But they're not forcing themselves in between. All the customers you already had are still going directly to you. They're just widening the pool of potential customers.
By lying. In-N-Out is infamous for dealing with this. They sued one of the delivery sites for trademark infringement. “But why?” you might ask. Because customers are dumb sometimes and would blame In-N-Out when their food arrived cold of their milkshakes melted.[a]
Sure, In-N-Out was getting more money, but it was hurting their brand (which caused money loses). They never approved being on the site, but that didn’t stop the site from lying and pretending In-N-Out was a “partner”.
[a]: Think Amazon with the stupid 1-star reviews for being “late” or “shipping box damaged”. It hurts the brand of the product being sold.
Seperate route for A transaction, not THE transaction.
The difference is setting expectations and how they are managed.
The restaurant is able to set and manage expectations when people deal with them. They are not able to do that with other agents, unless that relationship has been established and mutually agreed to.
If doing that came along with the outside service, such as what one might experience with a general courier or agent, it is not cheap.
And people get what they pay for and associate it with the restuarant, who did not set and manage expectations appropriately.
Unless you think GrubHub are forcing themselves in the middle of a transaction that was going to take place anyway, I don't think we disagree.
GrubHub are offering a service where they go and pick up your food for you from a place that offers takeaway but not home delivery.
That sounds fine, I can't imagine anyone having an objection with that service, even if the restaurant hasn't signed up for it.
The problem is that GrubHub are making people think they're dealing directly with the restaurant, not that GrubHub are picking up food from restaurants that didn't sign up for it.
The problem isn't that GrubHub are sitting in the middle of a transaction between a customer and a restaurant. The problem is that they're (maybe) lying about it.
As long as they are completely up front about being a courier, and they are doing something to insure food safety, and they deal with the establishment as any other customer, I am sure some people would use the service.
People did it with TaskRabbit, and one could get more than food done that way.
The resturaunt charges xx.xx
You are paying service yy.yy
For a total of zz.zz
Personally, I won't. Unless I talk with the restuarant, I have no idea about availability, time to prepare, etc...
And frankly, I can get my food. I know what it costs for someone to do that and not be way underpaid, and would rather not see people underpaid.
And let's be honest: they will do everything they can to capture traffic, and will end up handling deals that would have gone to the resturaunt and will then leverage all of that. Hell, I would!
So, no. Not interested. Perfectly happy to support my locals directly.
I used to order directly from a local Chinese restaurant quite regularly, but when they appeared on Just Eat I ordered from there instead (convienence and laziness on my part). I never thought to ask if they'd actually joined or if Just Eat had added them without consent.
