Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Food Delivery and App Ordering Nonsense

Why would you pay for food or drinks you never receive?

There have been a plethora of photos and videos online lately discussing food delivery services and online ordering apps.  Apparently some people - a lot of people - have no common sense.  They "order" through DoorDash or GrubHub, a $12 "meal" from McDonald's that comes with an $18 delivery fee.  The food arrives, cold and congealed and in one video, the delivery driver throws it on the lawn when the customer refuses to tip.

The bulk of these outrageous delivery fees go to the company, not the driver, so many drivers rely on tips to make ends meet, which means that customers have to pay even more.  In another set of photos I saw online, bags of McDonald's food sit for hours, undelivered, as no "Dasher" will pick them up as the customer did not pre-tip the order.

Apparently this has come to a head at Starbucks.  People can "pre-order" their overpriced candy drinks on their phone.  So they do, and it says "your order will be ready in ten minutes!"  Some of these folks just change their mind and don't bother to pickup a $7 order for candy-coffee.  Others arrive and are chagrined to discover their drink isn't ready, so they leave.  Meanwhile, the "baristas" are busy making this backlog of coffee orders that no one ever drinks while real customers in line wait 20 minutes just to place an order.

Who the fuck goes to Starbucks anymore?  Are people that stupid?

Here's a hint: If you want a free drink, just go to Starbucks and claim one of the "unclaimed" drinks on the counter and walk away - they will be too busy to even notice!  I am just kidding of course, but I suspect that more than one homeless person has discovered "this one simple trick!"

In another posting, a person complains their McDonald's order - which was accompanied by a delivery fee twice the value of the order - arrived cold.  "The store is only a half-mile away!" he complains.  Well, tubby, why don't you get off your ass and walk over there.  It would only take a few minutes and I suspect you need the exercise.

It seems an entire generation is being raised on sloth.  Entire families hardly ever leave the house - not even to go for a walk or play outside.  I have seen this firsthand. Everyone is inside watching the television, on the Internet, or playing a video game.  Work and School are the only two reasons to leave home, and for many, not even those activities exist.

So many people have given up on shopping for their own food, or if they do, buy pre-made meals that don't even require dishes or cutlery to eat.  You microwave your "pocket" and then throw away the wrappers when you are done.  You can buy dehydrated soup in a Styrofoam bowl, and today even breakfast cereal in a disposable bowl - no more messy dishes to deal with, or the "hassle" of pouring the cereal out of the box.  How long before we just revert to the feedbag?

Not long, not long...  but can you get your feedbag delivered?

Of course, this is not a sustainable model.  People think they can "afford" to spend nearly $40 on a $15 meal from McDonald's (which itself is vastly overpriced) until they run out of money or realize they are not accumulating any wealth.  People making "good salaries" say "I can afford it!  It's only a few dollars!"

I thought that too, at one time.  But delivery foods and take-out meals not only add to the waistline, they add to the waste of your life savings.   It only takes a few dollars a day to save up a hundred grand for your retirement.  Cutting out this sort of nonsense is an easy way to achieve that goal.

Meanwhile, people are hyping these food delivery companies as "tech stocks" - because delivering food is a technology, doncha know!  And while these companies are losing billions a year, they take 75% of the delivery fee.

So this is foolishness to the third power - fools ordering food to be delivered for more than twice the actual cost, fools destroying their cars delivering food for a pittance, and fools buying the stocks of these money-losing companies saying "this is the next big thing!" as though there was some barrier to entry in the business.

Foolishness can only go on for so long.