Delivery drivers and take away orders ruin restaurant meals

Ive never come across this apart from maybe in a nandos

There's someone opposite me who seems to get one coffee delivered all the time it's mad isn't it. I know someone who sees no problem ordering 1 grocrry item then an hour later ordering one more. 🙃

Yes! Groups of masked men are intimidating. I don't think people care about what women might think though.

I agree it’d be annoying. But from the restaurants perspective, they’re getting more business from deliveries than people eating out less than once a month.

I agree, plus all the e-bikes barrelling down the pavement.

I feel the same. I don't get it. The only place I get takeaways from is the Indian restaurant up the road from me so I walk and collect. I tried Deliveroo during lockdown and it was invariably disappointing. The prices of items are also higher, then you have the service charge and delivery on top. Drivers could never find me despite giving them v specific instructions and what.three.words so it was always cold when it finally arrived, often after much back and forth over the phone to the driver. I can't imagine the appeal of a fried breakfast or fish and chips delivery, or the point of ordering a coffee and pastry from Starbucks. Doesn't the coffee spill everywhere anyway? If you're at home then just make one yourself FFS.

Thanks for quoting one line, without the explanation - out of context you are quite right

However, with the context (of retaining the same low profit margin percentage) then what I said makes total sense.

Deliveroo arrives cold as well so what we have here is the worst of both worlds

We had a similar experience in a McDs we used to go to. 35 mins wait while more and more drivers piled in. We only got the food then because I complained. Haven't been back since.

Nonsense, the food is beautifully hot and fresh when it arrives, better than I've had in a lot of restaurants, and much hotter than if I picked it up and drove four miles home. And I do put it on a nice plate after it has arrived, it's much more comfortable than a restaurant because it's my house, and the supermarket wine I'm having with it has not been marked up 200%.

I have the same experience in restaurants round here and I find the obsession with Deliveroo so weird. Unless you're getting a curry, takeaways are so often minging by the time they arrive. Who wants to eat a slightly cold pizza or chips that have gone soggy from the condensation? If I'm going to spend that much money I want it fresh from the kitchen on a proper plate not wrapped up in plastic and bounced around on the back of a bike.

It's not an inevitable consequence of higher costs- that would impact on turnover obviously but not necessarily profit.

But that's an inevitable consequence of higher costs.

If you sell the same amount of items at a higher cost (because your costs are higher so you have to) and retain the same low percentage profit margin, your profits will increase and so will the amount available to pay shareholders.

The profit margin is still low.

I don't think it's a sign of "incredible wealth" that people can afford a takeaway.

It's not a race to the bottom, much as some people would like it to be.

The article talks about profit rises and increased dividends paid to shareholders in a cost of living crisis for its customers.

This 👆

Had exactly the same experience last week at my local fish and chip shop - one person in front of me but waited for 20 minutes or so to be served due to delivery drivers.

I then had to wait another 15 minutes while they cooked my order because all the fish had been given to drivers. At least my order was hot and fresh!

I’ve noticed this too. It’s poor service and very annoying. I would have complained.

Given that I don't have all their accounts information, it's impossible for me to give an accurate representation of why costs have gone up.

There will also be in increases in the wages of the suppliers, meaning the product price will have increased. The increased electricity costs. The increases in raw material costs which have been affected by the issues like Ukraine and Brexit. I could go on.

But the simplest way to illustrate it, with numbers that are actually easy to access, is with wage increases.

Of course, anyone that thinks the supermarket price rises are simply because of profiteering will be able to go to other shops and presumably enjoy lower prices. (Not saying this in relation to what has been said on this thread, but I've seen it said before).

I mean, you can't completely compare profit margin to wage increase without factoring in volume of sales and number of staff into the equation. A 28% wage bill doesn't automatically ruin a retail business running a 5% profit margin when their volume of sales is mammoth. Less profitable doesn't mean not profitable. I mean I'm not deluded into thinking big businesses don't need to increase prices to offset costs, it's just part of the bigger problem with how our world is structured where constant growth is needed at the top while quality of life is sacrificed at the bottom.

Be great if there was an innovation whereby a section of the restaurant area is separated (mentioned above also) and you phone in your order like Uber eats or Deliveroo. You go next door to the pub for a pre dinner drink, they phone you when your order is ready and you collect it and sit at the (home style take away sit down) restaurant table and unpack it like at home. Yay!

BYO also for a corkage charge. I hope someone steals my brilliant idea LOL.

I guess this is a benefit of living in the sticks… we have no Deliveroo or Uber Eats out here so I haven’t encountered it in local restaurants! I can see it would be absolutely infuriating though and would probably put me off eating out.

I agree, I think the whole hospitality model is going to change a lot in the next few years. In my city there's a definite trend in new places opening that focus on a specific type of food done well that have a small amount of cafe-style seating but they're mostly geared towards takeaway and delivery.

The fact is that the food marker is oversaturated now and it's going to readjust to the new reality soon with less traditional table service venues overall. I've seen hospitality spread like wildfire for most of my adult life and it probably helped compensate for the loss of retail in a lot of neighbourhoods but I dread to think what happens to these spaces as hospitality shrinks - not really the point of your post though so sorry for the tangent!

Pretty much all restaurants in large towns and cities have take away now.