As a service, the gig economy deliveries are very low quality and low accountability. I just walked into a Mission taqueria and had to wait on not one but two Doordashers. The first one left with the second's order, came back, and said, "never mind, I'm cancelling."
Recently Safeway has also made a move to use Doordash. My parents have used Safeway's delivery for years and the change is terrible there for a different reason: an order from a grocery store is likely to be 10-20x bigger and more expensive than an equivalent restaurant order. The scale turns it into a fundamentally different job - how much you're lifting, the best type of vehicle, the value of the cargo, the emphasis of the throughput/latency equation. Each time since, when they get an order, it's by someone in a hatchback who is unused to the work. Safeway drivers previously did not accept tips, and so one of the big draws of Doordash is missing. Since the stores have handed off the customers to Doordash, updates on delivery status have become more difficult to get.
Identity is a pretty critical element to this, it turns out. If the restaurant knew their regular deliveryperson and could coordinate that info, they wouldn't send out wrong orders. If Safeway could specify drivers from a pool of truck drivers with freezer units and connect the customer to them directly, as they had before the change, there would be less of an unknown in ordering from them.
On the other hand, it's a case of "it can probably only go up from here" since competing on quality is likely to become the case if the economy stays fully employed and regulation starts creeping in.
Recently Safeway has also made a move to use Doordash. My parents have used Safeway's delivery for years and the change is terrible there for a different reason: an order from a grocery store is likely to be 10-20x bigger and more expensive than an equivalent restaurant order. The scale turns it into a fundamentally different job - how much you're lifting, the best type of vehicle, the value of the cargo, the emphasis of the throughput/latency equation. Each time since, when they get an order, it's by someone in a hatchback who is unused to the work. Safeway drivers previously did not accept tips, and so one of the big draws of Doordash is missing. Since the stores have handed off the customers to Doordash, updates on delivery status have become more difficult to get.
Identity is a pretty critical element to this, it turns out. If the restaurant knew their regular deliveryperson and could coordinate that info, they wouldn't send out wrong orders. If Safeway could specify drivers from a pool of truck drivers with freezer units and connect the customer to them directly, as they had before the change, there would be less of an unknown in ordering from them.
On the other hand, it's a case of "it can probably only go up from here" since competing on quality is likely to become the case if the economy stays fully employed and regulation starts creeping in.