooters. Thats more typical than yank tanks for this sort of thing in most densely populated cities I’ve seen.
Why does OP think every delivery is made by car? Often times they are made by bike.
Especially in NYC. Bike delivery has been a thing there long before uberdashhub. Hell, it was a fucking plot point in Spiderman 2 back in 2004:
In high density urban settings this is absolutely true. 99% of my orders are delivered by bicycle.
I’ll add in addition to the “not where I live” replies, I live in pretty textbook white suburban america and I believe I have never seen anything delivered to me or a neighbor or relative by a two-wheeled vehicle of any kind, even motorized. Every single time it is a private 4-seat passenger vehicle or larger.
It is different in other areas of course, like when visiting cities and other countries.
But damn are such vast swaths of suburban and rural america designed so specifically around cars. It would take forever to change even with a progressive culture & government. With the culture and government we have now, I will be stunned if I am not driving my own vehicle for the rest of my life, and I will not be surprised at all if it’s mostly ICE vehicles. I drive a well maintained 13 year old Mazda3 that gets 40mpg, so it’s not ideal versus more efficient and environmentally friendly types of transport, but at least it’s a more efficient use of the existing infrastructure than most americans.
The large majority of them are made by cars.
That is, again, depending on the location. Where I’m from, the large majority of food deliveries are done on a moped.
I see you’ve never been to the Midwest. Or the south. Or anywhere that isn’t Boston/new York/San Francisco.
I mean the post clearly says $30 in fees in New York city
Why was the subtotal of the actual food being ordered omitted?
Likely because it would give meaningful context to the amounts of the fees, and the ragebaiting OOP wants to avoid that.
I don’t disagree that it’s stupid but my problem is the stacking - Delivery fee and Service fee? The service is delivery! Why are they two fees? Either the cost of the delivery is being itemized in real time ($1.99 for gas, the rest for the human) or the delivery isn’t $1.99! If the cost to deliver an item is $20 and I make $50/hr working a project, maybe having food delivered makes sense.
But also, I know the delivery guy isn’t making all that and he’s delivering five orders so don’t charge me a service fee when I’m already subsidizing you paying him a shit wage.
Everything is shitty either way.
How else can they get people to sign up for a $15/month subscription that gives "free delivery " while charging a fuckton for a delivery service?
The service is delivery!
I read this and thought, “no, the service is that they were able to put pants on and leave their house today, unlike you.”
Please dont take that as a personal attack, I’m just sharing intrusive thoughts when they make me giggle
I use them fairly often because I’m just too fucking busy during the week. I have to get up at 5am to get ready for work, am too busy to take a real lunch break, and get home around 8-9 most nights. And that’s on nights I don’t have meetings (I work in municipal government, and public meetings like Council, P&Z, BOA, etc all meet at nights). We could hire more people, but that would require more income, and that requires council members to vote on raising their own property taxes, not to mention state law regarding tax increases.
Yeah, I could meal prep on the weekend, but that’s essentially allowing work to intrude on my weekends, and fuck that.
I’m essentially buying more time to relax in the very little relaxation time I have available.
Delivery fee and Service fee? The service is delivery!
No, the service fee is either charged by the payment provider (or at least to offset the fee the payment provider charges). Has nothing to do with delivery (you also have to pay it when you pre-pay for takeout online)
Visa and Mastercard processing fee is slightly less than 2% of a total operation. Who takes the rest?
In the US it’s generally 2.5% - 3.5% (plus a bunch of BS fees and charges added on top).
I don’t know what payment service was used here. It is only around 2-3% on my invoices.
edit: Seems in the US a bunch of other stuff (like cost of running a website, insurance) can be included in the service fee.
2-3% is insane. It boggles my mind how it became accepted to pay almost everything with a credit card in america.
I’m not American but I got one with my bank account a few years back and I do use it a lot. It makes online payments super convenient. And with offline shopping it’s the vendors that eat the fee, so also no downside for the consumer (though I tend to use the debit card for that).
Which is the whole point. They chauferring you a burrito, and make you pay for their insurance.
Sure I guess.
