DoorDash vs. Postmates vs. Uber Eats vs. Grubhub

A look into the evolution of the big 4 food delivery services.

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Company Declines:
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[GoHerping]

I've used DD for a few years and I just can't imagine them ever becoming profitable due to how many human errors happen. Close to half of my deliveries have mistakes. Incorrect order, missing items, wrong delivery to the wrong person, timing not lining up so the food is cold, and even just drivers spilling drinks in their car happens sometimes. The nice thing is it's easy to get your money back when an item is missing or wrong, but it happens so often I'm sure they lose thousands to millions just from that.

[djdeadbeat]

At the restaurant where I work, we had to put up a sign telling the drivers for all of these various services not to pick up the bags until an employee could help them because we had countless incidents where they would pick up someone’s else’s order despite it clearly being the wrong one and then later the restaurant would get blamed for it.

[mathewricafrente]

DoorDash. Postmates. Uber Eats. Grubhub. Long ago, the 4 nations lived peacefully. That is, until the Grubhub nation attacked.

[markofdistinction]

My local Pizza parlor has signs prominently posted saying "Don't use Grub Hub or other 3rd party delivery". Then they show a detailed breakdown of how much they charge the restaurants ... the delivery service takes a full THIRD of the purchase price. Then they also charge the customer a large delivery fee ... double the price of the pizza. The restaurant gets totally screwed.

[dyrcosis]

A restaurant offering their own delivery service matters. There's more accountability and the food tends to show up at the proper temperature.

[badmobilegameads]

“Grubhub perks give you deals on the food you love! The kind of deals that make you boogie!”
*tone deaf music begins*

[theluigifan]

6:44 Holy shit, that’s LITERALLY what my dad went through. He was a doctor in Nigeria but when he and my mom immigrated to the US, he had to start over and work lesser jobs (One of which was being a security guard) to eventually get the proper licenses here from medical school and then open his own clinic on my 12th birthday. He’s still running it to this day.

It really is a small world.

[evrenyungjello]

I hope that these companies don't merge because then there will be just one big terrible company with no competition, instead of 4 medium bad companies who actually have to somewhat compete.

[jonlee]

When a 9 dollar meal suddenly becomes more than 20 bucks, I dont see these food delivery apps taking off until we get fully autonomous vehicles

[TheEWFX]

As a former cab driver in the 90s we did this if asked. You get the call go to the restaurant, pay for the food and deliver it to the person. Usually it was for regular customers but it could have expanded if people wanted it. But it cost a lot so most people didn't want to do it.

[ewhoyer]

Where I live, GrubHub started delivering food from restaurants without the restaurants permission. They would use old, outdated menus and disappoint their customers who couldn’t get what they wanted. In these cases, they would not get the cut from the restaurant, but their amateurish approach lost them considerable good will, as well.

[izuchukwumorah]

was about to order a $25 meal on Uber Eats, and was seeing a $40 total fee. Safe to say I’ve been driving to go get my own food since then

[JuniperArcher]

My roommates in college would Postmates things from the store that was one block away, and wait 40 minutes to an hour and a half for it. I used a much cheaper service called my own two feet.

[el_blaxicano]

my dad drove for Uber before ubereats was invented and he told me people would order an Uber just to go through a Drive thru across the street and back 😂

[tim]

I remember when I used to use DoorDash all the time.
It was expensive but I didn't care too much about that.
Then they started (or, perhaps, greatly increased) their use of 'stacking'.
Stacking is when you're not paying $7-12+ for a delivery that's fresh.
You're paying that for someone to pick up your food, then stop at a restaurant in the middle, wait 30 minutes for that food to be ready, then they deliver that food first, and then *maybe* deliver yours if it's convenient for them.

So now it's cold, old, and expensive.
No thanks.

[ethankelso]

Our entire family of 4 were somehow designated as being a Wendys in 4 different states in the doordash database. We got called constantly and it was almost a year of dealing with doordash to get our numbers removed!

[bluesquadron]

All of these are so expensive now, i just go get the food myself and save money

[TristanSamuel]

I was *NOT* expecting you to cover 4 companies at once!!! Good job!

[Christopher_Gibbons]

I am really supprised how long it took for this to catch on. Back in the mid 90's in New York, we had "At Your Service".
There was a yearly membership. Every year they would drop off a big binder of menus. Each item at each restaurant would have a unique code. When you wanted to order you would call them up and give your member ID and the codes for your order. They would figure everything out, place all the orders, add it to your tab, and do pickup/delivery.

[basicfacekick]

I've tried each of the Big 3 (UE, DD, GH) and I can't say I like any of them over another. As others say... $15 in food can quickly become $30. And, orders problems are so prevalent, even for restaurants that electronically receive your order. I can't count how many times I've been missing food and whole drinks.