Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
ms/2w4onGH
TECH FIX
By Brian X. Chen
After a long day, you have probably done some back-of-the-napkin math and decided there was no point in going out for dinner when you could get food brought to your
door for the same cost, plus a tip. So you fired up a delivery app.
When you order through a delivery app, you pay multiple parties, including the driver and the companies that offer the apps, like Uber Eats and Postmates. In some
cases, you pay the restaurants extra fees as well.
The markups can be downright egregious. Take Panda Express, the fast-food chain. If you ordered a $39 Family Feast value meal using Uber Eats, your tab would be 49
percent higher than if you bought the same meal at the restaurant.
You would have to really love Panda Express to pay this kind of premium — and that doesn’t even include a tip.
The extra fees creep into your bill for various reasons. Some restaurants hike the prices of food ordered for delivery. And most of the popular apps charge a delivery fee
and cram tax and extra service costs into a single line on the bill, making it difficult to notice the inflated costs.
To give you an idea of the true cost of delivery app convenience, I tested some of the apps. Read on for what I found. (Hint: It wasn’t pretty.)
Misc. $3
The markups on the food deliveries were 7 percent to 91 percent more than what you would pay if you bought the meal directly from the restaurant. Yep, you read that
right.
But unlike the other apps, Uber Eats charged a $3 “small order” fee when I ordered the sandwiches from a Subway. Plus it added a 15 percent service charge and a
separate $3.99 delivery fee, which was determined by my proximity to Subway.
Meghan Casserly, a spokeswoman for Uber, said that the company’s goal was to deliver meals to people as quickly as possible, and that the transparent fees covered
operating expenses while fairly compensating workers.
Yet among the four apps, Uber’s service charges were also the most unpredictable, I found. Its delivery fees fluctuated depending on the availability of couriers when I
placed an order. That was similar to Uber’s so-called surge pricing for rides, which it uses to get more people to drive when rides are in high demand.
Postmates’ markups were also confusing. Its delivery fees and service fees both vary widely, depending on the merchant you are ordering from. For the same Subway
order, its delivery fee was $2.99, lower than Uber’s $3.99. But its service charge was highest at about 16.4 percent, or $2.42.
Postmates service charges can skew higher in part because it doesn’t deliver only meals. Its couriers offer to bring you practically anything they can pick up, from a pair
of sneakers to a birthday cake.
Other delivery apps generally have relationships only with restaurants, so their offerings are more limited and they charge a smaller service fee. DoorDash’s service fee
for the Subway order was 11 percent, and Grubhub’s was 5 percent.
For another comparison, I created identical orders for two entrees and a smoothie from Little Szechuan, a local Chinese restaurant. The spicy spare ribs, normally $13.98
at the restaurant, cost $16.98 at Uber Eats, Postmates and DoorDash.
It depends on the app and the restaurant. DoorDash, Postmates and Uber said restaurants controlled their food prices. Grubhub said it worked with restaurants on their
pricing, and though it encourages them to keep prices consistent, it allows merchants like Panda Express to offer different prices for delivery. Big national chains also
tend to give smaller commissions to delivery apps, so menu prices are sometimes inflated for the apps to collect more commission, according to a person at Postmates,
who asked to remain anonymous.
Panda Express said its delivery prices allowed it to provide delivery services nationwide. Little Szechuan did not respond to requests for comment.
Here’s another idea: Consider cooking your own meal. You may need to plan a little to buy some groceries ahead of time, but there are many simple weekday meals you
can prepare in a fairly short time. My favorite go-to is fresh chicken with a side of vegetables, roasted in my toaster oven. No tips or markups required.
Brian X. Chen is the lead consumer technology writer. He reviews products and writes Tech Fix, a column about solving tech-related problems. Before joining The Times in 2011, he reported on Apple and the wireless
industry for Wired. @bxchen
A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 27, 2020, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Delivery App Fees Leave a Sour Taste