[skh]

I think I’m old fashioned but I just don’t understand the appeal of these food delivery services. My friend’s son uses Postmates to order fast food and it seems absurd to me.

I must be missing something about theses services given their popularity. Do you mind explaining why you use them?

[pbalau]

I think you are just trying to be that guy. I go to this website, pick what I want, pay and some time later what I ordered gets delivered to my door. What's there to get?

[ams6110]

Fast food is pretty bad when it's fresh. It's awful after it's been in transit for 20-30 minutes or more. The idea of spending $10 or more to get a lukewarm burger and mushy limp french fries has no appeal to me.

[astura]

I think people are ordering from more upscale restaurants, not McDonalds.

Food temperature is a personal preference, some people are really picky about food being hot/fresh, some aren't. I prefer the taste of room temperature food over hot food so "sitting around for 20 minutes" would be a feature for me.

[FireBeyond]

You say that, but I saw someone picking up an UberEats at McDonalds...

... and then jumping into his new C300 to deliver it.

I'm not sure I can process that. New Mercedes, let's put miles on it delivering fast food...

[astura]

He owns a Mercedes so he probably loves driving. Maybe if he wasn't delivering for UberEats he'd be out joyriding in his new Mercedes without a destination. In doing UberEats he's got a destination and he'll decrease his expenses by like $5/hour and take another car off the road. I know a guy who spends like half his free time driving around in a $70,000 pickup truck because he enjoys it, doesn't have a destination, just goes for a drive for fun.

And some people like really like McDonalds and don't care for the fancy stuff.

It's not for me, but it basically it boils down to "people like different things than me."

I know someone else who can't understand why anyone would ever play video games "its time and effort for zero reward."

Some people enjoy doing work on their car, while others would rather pay someone to do the work for them.

Humans aren't the same.

[skh]

Fast food is usually only palatable hot. By the time it gets delivered it’s cold, no? Also fast food is cheap and the delivery cost is a large percentage of the overall bill. I mean a $10 meal ends up being $20.

[Dayshine]

Er, deliveroo delivers from restaurants.

Justeat delivers from fast food.

Deliveroo costs more because it's providing a delivery service for restaurants that don't normally deliver.

So I'm getting good food. When in a restaurant, things sit in a kitchen for 10 minutes waiting for the rest of your order anyway. 10 minutes in a thermal bag is the same.

[skh]

Wouldn't that be 10 additional minutes in the thermal bag? If it sits waiting for 10 minutes for the rest of my order wouldn't the time in the thermal bag be in addition to this. Also, in the U.S. delivery in my experience with others doing this is that is takes more than 10 minutes for the driver to pick up the order. Then another 10 - 20 minutes to deliver. To me this ruins the meal. You don't get a nice presentation and the food is way colder than the chef intends.

[tragic]

> To me this ruins the meal.

But at that point you're basically just objecting to all delivery food ever. Which is fine but, like, you are aware that it is a huge industry and has been for decades and people do like it? Convenience trumps artistry (and optimum temperature) for many people a lot of the time.

[Dayshine]

Deliveroo orders generally get rushed out from my experience sitting in restaurants waiting for my sit-down meal to be served.

"To me this ruins the meal"

shrug, I'm not sure what you're expecting anybody to say. I can't really change your mind on what is hypothetical situation for you. I've ordered plenty, it's generally no worse than the quality I would get in the restaurant (other than the presentation in a bespoke takeaway box not a plate).

Also, what kind of presentation are you expecting for a burger anyway? It's a burger, with some artfully surrounding chips? Ordered to go, it's a burger, with the chips in smaller box instead of surrounding the burger.

[MaxLeiter]

In Italy at least, Deliveroo will order from middle and low-end restaurants (pizza places, some sitdowns, any fast food). The drivers are also on bikes generally, which I thought was common for deliveroo but after reading this thread maybe not.

[shawabawa3]

> Do you mind explaining why you use them?

I want food, I can't be bothered to cook or go out?

