I myself would like to be able to have Mexican food, or hamburgers, or a chicken sandwich, or fish and chips, or any number of other items delivered to my house, but I can’t, because they don’t deliver at the restaurants where you’d order that stuff. Why is it that Chinese restaurants and pizza joints have become the only establishments in our culture that will send someone out to deliver food to your house?
I’m sure that this thread is going to get some responses of different exceptions to this rule, which I am quite anxious to hear. (Although that’s not going to change the situation here where I am.)
Any type of food that can be made and eaten is delivered in Toronto. And when I lived in Kingston, McDonald’s rolled out a delivery service there.
However, I think the OP asks a valid question if you rephrase it as “why are za and Chinese the MAIN delivery foods?”
I think it has to do with the nature of the food. 'Za and Chinese are quick, cheap foods that lend themselves to being eaten without the bother of silverware or place settings. They also don’t lose their taste if they get a little cold, an obvious benefit when delivering food.
In Philly (and other major cities methinks), we have something called Dining-In that delivers food from an assortment of restaurants that do not normally deliver. Many of them high end. You pay for it, but I like getting a nice Filet Mignon delivered to my door!
As for why pizza and chinese are generally the only delivery places, I think a lot of places think their food quality will suffer if they do not serve it “hot off the grill”.
Last year someone set up a delivery service here. They provide all the local menus and you ring them with your order. They pass it on and deliver the meal. They only charge $4 per retaurant visited. They will also pick up alcohol and some grocery items - snacks, drinks. chocolates, cigarettes.
I’ll echo a few of the other posters on here. Many cities have a delivery service that will go to selected restaraunts and drive the food to you for a surcharge. I’ve had mixed results from these. Some are great and timely, others, not to careful with your precious cargo.
Which I think would be part of the issue. Some foods don’t travel well and as mentioned in this same thread, suck rocks when cold. Fries for example. Either you eat them hot or throw them out. If they’re cold they’re awful, and they don’t heat up well.
Larger downtown areas where people live nearly above the restaraunts they are eating from will offer delivery more often than places where they have to drive out into the suburbs.
Also, with a few exceptions, most places that offer delivery don’t have much in the way of seating inside. They expect a delivery only business and can save a lot of money having just room to cool and a place to pick up for walk-ins. An westablished restaraunt would have top either maintain a delivery staff that might not get much action but still have to be paid an hourly wage. This could be costly if people didn’t order delivery from them, as they wouldn’t expect it to be available.
One Silicon valley company I worked for during the boom used to take Waiters-On-Wheels orders late in the day. It was on the company. Of course, what it really was was a bribe to work late.
FYI, here in the US, Meals On Wheels is the name of a a social service agency that delivers meals to people who can’t get out of the house, like some elderly or disabled people.
No, I was amused by the fact that xash said that a commercial meal delivery service in Mumbai is called Meals on Wheels, while here in the US, it’s a social service agency.
Hell, living 3 and a half miles south of town means nobody will deliver. Not Pizza Hut, not Pizza Pro, not the small local joint which makes huge-ass thin crusts. We’d waive the speed guarantees if that was an option, but it isn’t.
(The Chinese place doesn’t deliver at all, I don’t think, but that’s okay because the Chinese food sucks around here.)
Meals-On-Wheels is a charitable organization that delivers one hot meal a day to the elderly and incapacitated. Least wise in this town. Not a pickup and delivery service for the benefit of the general public.
You could arrange for a taxi cab to do the pickup and delivery for a price.
Or a courier service would likely do the job for a price.
A friend of mine started a company called Dining Out maybe 5 or 6 years ago. The company delivers from most of the major restaurants in the St. Louis metro area. It was a great idea on her part - she was bought out two or three years ago when she moved out-of-state with her husband, but before she left, she was very successful.
