And like them or not, restaurants joined delivery platforms in droves: During a May conference call with analysts, Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney mentioned that many new restaurants have signed up for its services since the pandemic reached the United States.

Since the pandemic hit, forcing Americans to stay home and restaurants across the country to limit capacity or close their doors entirely, delivery has become a lifeline. Many restaurants are finding themselves tied to delivery services they hate, without a clear path out.ĭelivery has never mattered to restaurants as much as it does now. Those efforts are helping, but they’re not enough to tip the scale. So restaurants are coming up with alternatives to help complement the big players, like perks for customers who order directly and DIY delivery services. And if they choose to outsource delivery to these platforms, restaurants also hand off valuable customer data and control over how delivery orders show up at their customers doors.ĭelivery has become a lifeline for restaurants during the pandemic Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images But profit margins in the restaurant industry are often razor-thin, so these fees can wipe out the restaurant’s profits or put them in the red. For these services, they often charge restaurants around 30% per order.

These platforms offer a way for customers to order from local restaurants, process restaurant payments and provide contract drivers to pick meals up from restaurants and deliver them to customers. Restaurant operators complain that third-party delivery providers like Seamless, DoorDash and Uber Eats are prohibitively expensive. You’re not there.” Because so many people order through the app, turning it off would mean losing about 80% of his business overnight, he said. If you’re not on Seamless, “you no longer exist online. But now, he feels that opting out of Seamless is not an option. Palombino used to do just fine with his own delivery fleet, he said. “The worst thing that has ever happened to us is them,” said Mathieu Palombino, owner of the small New York City-based pizza chain. If you visit Motorino Pizza’s website, you’ll be greeted with a plea: Don’t order through Seamless.

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