Do Uber Eats and DoorDash Deliver Profits?

Deliver services carve into the bottom line.

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By Jennifer Fumiko Cahill jennifer@northcoastjournal.com

When, at already-in-your-pajamas o’clock, with Netflix alerting you the next episode will start in seven seconds, you realize you must have a bacon cheeseburger or a poké bowl, throwing a few extra bucks at a delivery app sounds like a bargain. Plus tip, of course — you’re not an animal. But how much of a deal that delivery will be for the restaurant preparing your meal is another question.

Uber Eats made its incursion into the North Coast in October, deploying its small roster of drivers to service restaurants and their hungry, convenience-loving customers. A free download of the app reveals a dozen or so restaurants each in Eureka and Arcata, shuttling everything from Big Macs to oysters on the half shell. The company’s website touts the benefits of fast delivery, the ability to “promote your business to our rider audience” and increased orders. The site reads, “Our top restaurants earn on average over $6,400 per month*.” Qualified at the bottom of the page: “*Based on calculated global average for top 25 percent of active restaurants in the month of August 2016.”

(Uber Eats did not respond to emailed questions from the Journal.)

Diver Bar and Grill owners Shawn Stoops and Dawn Watkins say the service had a rocky start. There didn’t seem to be enough drivers, leading to steak dinners and pizzas sitting for half an hour or more until the order was canceled or Stoops ran out to deliver it himself. Some of the late-night drivers earned poor ratings from the restaurant in the beginning, says Stoops. “We’ve had people smelling like weed, we had a dude walk out on a $90 order” instead of waiting for servers to finish boxing it up. The Diver isn’t alone in its dissatisfaction, either. China Buffet manager Phoebe Huang says the delays caused the restaurant to ditch the service. She says, “We don’t use that because before, when our orders are ready, we were waiting for 30 minutes. And I don’t want to lose my customers.”

Stoops says things improved since a few regular drivers started handling deliveries, adding that Uber Eats reimburses the cost of meals on canceled orders. But the partnership remains pricey.