An essential tool for consumers to eat quickly, conveniently, and easily, but maybe not so cost-efficiently.
By: Grace Gurvey
When Sarah Moore, 43, moved to Germany in 2018 for a job, food delivery applications became a lifeline for her to eat in a country where she didn’t speak the language. Today, she says, she continues to have food delivered to her home in Northwest Washington.
“I don’t like to cook, I don’t like to do dishes, it’s a lot of work for very little reward for me,” said Moore, when describing her consumption habits in an interview.
As of 2022, the average American was spending $150 a month on food delivery expenses which translates to over $1800 per year, according to Circuit, a software company that specializes in route optimization specifically for delivery drivers and couriers. With applications like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart, it has become easier than ever to have food delivered to consumers at their convenience. While food delivery costs and fees add up each month, the convenience and ease that food delivery applications bring are worth the extra expense, consumers say.
In March, Moore spent $300 on Uber Eats. She is typically ordering for one, but she orders extra portions for later, says Moore, principal specialist supplier of quality and development at Pratt and Whitney, an aerospace manufacturer in the US.
“I usually can get two or three meals out of anything that I order,” said Moore. “So, even though one of my meals was $65, that’s still three meals, which I think is pretty good. Especially for somebody that doesn’t cook, what I spend on food delivery is probably the same that other people spend in groceries every two weeks.”
Moore subscribes to Uber One, a membership program through Uber Eats which eliminates the delivery fee and offers up to 10% off on eligible non-grocery orders of $15 or more, according to Uber’s website. Subscribers also receive discounted pricing for grocery items and rides with Uber. The subscription practically pays for itself, Moore says.
“It’s like $10 a month, but I literally paid that off and made it worthwhile with the first two deliveries I did because it equals that amount of money in delivery fees,” she said.
Moore describes herself as “inherently lazy.” But, in fact, food delivery for her is not only about convenience, it’s about her health and well-being. Moore is a veteran and while serving as a jet engine mechanic for M-15 planes, she suffered a traumatic brain injury. She has trigeminal neuralgia, a condition that causes intense nerve pain in the face that, Moore says, is often debilitating. Also, Moore suffers from dysautonomia, a failure of the autonomic nervous system which controls the function of self-governing body systems like heart rate and blood pressure.
“I suffer from three different kinds of migraines, I had brain surgery 11 years ago, [and] there are times that I am physically unable to go anywhere,” Moore said. “Thankfully, it is not that common,” she added. “But it gets to the point where I know that I need to eat. I can’t cook, I am exhausted, [and] I haven’t slept in a couple of days. It is just so much easier for me to have somebody else do it.”
Madison McCabe, 24, spends upwards of $200 a month on Uber Eats. She describes her use “a last resort” as food delivery is quite unsustainable economically, she says.
“I feel like food delivery ends up taking up a big chunk of my meal costs each month just because it is so expensive so even if you are only doing it a few times, it still would cost more than like groceries for a month,” said McCabe, who is the chief of staff for delegate Adele McClure, 2nd District in Arlington
Since McCabe works remotely, she tries to cook at home as much as possible, she says. Her flexible schedule allows her more time to grocery shop. McCabe says each trip runs her about $80 which lasts her about a week and a half.
“It is probably more economical to do that,” McCabe said.
McCabe does question whether ordering for delivery through Uber Eats is worth the costs associated with the service, which can be hefty. She tries to be more conscious about what she is ordering, where from, and for how much, she says.
“Sometimes I just order from like Chipotle or something like that on food delivery apps, but then I always feel kind of guilty ordering a $7 bowl that ends up costing $30 to get to my place,” McCabe said. “So, I try not to if I can help it.”
McCabe frequents Silver in Washington, both for delivery and in-person dining. While the food remains the same, the prices listed on Uber Eats are noticeably higher, she says.
“These restaurants, even the nicer restaurants, the charge of the actual food, not just the delivery, is higher on the apps,” McCabe said. “So, if you want to order the same entrée in person that’s $15, on the app, it could be $20 just because they are able to charge more. They can price it however they want.”
