[derrekl]

I worked at a pizza place in the early to mid 90s in the suburbs of Chicago. The place ran its own delivery service. The service was fantastic, pizzas delivered piping hot most of the times. It wasn’t very hard for the restaurant to set up and operate the service. 15 year old me understood it pretty well.

That said I think where these delivery services have come in is at places that historically didn’t have their own delivery. Now these places suddenly have “delivery as a service” to add on with Seemingly no additional work, a fee, and additional revenue.

These places could easily start their own delivery service if they want, but they must still think it’s easier to pay the delivery as a service fees.

[blfr]

Yes, pizza places had it figured out. Everyone else, not so much. And on Uber Eats or many of their competitors you can order pancakes with coffee, burgers, traditional food, Georgian, whatever.

In Poland, Pyszne.pl is usually better and offers a wider selection than Uber Eats. The delivery is often provided by the restaurant itself, just like you suggest. In fact, I made two orders from Uber Eats today and both are delivered by the restaurant. But even then the intermediary keeps them honest with reviews and access to the platform. It's not pure rent seeking.

Before that, these platforms do a lot of promotion, marketing, and allow for easy discovery. They have greatly expanded the market. Just like Uber did for taxis.