There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism — even gummy bears aren’t safe — but I’d like to think most people try to eat ethically where they can. If you are one of those people, you should delete all those super convenient delivery apps on your phone.
Look, I’m not happy about it either. As a lazy person without a car, I’m often part of this particular problem, but delivery apps are bad for restaurants and I love restaurants. I don’t feel so bad using it for big chains, but smaller restaurants often get caught up in a vicious cycle of using delivery services to support their business, then doing business to support those services.
Unfortunately, there’s no clever hack around this: you just need to pick up the damn phone. I understand that a lot of people have anxiety around doing so — myself included — but there are ways to alleviate that. If a place offers delivery and you still choose another service, you’re not only costing the restaurant, but (most likely) yourself with all of those delivery fees.
If you don’t know any restaurants the deliver, do a little research and make a list of all of those that do to suit your various cravings. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be less likely to panic-order something out of hangriness. Also, make a list of those places in your neighbourhood that offer food to-go; taking a little pre-dinner walk is never a bad thing.
This also may be a good opportunity to examine your dinner habits as a whole. If you can’t imagine living without mobile food delivery apps, you probably aren’t doing a lot of cooking. Cooking at home is the original culinary hack and if you’re having a hard time sticking to a meal plan, we have some tips for you here.
I understand that nobody’s perfect and that there are some days — like sick days — where convenience will always win, but cutting down on your Uber Eats habit is good for your favourite restaurants, your wallet and your physical health.
Also, no matter where you order from, tip the delivery person — in cash, not written in on your credit card receipt — especially if the weather is bad.
Comments
6 responses to “Pick Up The Damn Phone To Order Your Food”
I’ll order food however I damn well please, Claire. What the hell even is this article? Lifehacks /= lectures.
To the Aussie editors – tipping a delivery person in the land down under would be very unusual. How much effort would it have taken to write a similar article for an Australian audience, rather than repost something that is already six months old? https://web.archive.org/pick-up-the-damn-phone-to-order-your-food-1823004828
It’s a twenty minute job to write an unsourced, highly opinionated directionless rant such as the one above in a local voice; I’ll do it in half the time for the price of a pint. Call me. In the meantime, I’m taking my pageclicks elsewhere, you’ve had enough chances and there’s only so much shoddy churnalism that I can stomach.
Excellent comment and couldn’t agree more.
Yeah no tipping delivery drivers isn’t unusual at all. I was a pizza delivery driver as a teenager and more people tipped than didn’t. None of that whole American 15% 20% stuff but a few bucks here and there. And you bet us drivers paid attention to who tipped because if we had two deliveries in the same area and one tipped, you knew who was getting pizza first. Same with taxi drivers quality drivers get tips, fast pizza delivery gets tipped. Excellent service above expectation deserves recognition. I currently supervise at a roadhouse and people even tip there.
I thought the point of uber eats was for those restaurants that can’t/don’t actually deliver? Isn’t the customer paying for the uber eats portion? any more business would be good business right? It should be in your google listing ,etc if your business delivered also.
Nope. Uber Eats charge the customer $5, but also the restaurant 35% of the order. Needless to say that, at best, that’s a significant chunk of their profit margin, and at worst, a lot of restaurants take a loss for the sake of increased customer engagement.
I wonder if this is an age thing, but I have never ordered food using the phone. However, I know older people who prefer phone ordering.
I recall when I lived at home my parents would order over the phone, they would be yelling while the person on the other end struggles to hear the order and ends up writing it down wrong. At least with an internet order, it’s exactly what you have selected on the order.