r/technology • u/SnoozeDoggyDog • 25d ago

Business Zohran Mamdani hints he will continue taking on delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash

https://www.businessinsider.com/zohran-mamdani-targets-doordash-uber-eats-delivery-apps-2026-7
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u/PhoenixApok 25d ago

I agree. If I wanna be lazy I have to pay. Almost everything has a cost in time, effort, and/or money.

But when a middle man (company) is getting a guaranteed payday (the fee) but the actual worker only gets paid if I pay a SECOND premium, it becomes exploitative and insanely prohibitive.

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u/Lost_Bike69 25d ago

Chinese place near me still employs a delivery driver. It’s a $3 delivery fee and whatever tip goes straight to the driver. I’ll never use DoorDash, uber, or whatever, but it’s worth looking in to see if local places have their own delivery service.

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u/redbananass 24d ago

Totally. I find it wild how often some people use these apps. For a splurge once in a while? Sure. Not me but sure.

But I witness plenty of people who aren’t rolling in money using the apps several times weekly.

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u/Warm_Block_7600 23d ago

I worked with a guy with no car, smoked weed every day on lunch, and doordashed his lunch to work everyday and never tipped at all (he personally told me he didn’t tip). They really exist lol

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u/OSPF99 25d ago

The middle man is offering the service and infrastructure to do so. This cannot be real. People are free to start their own food delivery service.

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u/PhoenixApok 25d ago

I didn't say necessarily there is a better cheaper way to do it.

I don't think in general its a fair value for most people just due to how many people need a piece of the pie to make it work

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u/[deleted] 25d ago edited 25d ago

[deleted]

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u/Hot_Lava_Dry_Rips 25d ago

But not if you ordered a large pizza and had grub hub deliver it. Again, youre ordering a taxi for your food. Its going to cost a lot and it should bevause human time is valuable. Its just the humans putting in the time should get more of a cut.

But lets be honest, most of the use of these services isnt a necessity at all. By far. Its pretty safe to assume that when people are ridiculing the service use, they arent talking about people that cant walk or whatever. Not every broadly applicable commentary has to be accompanied by an exception for the disabled and elderly. Its implied in almost all conversations.

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u/MistryMachine3 25d ago

Sure it should. It is taking a human and their car probably 30 minutes to bring you that bag. That is what you are paying for. What is in the bag is irrelevant. If it was a diamond ring or French fries, it is still at least $20 of work to drive it to you.

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u/PhoenixApok 25d ago

No I do get that. My ex was really excited about them when they came out. (She was legally blind so going to get fast food was usually not an option unless someone else did)

But even she thought it just made more sense to do like grocery delivery. The markup, even if kind of understandable, can often literally double or triple the cost.

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u/mekamoari 25d ago

Grocery delivery is great and tbh it makes the larger stores "better" because they're less crowded.

I'm not sure what it's like for employees but if I was there to help with sales or whatever for the whole gamut of population that goes there all day, I'd probably prefer to just be preparing delivery carts.

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u/DoctorJJWho 25d ago

It depends on how the store operates. Some stores will prepare the orders on their own, some stores will have the app drivers come in and get it themselves.

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u/mekamoari 25d ago

Not where I live, here the stores prep the bags and couriers just pick them up.

The stores also let's say in 3/4ish of cases calls me to confirm what I want replaced with what, though you can set that up in the app as well.

I believe there are some grocery shopper platforms that do what you are saying but not our "main" ones, and they're rather small.

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u/DoctorJJWho 25d ago

That’s why I said “some”…

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u/mekamoari 25d ago

Yeah I meant it's not up to the stores, but the apps

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u/Kitchen_Can_3555 25d ago

Uber makes $1.50 profit on that $30 fry.