In other words, you paid $17.30 for $27 of goods and services ($19.50 if the driver avoided the return trip). Which means someone was losing money on the deal and the price is unlikely to be sustainable long term
The driver almost always avoids the return trip because of how these routes are scheduled. I also see the driver dropping off 1 or 2 other deliveries on the way to my place so your math is way off.
That aside, you’re mostly right about people losing money: Doordash nets -10% of revenue. Most restaurants also pay a commission to Doordash which effectively gets passed on to me as a discounted delivery fee, but I dunno if you’d count that as “losing money”.
I think it would be pretty easy for them to turn a 10% profit though. All they have to do is increase prices by ~15% and cut their R&D budget in half (currently 10% of revenue). I’ll enjoy the cheap deliveries while it lasts.
That aside, you’re mostly right about people losing money: Doordash nets -10% of revenue. Most restaurants also pay a commission to Doordash which effectively gets passed on to me as a discounted delivery fee, but I dunno if you’d count that as “losing money”.
I think it would be pretty easy for them to turn a 10% profit though. All they have to do is increase prices by ~15% and cut their R&D budget in half (currently 10% of revenue). I’ll enjoy the cheap deliveries while it lasts.