But my point was that the delivery is not the service here. In fact the service fee is basically every BUT the delivery.
When you build infrastructure that requires you take cars everywhere you minimize people going to get things for themselves
Funny how Chinese and pizza places could do this all day everyday and it cost 5% of the cost of the food. Not double it. Delivery food has been hit with inflation and market ‘innovation’ just like everything else. But let’s pretend working people wanting convenience services is somehow the problem…the avocado toast on wheels argument.
What’s more ridiculous? 10 people each driving to the fast food joint individually or one delivery driver making a round trip to 10 people?
We pay other people to do the things we can’t or don’t want to do all the time, this isn’t different.
Why are u driving? Walk or bike
Or just make and eat your own food
We pay other people to do the things we can’t or don’t want to do all the time, this isn’t different.
Did I stutter?
Make your own phone. Make your own toothpaste. Grow your own strawberries.
U OK, hon? You can take that shitty attitude back to reddit, mate.
Your gatekeeping sounds more like a Reddit attitude than what he said.
Wow what a great argument, “make your own phone” how about you make your own time instead of wageslaving for 13 hours a day
What is the point of shitting on someone for being working poor? Weird and gross.
You mean shitting on them for letting themselves be abused? No selfrespecting human would work for 13 hour shifts and be proud of it but hey, you do you if you’re so brainwashed to be a serf
No, you didn’t stutter, your argument was just nonsensical.
Making your own food is a very basic and fundamental skill, which is also much cheaper than any other option, and it has nothing in common with your disingenous examples.
But I guess that is also a very American thing, that homecooked food is seen some sort of exotic fantasy, instead of the default solution.
Nah dude, it’s not exotic. But sometimes the last fucken thing I wanna do after working a 13 hour shift is come home and cook a meal.
Agreed. I wish there were sensible healthy and affordable options. Like what catering provides to companies for lunch.
Why are you allowing yourself to be used in such a way? Sounds like you’re proud for working 13 hours in a shift. It’s not everyone else’s fault you don’t see yourself as a slave to your boss
It’s temporary while my wife completes her degree. Neither of us grew up very privileged, so I found something that supports us both. I’m not proud at all to be a wage slave. However, I am proud that I’m able to support both my wife and I on a single income while she’s in school. Sure it fucking sucks that I put in 50-70 hours every week. Either way, I beg fucken pardon if I decide to give myself a lil break every now and again and order delivery
Not an American. Also, able to cook and doing so most days. Am I allowed to have an opinion now? Good.
It’s just not for you to decide which tasks other people should perform themselves or outsource for money as long as somebody is willing to sell that service.
Making your own food is a very basic and fundamental skill, which is also much cheaper than any other option, and it has nothing in common with your disingenous examples.
I happen to think building and repairing computers or fixing my own bathroom sink are very basic, fundamental skills which are also cheaper than other options. Do I go around and gatekeep what people shouldn’t ask other people for help about?
Sometimes you just want to eat out without going out.
I guess cooking for many people at once should be more efficient in principle.
Consider you’re running a restaurant that serves warm food from 10am to 2pm. One cook prepares 100 warm dishes of 2 or 3 different categories in advance, by using big kettles and a large amount of ingredients.
It’s more efficient to buy many ingredients at once, then cook them in a big kettle, then serve them in a 100 plates,
instead of every one of these 100 people going grocery shopping, spending 30 - 90 minutes in the kitchen cooking, and then eating alone.
The argument isn’t about walking, biking or driving, it’s about delivery. A lot of take out is also delivered by bike.
Yeah i guess thats fine. Idk im just kinda sick and tired of ppls laziness.
I don’t get delivery, but it’s 15 minutes drive from my house to the nearest area with restaurants / stores. There are no bike lanes, shoulders, or sidewalks between here and there.
That sucks man. But atleast that motivates it a bit, if you would get delivered.
Highly depends on local infrastructure. Unfortunately the most common city planning philosophy in the US (from what I have seen) is pedestrian hostile. And really it’s not great for driving either. It just sucks to go anywhere.
Not everyone can walk or bike to the store.
practical if you live in a major city but if you live in a commuter city, the burbs, or BFE walking or biking reallying isn’t an option.
