Food delivery always seemed crazy to me. $12+ just to save a 10 minute trip? Due to taxes, that $12 is more like $20 in salary to me, equivalent to $120/hr. Which is more than my actual salary. Plus, a quick drive isn’t exactly hard work. Sure, I’d prefer not doing it, but it’s not equivalent to a 1:1 ratio with real work. I’m sitting in a comfy seat and get to blast music (something I can’t do at home!).
And that’s totally ignoring that the entire delivery industry is messed up IMO. I actually don’t understand how it seems to screw every party involved (the driver, the restaurant, and even the delivery service–DoorDash is losing money) and yet I can’t justify the cost on an engineer’s salary.
And like others said, pickup has another benefit in that my food is as fresh as possible. Plus I can check my order for screwups.
Oh yeah, and some restaurants give a discount for pickup (a ramen shop gave me 10% off yesterday for pickup).
All that said, I’m very lucky in that we now get food trucks within walking distance. Relatively cheap, good quality food, no delivery charges, and I know my tips go directly to the people that deserve them.
Exactly. If the restaurant doesn’t do their own delivery I go myself, and If I can’t go I go somewhere else, or find food at the office. I kept a half dozen or so cans of sardines in my desk along with a bottle of sriracha for just such an occasion. A lot of times I’d be held up past the time when food was available, and I’d give up a limb before I ate out of the vending machines.
I didn’t have that problem. I worked in a pulp mill, and sardines were the least objectionable odor you’d encounter. The break room smelled of black mold, asbestos, and despair.
The only things that tempt me to consider using the delivery services are when the weather sucks, the restaurant is in a downtown area where I’d find it difficult to find parking (though in such cases, if I bring someone else along, I can circle the block while they run in to get the order) or during rush hour when it will take me a long time to get there. But there are always alternatives; there’s always something else at home I can eat, and there are other restaurants that are easier to get to.
Maybe a generational thing as to the cost of this convivence and tipping.
Shortly before we sat down to Christmas dinner (on Christmas Day) my 22 year old nephew discovered he didn’t have any Mt. Dew. While eating we heard the doorbell ring and he had called Uber Eats or one of the other delivery services and had 2 -2 liter bottles of Mt. Dew delivered. He paid $27.00 including a tip for these 2 bottles and thought nothing of it.
The older generation like me thought he was nuts. First, these nearest convenience store is only about a mile away and would have cost about $5.00 for both. Second, if he had planned ahead the 2 liters where on sale at the local grocery store for $1.25 each. Found out my older adult nieces and nephews think nothing of having a meal delivered and paying over $25.00 for a burger and fries just for the convenience of not getting up off their ass other than opening the front door to get their food.
Older generation here. I use DoorDash a rather a lot. Less now than I did during the early lockdown. I’ve been dead broke in my life. Times when I had $25 left to my name, and no family or anyone to fall back on. I’m by no means wealthy in my golden years, but I’m not anywhere near the ragged edge where I spent so many years. I tip very generously, usually twice the amount suggested by DD. Why? 1. Because anyone doing DoorDash delivery probably really needs the money. 2. Because I can. It’s no hardship on me.
I absolutely cannot abide stingy, nickel & dime, nitpicky tippers. In fact, I can’t abide stingy people at all.
It’s not a question of value for money. If it’s easier and cheaper – and cheapness is that important to you-- for you to go pick up the food yourself, then do it.
That’s nuts more for the Mt Dew thing than the rest. It’s a special occasion and you’re there with family; those hours are more valuable than most. I’d at least consider paying that much to deliver, say, a bag of flour or some other crucial ingredient that was needed for the dinner. But while I like Mt Dew, it seems a bit of an addiction to like it that much.
Hopefully you distinguish between stingy people vs. those that are simply careful with their money. I’ve seen people get called stingy because they demanded a restaurant bill be split equitably rather than equally. Of course, it’s always people that get the most expensive thing on the menu and a bunch of drinks that make these accusations.
Right. Look at the numbers from the OP. Actual food cost of $19.75 (including tax), total cost of $32.75. If the thirteen-dollar difference was entirely going to the delivery person, that would be one thing. But it’s not.
Again, that’s not the delivery person’s fault. OP wants to stiff the delivery guy just because that’s the only person here that he can stiff.
Accept that the tip is part of the cost of the convenience of getting it delivered, or take yourself over there and get it yourself and save that money. If you’re going to bitch about anybody, bitch about DoorDash and the restaurant tacking on extra fees.
And with every delivery service I’ve ever seen, “Delivery charge is not a tip” has always been the rule.
I’m actually really curious why the costs are so high. FedEx, et al doesn’t seem to have this problem. FedEx drivers make a reasonable wage and don’t demand tips. It can’t cost FedEx more than a couple of dollars per delivery for this “last mile” service; they wouldn’t be profitable otherwise. FedEx pays for the truck maintenance.
Sure, food delivery requires more stops at the origin sites, but I can’t see how a delivery should cost $12 just to pay for the driver’s time. It’s weird. And why don’t DoorDash drivers make a wage in the first place? Restaurants are already pretty messed up with the whole wage/tips situation, but why did this have to get translated to their drivers?
For a time I did, and that means I don’t get lunch from that restaurant. Which is fine and all until you run out of restaurants who deliver, because they either went out of business or stopped doing their own deliveries.
Three options I can see.
pack lunches and stop supporting/eating at luncheries I like
drive and pick up my own food when I can, sardines or no lunch for busy days when I don’t have time to drive (more frequent since COVID short staffing)
Which equals screwing the delivery guy. Just admit it, that’s what you’re doing. Own up to it and decide if you want to be the person who does that. You can sugar coat it any way you like, but that’s the inevitable results of your actions.
I’m with those who thing your nephew was crazy for spending $27 to get two bottles of Mountain Dew delivered, as are the nieces and nephews who are willing to pay over $25 to get a burger and fries delivered.
Or you could be like one of those motherfuckers who leave a Bible verse on the table instead of a tip.
If you can’t afford a tip, you can’t afford to eat out. Period.
And why do you include the tax when you’re bitching about the high cost of delivering to your door? You have to pay that if you pick it up yourself or eat in, too.
Try your option #1. Millions of people do it. It’s not hard.
When you were a delivery guy, you were getting an hourly wage on top of your tips. These guys aren’t. And they have to pay their taxes, and don’t get social security built up on their earnings.
If people were stiffing you back in 2015, that doesn’t mean it’s right for you to do it. I’ve never given less than $5 to a delivery person in the last 10 years. But I consider it an expensive luxury to order delivery, so I almost never do. The solution isn’t to cheat the person at the bottom of the pile.
How much were you paying for gas in 2015?
Your entire OP is pathetic. So are your continued attempts to keep justifying cheating your delivery people. Make your own damn lunch and don’t cheat people.
For me to agree with that, I would first have to think a. the delivery guy deserves more compensation and b. that it is my responsibility to provide it by paying more.
And again, did you miss the part where if I pay a tip it reduces the amount the service is paying the deliveryman? If I don’t tip, DoorDash pays it’s dashers more. If I do tip, it’s after the delivery, in cash.