Are you seriously struggling to understand food delivery? Or if you mean what's the benefit over e.g. ordering direct from a restaurant, is you have a lot more choice and it's much higher quality than traditional take aways (you get proper restaurant food)

[skh]

It arrives cold, no? Delivered restaurant food makes no sense to me. Won’t things get all mashed together? The plating will not be nice. And to pay for such a service? I don’t get it.

[Hallucinaut]

Thermal bags, transport-aware packing, and the service costs a couple of quid, not the ten dollars you suggest.

You're not going to get a gourmet steak hot from the grill with precisely placed edible flowers laid delicately in it. But a bag of fries and a carton of fried chicken does not require eggs-in-space-shuttle level cushioning

[skh]

In the U.S. we typically feel compelled to tip. This might not be the case for you if you aren’t in the U.S. I looked into using Postmates to try it out and it came to around $10 to use if I didn’t tip generously.

[mikestew]

I think I’m old fashioned but I just don’t understand the appeal of these food delivery services.

"Old-fashioned"? Nice try, Grandpa. I'm approaching retirement, and delivery of restaurant food has been a thing since before I was born. Hell, Domino's was founded in 1960.

[skh]

But not fast food delivery. This is a recent thing. And most restaurants didn’t do delivery. I don’t see the point of ordering a meal that is best eaten hot to be delivered when it comes to the house warm.

[mikestew]

But not fast food delivery.

Hey, I quoted you accurately. :-) But fair enough. My counter would be that if your bar has fallen to fast food territory, perhaps warmth and presentation isn't an issue at that point for some folks. But I haven't been part of the fast food demographic for decades, so what do I know?

[nopriorarrests]

tbh, I see little difference between pizza and general fasfood.

I would even prefer KFC bucket with 25 chicken wings delivered to me, not pizza (which is mostly bread)

[laumars]

Domino's comes under the genre of fast food too. It's not all just burgers and fries.

[tyfon]

I do not use Deliveroo but what sounds like something similar in my area.

I live 20 minutes outside of a small town in Norway and the restaurants/kebab shops don't generate enough take-away business to provide this service themselves.

There is another company that does that for them and services all making take-away possible at all.

Now this company actually operates with a time guarantee, that is if the food is not delivered within an hour or if the order is "refused" due to reasons the OP touches on you get your money back.

I've yet to have any that happen to me, possibly because it would actually be bad for those delivering.

I could drive and pick it up myself, but sometimes you just want to be a couch-potato and be lazy!

[bosie]

genuine question, how can food stay warm/fresh if you have to drive 20-30 minutes with it? how often do you get the food cold?

[tyfon]

They have special thermal packaging. Usually when I get the food it's so hot I have to wait a bit before eating it :)

[nopriorarrests]

At least in my town, thermobags are the thing. You can even get a hot soup.

[nopriorarrests]

Pretty simple.

When you are severely hungover and your fridge is empty, food delivery is godsend, even if it is fastfood (and proper food is just priceless).

Recent McD commercial in NZ even focused on this particular case -- zombie-like people who celebrated NY 2019 all night long are getting some food delivered to their door. Dont have link right now but you can google.

[shalmanese]

If you have a small child, then just leaving the house to run an errand is an entire ordeal (esp if baby is sleeping right now). It's worth paying some non-trivial amount of money to avoid running errands. If you're also lower socio-economic class, then that leaves the only food you can afford being fast food.

People love to talk about these services as if they're only for young, single, hipsters but a significant portion of their use come from people with some kind of life limitation (same as the Whole Foods peeled oranges in a plastic box that people love to make fun of. These are a godsend for people with poor motor skills).

[rlue]

Their first-customer discounts and incentives are pretty enticing.

I live in Taiwan, where Deliveroo gives you about $3.50 off your first order, and delivery is factored into the price. A friend of mine ordered a $6 pizza that she ate half of and brought the rest of to work the next day. All told, she paid $2.50 for two lunches, and didn't even have to leave the office.

That doesn't sound better than the alternative to you?

[stronglikedan]

I know, right‽‽‽ I don't even know why people pay other people to cook for them! Absolutely preposterous!