I used to live in a small to medium sized city that was literally cut in half by the high way and it was 100% impossible to get from one part of the city to the other if you weren’t in a car or taking the bus.
Just fyi, like 99% of food delivery via gig workers in nyc is done via e-bike
Even if done in a car in areas where a e-bike isn’t really feasible, they usually take several orders at at time. I think 1 car picking up and delivering 3 orders is probably slightly more efficient than each person driving to the restaurant.
It should be way more efficient considering they could do a pickup from a restaurant near their last delivery. Play the traveling salesman game decently and you’ll easily beat individuals driving themselves many times over. The driver might also do a pickup job from a restaurant they like and decide to get their own food at the same time.
they usually take several orders at at time
I’d like to see some stats on this. When I see uber eats workers pick up at McDonald’s the orders seem to be singular.
But my anecdotal experience is not usable data.
Sometimes you will get lucky and get a couple of orders from the same restaurant, but it’s usually stop at 2 or 3 different restaurants in the same area, then deliver. Occasionally I would take a single order if the money was good, but usually if I wasn’t taking 3 orders or more at once I wasn’t making enough money for it to be worth it.
It may have changed now, I fortunately got out of doing it a couple of yeas ago. It’s stressful and hard on your vehicle, and the companies you work for are shit. I’m not defending the gig companies as they are now, but in theory having one person deliver to multiple people isn’t a bad idea.
slightly more efficient that each person driving to the restaurant
Of course. But the correct solution here doesn’t require any individuals driving.
Are you implying a solution to delivery? Or that no one should eat (in or out) at restaurants?
Walkable cities
How does that fix food delivery? Are you only supposed to order from the restaurant around the corner?
Probably my personal bias, I have 5 different places I could get food from within 15 minutes walking. Closer to 20 when taking a bike.
When I visited the US I was gobsmacked by literally everything being a 30min walk at least, even in more densely populated areas
I have 5 different places I could get food from within 15 minutes walking.
Right, not exactly a lot of variation. It only really becomes viable once you add the bike back in.
So while a walk-able city is a great idea in general, it does nothing for this particular issue.
It’s quite telling that they didn’t think of walking or cycling
In most places I’ve lived for the past 40 years, I could just walk to the store. I have now four to choose from, all within 10 minutes of walking, and the city center is about an hour away. Ther are also bicycles.
By having groceries, you can make food yourself, at home. You can do this many times, for each time you actually have to get groceries.
As for eating at a restaurant, collective transport ranges from obvious to absolutely necessary, depending on the population density. When my family go out to eat, it’s a lot more convenient to hop on a bus or tram to the city center. It takes half the time, if you consider parking, it’s cheaper, and you can have a drink or two as well. You also get to engage with each other, during transit.
In the less car-removed world, food delivery is also easier to do with non-car methods.
In any case, and because I know the kind of responses people reply with… Please don’t. I just gave you some examples and a different perspective. Americans are culturally dumb as shit when it comes to considering the obviously better alternatives, in so many different aspects, and I don’t really care all that much.
Thanks for the thought out answer!
You’re welcome. I want to apologize for my snarky tone. More often than not, questions on forums are not asked in good faith. Yours seems to have been.
I find it funny that the tip is already there before you get your food. I mean, did the driver make the burrito? He might be late and you get cold food, he might be a dick.
This cuts both ways actually. you can have 10 guys going through a drive thru or one 1 making 10 stops. The one guy making ten stops results in less traffic and fewer emissions.
Does that happen in a meaningful amount? Drivers getting multiple orders for the same place with close by destinations? I think it’s vastly more common that you just have 10 drivers at different locations on behalf of 10 customers.
I do a lot of DD, and I’d bet that 75%+ of my restaurant orders are a single order going to a single house. I prefer grocery delivery, and it’s probably closer to 50% for those, as we often get a couple of orders at once.
Occasionally we get a single drop off with 2 stops (pick up food from a restaurant and something from a drug or grocery store, and drop them both off together).
I’ve never gotten more than 3 orders at once, and those are pretty rare.
