For the last few years, up until March 2024 or so, Uber Eats offered $15 to $20 off promotional discounts (provided you spend at least $25) but lately the highest coupon I’ve seen is $5 off. Has your experience been the same, and do you have any insight into why this has changed? Without at least $15 off, it’s more cost efficient for me to pick up food myself.
It was never even worth it to use those coupons for me. They were always delivery only and between the forced delivery fees and percentage fees and tip it was maybe $2-3 off.
Yes, but the $15 helps mitigate, if not eliminate, most of the fees and delivery charges. Which is where most of the ridiculous cost comes from. I always looked at them as “Don’t pay the high fees” versus “Pay less for the food”.
Anyway, I still get the $15 coupons. Sometimes it’s for groceries which is useless to me but I get them for delivered food on a pretty regular basis. Looks like my last one was on October 13th (“40% off”, up to $15 on $25 or more)
I’ve stopped getting them for restaurants, I do get them frequently for groceries which I’ve never used.
Stop using them for a while and the offers will get better.
Which is exactly why they offered this exceptional “promotion” based on an exploitative business model; to get you hooked on their service and to frame it in your mind as essential so when they stop offering promotions you will still use it. Of course, Uber Eats and other “delivery app” services are actually terrible for restaurants where the cut into already slim profit margins but restaurants who eschew them or offer their own at-cost delivery cannot compete. They’re part of an “enshittification” of one of the few remaining bastions of genuine local businesses being co-oped by tech bros to make piles of money in the name of ‘convenience’.
Stranger
I was wondering the same thing the other night. In the past, a $15-20 or 30-40% off discount on Uber Eats could be had about half of the time, now, not at all.
While I’m sure that’s part of it, I assume a bigger part is just competition. I have accounts with UberEats, Grubhub and Door Dash. Which one I use on a given evening is directly related to who has the best promotion. If no one has a direct promotion, I typically default to Grubhub who at least knocks a couple bucks off due to their partnership with Amazon Prime. Rotating between them usually means one of them has some “We miss you” offer going at a given time. I’d say that 80% or more of my orders are directly discounted, the rest are via Grubhub at “full” (less delivery) price.
“Stop using them for a while and the offers will get better.” That was true in the past, but I haven’t used the app in over 6 months, and the offers haven’t returned.
Well, that’s hasn’t worked on me. I haven’t used it.