During the pandemic, food delivery services like UberEats, Doordash, Grubhub and Postmates are growing. The idea of helping the local economy by supporting drivers and small businesses while still getting a break from cooking for yourself is appealing, but some of the tactics these companies use can hurt small businesses more than help.
In additional to delivery fees, commissions taken by the companies can be as high as 30 percent. That money goes out of state to the owners of the service, not to the drivers or the restaurants you know and love.
Patsy McNall from Pasto Italiano, 3150 E. State Road 32, Westfield, has seen first-hand both how the quality her customers have come to expect can suffer and hard it can be to stop a delivery service from using unsavory methods to force restaurants to allow them access.
“When we first opened, for a very short period of time we joined Doordash,” McNall told The Reporter. “We got a complaint about cold food from a lady. She called our restaurant and Kent said he’d refund her money and that he would delivery her more food personally. She said it was alright and not to worry about it, but then she left us a horrible review. So we called Doordash and canceled Doordash.”
A couple months later Grubhub just put themselves on Pasto Italiano’s google search page, Yelp and other internet listings, saying they deliver for Pasto.
“Grubhub took forever to get off those listings, but they did and they were very pleasant about it,” McNall said. “Right after that, UberEats came on. Their driver, Chris, left us a horrible review when I refused service.”
If a business uses UberEats they are signing up for a free period of preliminary service, but after that period ends, restaurants face large commission fees taken out of their own pockets to pay the service.
“It took me a long time to try to fix that because you can’t get a human being at these companies to talk to you. I finally got rid of them and as soon as I did, Postmates came on, which is affiliated with UberEats,” McNall said. “They are all based out of California and we just can’t seem to get rid of them.”
There are several articles from across the country indicating that unauthorized online listings tying restaurants to various services and bad restaurant reviews posted by drivers are common. When faced with spending the time and effort to remove such listing over and over, it can seem easier to just give up and allow a service you did not want to delivery for you, even if the fees are high and the food quality may suffer.
“We are a small business,” McNall said. “We want to see the customers. We want to explain the food options. We want to know that it was hot and delivered properly from our hostess to someone for carryout.”
Doordash gives businesses a device to tell them that they are coming with orders. That device can be turned off in busy times to prevent overbooking. According to McNall, that is not true with UberEats, Grubhub or Postmates.
“They come whenever they want, so in the middle of your rush when you are fully booked and handling your regular carryout orders, they can flood you with a bunch of orders people think you are going to be able to fill,” McNall told The Reporter.
If you order though these services either online or through an app, you are not ordering through the restaurant. They often have outdated menus and fail at asking the restaurant if they can or will fill more orders on a busy weekend evening. McNall pointed to GrubHub specifically as having the wrong menu when trying to take orders from customers.
“Sometimes drivers will approach you in person and say they will be back for pickup,” McNall said. “But sometimes they will order something on the phone and use their own first name instead of identifying the delivery service name. Then we don’t find out till they come in to pay for it with a company card that they are doing this.”
If people are not comfortable dining out, many local restaurants have curbside pickup available. You do not have to come into the building, and they have handheld machines to process payment by card. Pasto Italiano will even put your food in the truck of your car for you so there is as close to no-contact as possible.
Delivery services charge both the customer and the restaurant, they do not often carry hot-bags to keep your food warm, and they do not always delivery in a timely manner. If you spend the time to go to a restaurant with curbside service, the time you invest in doing so will be paid back with lower costs, better quality and the knowledge that all your money stays local.
If you do choose to use a delivery service, please call the restaurant first and ask if they support using them. For those who choose to do so, they can be a very good thing in a strange time. For those who do not, the strong-arm tactics and high fees could be hurting the very business you want to support.
Choose wisely.
You can visit Pasto Italiano at 3150 E. State Road 32, Westfield. They are open seven days a week: 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Visit pastoitalianowestfield.com or call (317) 804-2051 for reservations, catering options, daily specials and takeout options without leaving the safety of your car.