Because they act like they support local businesses but then take a 30% cut out of their profit despite not doing anything remotely close to justifying that price.
This forces local small places to have to raise their costs whereas the big chains cut deals with these platforms and don't have to raise their prices as their cut is much smaller.
So now if I want to buy local I am paying more for the food than I would if I went into the place. But that doesn't even then account for me having to also pay a delivery fee and a service fee. Oh and if my order is under $12? They'll slap a "small order fee" on. If I am already paying a fee to use the service on every single order, then why is the restaurant still getting screwed out of 30%? I just paid the company a fee for the service. That service fee and that cut from the restaurant is not going to the person doing the delivery work. I'm already paying for that in the delivery fee and tip.
> despite not doing anything remotely close to justifying that price
What ever justifies a price apart from what people are willing to pay?
If the restaurants are willing to pay their part and the consumer is willing to pay their part, then the price is right. If anyone was getting 'screwed' and the price wasn't worth it they'd walk away. We're talking delivery of junk food here as well - it's not like it's an essential service.
For some people delivery is quite useful and essential in their lives and gives them some independence. During some of the lockdowns in Canada drive-thru and delivery were some of the only options for getting food. And places without a drive-thru were forced to rely a lot on delivery apps.
Unfortunately you'd think it is a choice, but in today's day in age a restaurant cannot afford to skip being on the delivery apps. People are lazy and are likely to just not order from a place if they don't see it on a delivery app. No one I have talked to has ever been happy with the way the apps work. However part of the problem is that most people don't know how much these apps are screwing over the restaurant. I have talked to people who were happy to have so many options of local places on these delivery apps and were happy to be able to support them. But they did not even know that these companies were taking such a huge cut of the money that it meant those local companies often weren't making profit on the orders at all.
This forces local small places to have to raise their costs whereas the big chains cut deals with these platforms and don't have to raise their prices as their cut is much smaller.
So now if I want to buy local I am paying more for the food than I would if I went into the place. But that doesn't even then account for me having to also pay a delivery fee and a service fee. Oh and if my order is under $12? They'll slap a "small order fee" on. If I am already paying a fee to use the service on every single order, then why is the restaurant still getting screwed out of 30%? I just paid the company a fee for the service. That service fee and that cut from the restaurant is not going to the person doing the delivery work. I'm already paying for that in the delivery fee and tip.