Online/app customers are more important than in person customers?

[Childanddogmama]

I was in a branch of Subway today. There were 2 customers queueing and then myself and my daugher. Whilst the Subway employee was serving them a man came in carrying a food delivery bag.
It was then our turn but the Subway employee looked past us and told the delivery/collection man that she would make it now. I pointed out we were first and she just shrugged and said it's policy.
I was so annoyed, I said forget it then and we walked out without having anything.
Am I being unreasonable to think that the collection/delivery man arrived after me and so should be served afterwards?

But didn't the customer who ordered the food online order before you?

I have exactly the same issue with my local Costa - there can be a queue out the door and they are preparing online orders first which then get shoved on a shelf waiting for just eat or deliveroo etc to collect

One day as an experiment I went in to a big queue and instead of joining it went and sat down and made my order online - it was ready before I had reached where my place in the queue would have been! However I prefer proper plates and cups so won’t do this unless I really have to!

Maybe their order came whilst I was in the queue but should the delivery driver not take their place in the queue waiting for the sandwiches to be made ?

I suppose you could argue that there's a paper trail with online ordering and possible penalties for missed deadlines. And if someone in the physical queue complains, then they can/will blame company policy .

Interesting! Might have to do this but it seems ridiculous!

With how rife shoplifting is, even in sandwich shops like Subway and Greggs, I'm not surprised that online customers are taking precedent. No disrespect to any posters here, including using table service. It's just a sad state of affairs nowadays.

I won't be surprised when these outlets become drive-thru (or walk-thru) and you order on the app to collect at the collection point or to have delivered.

Supermarkets will become click-and-collect and delivery only to combat the organised gangs that are too overwhelming for the security guards and barriers.

Edited for typos I made

Infuriating. Not so long ago I waited 20 minutes in a near empty fish and chip shop for my order while they were making up a big online order.

They could have given me mine from what was ready and cooked an extra portion for the big order because it took them so long to wrap it all.

Extra annoying because I didn't really have time to wait that long so chose what to have based on what was in the warming cupboard. I'd have gone elsewhere if I'd have realised.

Leaving and going elsewhere is pretty pointless since they are all heading in this direction and is essentially the new business model - similar to self service checkouts. I see tiktoks of Americans complaining about this in the US, so it's not even a bad customer service in the UK thing, it's widespread and intentional unfortunately.

Same here in Oz, we don’t eat out a lot but when we do we’re always appalled at how in store customers can apparently wait endlessly while lines of delivery drivers have their orders handed to them right away. It’s getting to the stage that places are going to need separate kitchens/spaces for online orders but most won’t have the room.

Had the opposite the other night.

Place was busy with customers. Delivery man was waiting with his bag and looking upset. He had just been told they are very busy.

Unless your ill/disabled can't get out. I think it's bloody lazy to expect everything delivered to you.

How do you expect these drivers to earn a living. The whole point is speed

Like I said in my post, that it's fully a thing now and you as a walk-in customer are almost an inconvenience because there are enough lazy customers paying for food sat at home. Obviously, large establishments like McDonald's who have enough foot traffic round the clock can hire a ton of extra staff - but it's the smaller/ independent places where you notice it more and you have to stand wait like a dick head.

It’s bc the company loses out financially if they are late on the orders for online customers, they can complain n get their money back n will leave negative reviews which will impact them. In store customers wouldn’t be able to get refund on food, less likely to complain or go online to complain

When i worked in retail over twenty years ago now i was told that the customer standing in front of me was to be served first always and to ignore the phone How times change.

These companies (Deliveroo, Uber Eats etc) work by exploiting the drivers, ie by falsely claiming they are self employed. So avoiding tax and employment laws.

Which in turn means the drivers can't make a living unless they also break the law as the majority will be doing it using a dangerous and illegal motorbike or without the correct insurance for their car. Plus it's known that some of the drivers rent their account to people who couldn't otherwise work in the UK, so more exploitation and law breaking.

The whole industry is immoral and corrupt and its astonishing how many people are prepared to turn a blind eye to facilitate having food brought to them for less than the cost of providing the service.

This is a great point and one I've been thinking a lot about lately as I see the drivers queuing up waiting to get the food, how unnervingly comfortable we've become as a country with a sea of usually brown or black skinned people ferrying food around usually for pennies. It really sits uncomfortably with me, the whole business model needs looking at.