[skh]

I’ve paid people to cook things for me. I’ve paid someone to cook shitty fast food for me. I’ve never paid someone to deliver that shitty fast food to me. When it arrives it is at best warm and even more disgusting. I don’t see the appeal of these services. It’s much better to get the food when it is hot. At least in my opinion. My friend’s son spends several hundred dollars a month is delivery charges. I certainly don’t understand doing that.

[astura]

Presumably the people who find value in this service have different taste buds than you and don't find the food they pay a premium for "disgusting."

Or they have different priorities than you and value convenience over taste, price, and quality. There's even an entire industry built on this premise, "convenience stores."

[moftz]

There are certain things that really don't make sense for delivery, like McDonald's. I could drive there, go through the drive-thru, and be home by the time someone else is picking it up. Most other restaurants do make sense for online ordering and delivery. Most of the time I just go and get the food myself as I'm usually just too cheap to pay the delivery fee and tip and longer wait. I'll order pickup and can go get it myself for a couple bucks of gas at most and at least I'll know it's as hot and fresh as it can be.

[thoughtpalette]

A lot of people in cities don't own transportation and it's quicker getting delivery than getting on a train/bus.

[moftz]

Right, in cities it makes the most sense for delivery of almost anything. Even if you have a car, trying to find parking at certain times just so you can run in and grab your pizza is probably not worth it. A guy on a scooter can park almost anywhere so it quickly becomes worth the fees to have it delivered. These services have started creeping out to the suburbs where I live and it doesn't always make a lot of sense for some of them. I'd imagine delivery services are even harder to do in rural areas where you would be waiting for quite a long time to get your pizza although I could see things like grocery delivery making sense.

[thoughtpalette]

I agree to an extent (about the services moving to the suburbs), but if the market's there as well, I'm sure the services are fine to squeeze out every last profit.

I do use Instacart for grocery delivery (Chicago), but I really dislike grocery stores and willing to pay the premium (avg +30% in my exp) to avoid that trip. Honestly, If I was in the suburbs, with a vehicle, I might be better incentivized to personally make the trip.

All my own opinion though.

[moftz]

Another thing I forgot to consider is people that can't leave their home for reasons other than they are tired from work or just hungover. You can get much healthier meals delivered now, much better than the pizza and chinese food that were pretty much the only option years ago. Grocery delivery is much more prevalent now too so for those that can at least cook for themselves, they don't have to rely on a family member coming by with groceries.

[phatfish]

I don't thinks it's old fashioned. Not being lazy and having a conscience is enough to avoid them.

Although those things are going out of fashion quite fast.

[i_cant_speel]

> having a conscience

What does having a conscience have to do with whether or not you use a food delivery service?

[glangdale]

I think a lot of people object to the labour practices of most if not all of the food delivery services; this isn't particularly new news. In Australia the drivers/riders are not treated or paid very well and there is considerable controversy about whether they are really employees vs contractors.

I'm surprised that this hasn't occurred to you already at least as an issue for someone (not necessarily you, or, for that matter, me). Still, this given that this is a thread where things like "food delivery" need to be explained from first principles, I shouldn't be too surprised.

[i_cant_speel]

> In Australia the drivers/riders are not treated or paid very well

So they should do something else. Those drivers determined that delivering the food was the best use of their time. I don't think it's right to voluntarily choose this specific job and then make people feel immoral for using the service they signed up to provide.

[glangdale]

Well, some of the ways they are not treated well seem to be sailing pretty close to the wind in terms of Australian labour law or are outright illegal. It's also pretty hard to imagine these services being remotely workable without a steady supply of "students" who are in Australia supposedly earning degrees but in practice are a giant pool of cheap labour. You can make various libertarian quibbles about both Australian labour and immigration rules, but not everyone wishes to subscribe to your libertarian newsletter....

[Nursie]

> Not being lazy and having a conscience is enough to avoid them.

But even then you would 'understand the appeal' but be opting out of using them.

It's a weird turn of phrase IMHO, as if the person has never heard of food delivery before.