Americans love pizza. And burgers. But Pizza (and Chinese food) are the kinds of fast food that are home delivered.
Why not burgers? Or fried chicken? Or steak?
In major cities, there are probably delivery services, but why so rare? Or unknown in smaller communities?
And who started pizza delivery in the first place?
My WAG is that the foods that are commonly delivered are those that still taste good after being kept warm for awhile. For example, with burgers most people like the meat to stay hot, but don’t want the bun and fixins to be hot, and it would be difficult to keep the burger warm (and not dried out) while the rest stays cool. I guess you could deliver them ready to be assembled, but it’s probably not worth the bother for a restaurant. Plus, the fries would get icky.
When I left the Memphis they had a service that would pick up food from several restaurants and deliver it to your house, but it wasn’t doing too well. I have no idea why, but perhaps there just isn’t that big of a market in most cities for delivered foods that aren’t pizza and chinese?
Oh, and I do remember one chain that delivered steak, it was called something like Steak Out or Steak Escape. Now that I think of it, they might have delivered burgers, too.
Around here we can get burgers delivered. The problems: Thirty minute old french fries (oooog), soggy buns, wilted lettuce, plasticized cheese… They just don’t keep very well. I suppose if you were desperate, and preferrably slightly drunk, it wouldn’t make such a horrid supper. Most of the pizza delivery places are trying to diversify and tend to offer Chinese, Indian, or Italian food, and typically (bad) burgers and salads, in addition to their basic pizza menu.
I know why I have them delivered - it takes 10 minutes to make! I’d rather wait at home for half an hour than wait at the shop for 10 minutes.
Furthermore, it is comparably more difficult to make good pizza at home than good burgers. Buying the best ingredients from the supermarket doesn’t mean you’ll wind up with a great pizza, but get the best ingredients for a monster sized hamburger and it’ll most likely be worlds better than a restaurant can produce and deliver.
When I was a kid in San Diego, there was a place called Chicken Delight. “Don’t cook tonight! Call Chicken Delight! We deliver!”
When visiting a friend in New Orleans about four or five years ago, there was a little market/deli that delivered orders. You could have them bring po’ boys, beer, cigs… everything you need for a party. Apparently this type of store is fairly common down there, as my friend had deliveries in different places he lived in The Big Sleazy.
When I lived in VA (92-94), McDonald’s was test marketing delivery. Man, oh man that was utter heaven. Waking up on sunday morning with a hangover and having quarter-pounders delivered is the only fond memory I have of that state.(or commonwealth, if you’re a nit-picking Virginian)
Profit margins. People pay more for a pizza than a hamburger. It wouldn’t pay McDonalds to deliver a Big Mac and fries – even if they could keep them appetizing – at the price they charge at the window.
Er, Chuck? McDonald’s has tried delivery. It lasted about 14 months as a test market deal. They had a minimum of $5.00 per order for delivery and limited delivery areas. Considering that most urbanites live within 7 minutes of a McD’s, I don’t think that keeping the food fresh would be a big problem.
Of course, the fact that the delivery service wasn’t launched nation-wide makes your point.The profit probably wasn’t there.
Here in Minneapolis, there are still a few places that deliver fried chicken. But you’re right, it isn’t like most pizza places that have delivery as an integral part of their business.
Try to get 10 drunk people (or a family with two kids, for that matter) to place an order for delivery from McD’s… one QP w/cheese and a super sized fry, a medium chocolate shake and a 9 peice McNugget, one of theose awful salad shaker things with french dressing and a small fry, four cheeseburgers with no pickles and a large orange sludge, etc etc.
Compare with “one large pepperoni and one large extra cheese.”
Though it galls me to think that McD’s can be accused of offering TOO MUCH in the way of selection, you can see the advantage of the pizza joint’s relatively limited menu.
There’s a fried chicken place here that delivers.
In college, I could get burgers, hot dogs, chili dogs, gyros and other assorted greasy foodstuffs delivered with little hassle (although the place that offered it was too expensive and amazingly rude). Also delivery on sub sandwiches was easy to get. Here at home, I assume I could still get a sub delivered and there’s a Mexican joint that delivers their giant steak burritos and other goodies at 1am.
Your best bet though seems to be the independant pizza places. There’s a place near here that delivers pizza, but they also have their entire menu available for delivery including various chicken, steak and pasta entrees.
I imagine for most places though, it’s simply not worth the expense and hassle to deliver. It makes sense in college towns where you have a base population of lazy young people with questionable eating habits and a willingness to spend their parents’ money on delivered cheeseburgers at 1:30am. Other neighborhoods though just aren’t as likely to place enough orders to justify the hiring of new drivers, additional cooks, someone to answer the phone, radio equipment for lost drivers, insurance… etc.
I can get anything delivered here, including burgers, chicken and even booze. When I lived in a small town restaurants would just laugh when you asked if they delivered.
Am I the only one who LIKES cold Mickey D’s food?
Don’t get me wrong-the fries do taste best when hot, but I just LOVE eating the leftover cheeseburgers and McNuggets for breakfast…yummy!
When I was a kid I used to like the french fries better if they were cold. Now, I don’t really like any Mickey D’s food, cold or not.
Here in San Diego, you can still get KFC delivered, though I know of no Mexican places that do the same. Some of the pizza places will also do pastas and salads, but I don’t know of any burger places delivering. Interesting as I had never thought about the margin issue.
It’s called Steak Out and we still have them here on the other end of the state. And, yes, they do deliver burgers–pretty good ones, too! They also deliver steaks, chicken sandwiches, salads, baked potatoes–mmmmm!
In the town I grew up in (suburban Boston) there was a company that delivered food from about 10 different restaurants. I don’t recall burgers ever being available, but they did a good enough job of keeping everything hot that it may have been possible. Still, since most fast food burgers aren’t that great to begin with, there doesn’t seem to be much point to burger delivery unless you’re ordering from a really good (i.e., non-McD) burger restaurant.
FWIW, Kentucky Fried Chicken in Tokyo delivers.
–sublight.