DoorDash costs have always been absurd, they just hide a lot of it by pricing the food higher than it normally is.

I've noticed our grocery delivery services doing that, too, giving us prices on items that are higher than they are if you go to the store yourself. We'll stop using them soon. It's bullshit. Delivery costs ought to be transparent.

[EDIT] Oh, and places like pizza joints that already had delivery service are starting to get a lot more aggressive about differentiating delivery vs. pick-up pricing. They've long had a deal or two at a time that's carry-out only, but now it's all the decent deals, and even some deals specify that they'll be less-good if you order delivery. Delivery can easily be 40% more expensive than carry-out, as a result, because they also still charge the delivery fees they all started tacking on a decade or so ago (which are also higher, now) and you still, despite already potentially paying $10+ more than you would have for carry-out, have to tip, because most of that money's not making it to the delivery driver.

I have to believe that a large portion of delivery markup is price discrimination. Restaurants have long looked for ways to charge more to people who are willing to pay more, but have been largely unable to because everyone gets the same menu. Delivery provides a convenient way to weed out those that will pay more by letting those who aren't pick up the food themselves.

It seems like most of the prices are either equivalent to the restaurant's prices, or only slightly higher. But when I compare DoorDash to UberEats, with the food prices being the same, I have seen $10+ differences in the final total. That's when I dropped DoorDash.

I just know that a couple years back when I had a couple "free delivery!" coupons from DoorDash, I struggled to make use of it in a way that wasn't a rip-off, because the food prices were so much higher than their usual menu price. In the end, to make it any kind of actual bargain, I had to be careful to order only very small amounts (one or two things), and avoid many menu items entirely. That got it down to being about the same as picking up, plus tip, which made it useful. Otherwise I was still paying a large premium for delivery, despite "free delivery".

It is not a given that all service economy business models will survive. Historically as goods got cheaper relative to labor, service prices rose. In poor countries service jobs such as doorman or shaver are much more common than in rich countries. The classic example is that below a certain income level, the majority of men start to have their faces professionally shaved rather than doing it themselves.

Having another person spend 15-30 minutes in a high stress situation to deliver you food should be a high cost activity that gets more expensive relative to your income over time. Traditional delivery services only made this cost effective by making food for low cost. The alternative is an economy where wages cannot rise relative to goods.

I'm not sure how much food delivery should cost. Though most local restaurants around me seen to do it for free (and tipping isn't expected, in fact it would be a struggle, most drivers drop the food and run now).

I'm not naive enough though not to notice that it's all done under the table. Few are paying tax or commercial insurance on their vehicles to do restaurant delivery.

I'm pretty sure doing it legitimately costs a reasonable amount. Doubly so when you aren't just trying to get your food to your customers but also paying a bunch of developers Silicon Valley wages to try to capture the entire market before someone else does.

There is no “how much it should cost”. If there are a lot of people who do not have better opportunities in life, then it will be lower priced. If people have access to better opportunities than spending time delivering food, then it will be higher priced.

When my family goes to their homes in a developing country, they have drivers and cooks and maids, because there is a huge supply of poorer people willing and able to do those things for a sufficiently low price for my family.

When they return to the US, they have to do all of that themselves, because there is not a huge supply of poorer people willing and able to do those things for a sufficiently low price.

Same thing applies to being able to shop on a Sunday evening, or get a burrito at 11PM, or 2 day delivery. I like seeing fast food stores closed due to insufficient labor, because that means the people that used to have to do those jobs for menial wages now have a better option.

Same. My last doordash order was for 20 dollars of food and after tip (the suggested) it came to over double the original food cost. That's just not sustainable for anyone.

I mean they could also not set record profits, and just have regular profits for a while.