The cost of Door Dash

[BABAR]

Ordered from a local Indian food place in Tennessee
First from Door Dash, a week later just went and put on a mask and picked it up at counter

Door Dash total
$102.80

Breakdown

Food and tax $72.82
Delivery $4.99
Service fee $13.27 (“this 20% service fee helps us operate door dash”)

Dasher tip $11.00. (That’s voluntary.)


Total (food and tax) when we picked it up at restaurant

$64.12

It was also interesting that the item individual prices were higher on the DoorDash menu than on the actual restaurant menu. Not sure who the “extra” is going to, probably DoorDash. This is probably the only thing that really “bothered” me, as it is a “hidden charge” that you don’t see unless you have the actual in restaurant menu to compare.

Caveat Emptor as they say (might make a good rocket name!). Certainly is nice to have stuff delivered to your door, although it DOES become another pair of hands the bag has to pass through


Anyway, just an FYI

 

[Fishhead]

I can't imagine how desperate I'd have to be to do Door Dash, but I think it might be relegated to an emergency only kind of thing. I don't even like having pizza delivered and that's how I made my living in college.

 

[Peartree]

I can't imagine how desperate I'd have to be to do Door Dash, but I think it might be relegated to an emergency only kind of thing. I don't even like having pizza delivered and that's how I made my living in college.

If you were actually quarantined, or absolutely couldn't go out to get it yourself, then it's nice that there are options like this that weren't available even five or ten years ago. I'm too cheap to pay that much when I can get out and get it. That said, I never thought I'd ever have groceries delivered, but the circumstances surrounding this pandemic have led us to do that a number of times.

 

[tim cubbedge]

Quite a mark up. Around here, most restaurants used their own employees for delivery & had small delivery fee, some no fee at all.

 

[heada]

I have a friend who owns and runs 2 local pizza shops. When he was approached by DoorDash to make his shops available, they showed him a sample of the online ordering they offered. He noticed that all the menu items had been marked up and it was explained it was the profit margin for DoorDash. He then asked what the service fee was for and was told it was for the delivery team. Kept going round and round about the different fees and charges and came to the conclusion that DoorDash was double dipping on one of them. Since it was still in the contract phase, he ended up making sure the online price was the same as if people ordered directly from him since he also offered delivery service.

 

[rfjustin]

 

[NateB]

Way back, in college I was a bartender at an Olive Garden. A local man started a restaurant delivery business and would frequently place orders with us and deliver them to his customers. He charged a fee on top of menu price and collected tips. He was also very rude to us, and never tipped the servers who spent time preparing his orders and carrying them to his van. They still made $2 an hour and had to spend time on his orders with no income from him.

I won't use 3rd party services like that because of him.

 

[Flyfalcons]

I can't imagine how desperate I'd have to be to do Door Dash, but I think it might be relegated to an emergency only kind of thing. I don't even like having pizza delivered and that's how I made my living in college.

Currently I am in a "will get arrested if I leave my quarantine hotel in Hawaii" kind of thing, so I am using Door Dash for the first time. It works okay but is expensive. Other than the situation I'm, I see no good reason to use it and prefer to order from restaurants directly (they make more money off the sale that way as well).

Another reason to just go get the food yourself is less hands handling it, and I have a disgusting firsthand account on why less hands on my food is better.

 

[neil_w]

Another reason to just go get the food yourself is less hands handling it, and I have a disgusting firsthand account on why less hands on my food is better.

Please do not share.

In the Before Times we never used DoorDash, and rarely ever did delivery at all. Nowadays I would certainly prefer to use a restaurant's own delivery if it's available, or curbside if possible. If neither of those is available, we'll use DoorDash. I look forward to a time in the future when we can go back to not using it.

 

[Rocketcamper123]

i have never done door dash. if i want food bad enough i go out in get it. i dont even order a delivery pizza. the only way i will quarantine is if someone holds a gun to my head.

 

[Marc_G]

I've used door dash twice with cost experiences similar to others reported here; both cases were exceptions to our routine and getting the food directly was impractical.

I will not be a regular user of the service. However I am glad it exists so that it can serve those who rely on it.

 

[OverTheTop]

I normally pick up at the restaurant as the money goes all to the restaurant then. The delivery companies have quite high fees in some cases, and the online prices are higher than the regular menu prices.

I will be ordering some of this today as my wife (and hence me) has been exposed to a patient with respiratory symptoms and we are self-isolating until the test results come back regarding that patient. We will go through a drive-through testing center this afternoon also.

My daughter works in a bakery and got an order for one lamington (type of cake) last week, delivered. Cost of the cake was $6, and delivery was another $6 through Deliveroo.

So yes, it is nice to have the option to get food if you can't travel out.

[edit] corrected Deliveroo price typo

 

[FlyingMonkey]

We use UberEats, Postmates, DoorDash, Instacart, and just about any other delivery service we can find lol. I do prefer direct delivery but very few restaurants and grocery stores offer that in my city.
This goes back long before the pandemic. I just prefer to spend my time doing other things. We often get free delivery codes and such, so any increase in price is pretty well offset by me not having to drive my gas guzzler (single digit mpg) or suit up for the moto.
We also use meal kit delivery services but since demand increased they have consistently screwed up our orders.

 

[dr wogz]

this also reminds me of some online shops who deal exclusively with UPS as their shipper. So, as an international customer, I'm forced to pay their fees & brokerage fees. And they can add up fast!