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Tony Marciante has owned Chef Tony’s Seafood in Bethesda, Maryland since 2007. When food delivery apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub came out, he, like many restaurateurs, signed up.
“They were a necessary evil,” Marciante, 55, told Business Insider.
But now he’s trying to take his restaurant off the app. Now with a second Chef Tony location in Rockville, Md., and several pizza concepts under his belt, Marciante says the tide appears to be turning, and other restaurant owners are looking for alternatives. He said he was there.
Food delivery apps have also come under scrutiny for charging customers high prices and paying drivers low wages. A customer who orders takeout via Postmates or DoorDash may be paying twice as much for the meal, according to a recent study. Meanwhile, delivery drivers have previously told BI’s Alex Bitter that the job is not as lucrative as it once was.
From a restaurateur’s perspective, Marciante says there are two main drawbacks to using an app.
One issue is quality control, he said, adding that food delivery apps don’t always do enough to vet their drivers.
When customers dine in, chefs and restaurant staff can control the speed, presentation, and delivery of food from the kitchen to the table. But with delivery apps, once the food is put in a to-go bag and placed in the hands of an intermediary, the driver may drop or spill the food, stop three times before delivering it to the customer, or forget half the food. However, the restaurant will no longer be under control. order.
Some customers blame the restaurant, even though the driver may have made a mistake, Marciante said.
“The drivers are, to some extent, representatives of the restaurant,” he said.
Another big factor that stopped Marciante from using apps was cost.
Food delivery apps have become even more popular during the pandemic, with customers ordering food for delivery that they previously wouldn’t have considered taking home. Marciante’s Seafood As more people ordered delivery from his restaurants, it started to take a toll on his profits.
“It’s a very thin margin business,” he said, adding, “Every dollar counts.”
Marciante said apps typically take a 20% to 30% commission on each order from restaurants.
But online delivery and ordering is a big part of his business. Marciante said that at one of his locations, takeout orders often account for his 22% to 30% of business.
“We started looking at the fees and how much we were paying and said, as they say, ‘There has to be a better way,'” he said.
An alternative to regular food delivery apps
To stop using the app, Marciante is now using a white label delivery service. Customers place orders directly on a restaurant’s website, and a third-party delivery service picks up and delivers the order.
Marciante is working with Owner.com, a startup that has raised millions of dollars to help restaurants retire food delivery apps. The company helped Mr. Marchiente build a website and its own app to take orders directly, and has its own network of delivery drivers.
He pays about $500 per month per location for all services, and Owner.com charges a flat $7 delivery fee per order, which restaurants either pay or He said he could charge the customer or split the bill 50-50.
Marciante has been using Owner.com for less than two months, but he said he’s already very happy with it and would recommend it to other restaurateurs looking to break away from popular food delivery apps.
It’s worth noting that some apps, such as Uber Eats and DoorDash, allow customers to order directly from restaurants, but also offer white-label delivery services that can be delivered by the app’s drivers. This option typically saves restaurants money compared to when customers order through the app itself, so it could be another option for restaurateurs to consider.
Marciante said DoorDash contacted him after being contacted by BI, and DoorDash “offered to level up” by working with him and assigned him a sales executive role.
Other food delivery apps did not respond to requests for comment from BI.
App helps you find restaurants
Marciante said apps can be costly for restaurants, but they are a useful tool for restaurants to connect with first-time customers.
“A lot of people just pull out their phones, go to Uber, and think about what they want to eat,” he says.
But Marchiente, which has been open for 17 years, has many repeat customers, many of whom order takeout and delivery on a regular basis. Now, those customers can go directly to Chef His Tony’s website or app to place their orders, rather than paying a hefty fee every time to a third-party app.
For now, Marciante plans to maintain a presence on the app to continue reaching new potential customers. But now, when those people find him and want to order again, they can go directly to his site and cut out his middleman.
Are you a restaurant owner who would like to share your experience using food delivery apps? Have you stopped using the app or are you planning to stop using it? Please contact this reporter. kvlamis@businessinsider.com.