A new phenomenon to McCabe is the concept of a ghost kitchen, something she recently discovered through Uber Eats. According to Grubhub for Restaurants, ghost kitchens are small kitchens that only offer delivery services without the presence of an actual restaurant. These kitchens rent out small, cost-efficient spaces to make their own food or employ other kitchens to cook for them. By keeping ingredients and menu items consistent across multiple locations, these ghost kitchens appear to small local restaurants new to the area.
McCabe likes to know that the food she is ordering is actually coming from the place listed on the application, she says. Ghost kitchens on an app like Uber Eats are often “disguised as a small business because it has a name you haven’t heard of, so you don’t think it’s a chain, but it actually is,” McCabe said.
These food delivery applications are very intentional with their marketing to make users believe they are ordering from new, local restaurants, but this isn’t always the case, McCabe says.
“If you want a burger, there’s like ten different burger restaurants and they could all be coming from the place down the street,” she said. “I will see a place that’s like, ‘Oh, this is a new vegan restaurant that sells vegan burgers,’ and I am like no, they are actually just selling it out of the same restaurant.”
Will Strausbaugh, 23, says that food delivery applications like DoorDash pushes users, like himself, to eat unhealthy options. This is because the restaurants that are shown first when opening the app and have the most deals and discounts are typically fast-food chains, he says.
“I don’t think it’s very helpful because the first couple icons on the screen are cheap options that are generally unhealthy like McDonald’s, Burger King, the usual stuff like that,” Strausbaugh said, who is a financial service representative at New York Life Insurance, a financial planning firm.
Hank Cardello, executive director of the Leadership Solutions for Health and Prosperity, an initiative program through Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, says while part of the problem is marketing on the food delivery applications, consumers “don’t help things either” when great taste is prioritized over health.
“When they [consumers] hear the word ‘healthy’ with the exception of the hardcore crowd, they think it’s going to taste worse,” Cardello said. “That’s why restaurants have been really resistant to converting their menu items because they start screaming health and consumers back off.”
While taste is a key part of what drives consumers to ordering certain meals, Cardello says, convenience will always come first for consumers when continuing the usage of food delivery applications.
“When you start looking at the demographics and income profiles of people, you have couples working two jobs,” Cardello said. “They don’t have any time, especially if they have kids. They are under big time stress, not only with work, but also with the family and with the time constraints. So, convenience really comes out on top when you talk about delivering to a home.”
As someone who uses food delivery two or three times a week due his busy work schedule, Strausbaugh spends upwards of $300 a month on food delivery alone. But he says it is worth it for him.
“I think the way I justify it to myself is essentially the time it would take for me to go to the store, pick out all the things I need for the week, then come home, that’s two or three hours of picking up food and groceries and things like that,” he said. “On top of that, cooking a meal everyday takes about an hour and most of the time its meats and a full meal and takes two or three hours to get that done.”
Annette Finsterbusch, 60, says she is just not comfortable going in-person to dine anymore. Like other consumers, her usage of food delivery applications is rooted from the pandemic.
“This is a little bit hard to be honest about,” Finsterbusch said. “I am still not comfortable eating inside… Last week, we went to BlackSalt, and we were there kind of between lunch and dinner and we did eat inside. So, I will, but I just don’t do it anywhere near as often as we did before the pandemic which was maybe three or four times a week.”
Finsterbusch was on the Keto diet, a low-carbohydrate, fat-rich eating plan, for almost six years. Dining in a restaurant hasn’t been the easiest for her which is why she opts for DoorDash which allows for more customization and accommodations with her dietary restrictions, she says.
“It is also harder for me to eat out comfortably,” said Finsterbusch, who is the head of the small business investment program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). “Like I’m asking, do you cook with sugar? I’m sure my family always feels like it’s like this 20 questions with me when I order.”
Food delivery is a source of enjoyment, Finsterbusch says. DoorDash makes eating quick, easy, and convenient, she says, which is well worth the premium price.
“It is the same reason that we go and get our nails done,” Finsterbusch said. “There’s absolutely no reason to do it, but sometimes it’s just nice. I think that is what it is. In some cases, it is like we are hungry, it’s already 6:00 p.m., we better order something quickly. It’s a time saving issue. By the time you enter the grocery store, then you came back, and started cooking, that would be a problem. That is a driver for us in many ways.”
