Place takeout orders on the restaurant’s own website or app, then pick them up. On a delivery app, a menu markup, a service fee, a delivery fee, and a tip can add a third or more to the food’s price. Pay for a delivery membership only if your delivery fees come to more than $10 a month.
Part of that extra cost is in the menu prices, not the fees. Restaurants pay the apps a commission on each delivery order, 15% to 30% of the subtotal on DoorDash’s published plans, and DoorDash says many set different prices for delivery.
Say a restaurant lists a $36 dinner at $40 on the app, the app charges a 15% service fee and a $2 delivery fee, and you tip the driver 15%. With a $6 service fee and a $6 tip, that’s $54 before tax. Picked up from the restaurant at its own prices, the same dinner costs $36 before tax, so delivery through the app costs $18 more, half the food’s price.
That 15% is DoorDash’s service fee on most orders in California, Chicago, New York City, and six other places. Elsewhere, DoorDash is moving to a fee based on distance and order size. It can also add a fee to small orders. Uber Eats charges delivery and service fees too. Grubhub drops both on restaurant orders over $50, but any markup and the tip remain.
To pay the restaurant’s own prices, order on its website or app, or by phone, and pick it up. Join its rewards program, if it has one, so the order earns points. In an app, switching to pickup drops the delivery fee and the tip, and DoorDash’s terms for restaurants call for pickup prices to match in-store prices.
A delivery membership saves money only on deliveries you’d order anyway. DashPass and Uber One each cost $9.99 a month or $96 a year and waive the delivery fee and cut the service fee on eligible orders over a set minimum. If your delivery fees on such orders came to more than $10 last month, waiving them alone would have covered the $9.99 monthly price. Check whether you carry one of the credit cards that include DashPass before you pay for it.
On your next order, open the restaurant’s own site, price the same meal for pickup, and compare that total with the app’s.
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