As the cold winter weather ramps up, food delivery services such as DoorDash and UberEats have increased in popularity from consumers seeking a convenient and easy meal. From profit margins to food quality control, Ann Arbor community members say these applications have impacted customer experience and local restaurants’ operations.
The growth of food delivery apps has changed business operations for many local restaurants. Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Kerrytown exclusively offers food delivery through UberEats. In an interview with The Daily, Jennifer Santi, Zingerman’s marketing and communications manager, said UberEats has benefited the restaurant.
“We get a dedicated service representative who works with us on any kind of tech support,” Santi said. “We’re in touch with them for marketing and promotional needs. The representative can also give us additional data that we might want to learn about our UberEats customers.”
Despite the convenience and accessibility of food delivery apps, other restaurant owners have raised concerns over delivery services taking a toll on their profits. In an interview with The Daily, Jerusalem Garden owner Ali Ramlawi said that, although food delivery services help the restaurant stay relevant for customers, the apps’ marketing fees cut into profits.
“It’s a break-even proposition,” Ramlawi said. “You’re just doing what you can as an operator and as a business to continue to stay relevant, but it doesn’t make up for the loss of business that we have in other ways: where your margins were set and you were able to make money.”
Santi said Zingerman’s finds it difficult to uphold their high food quality standards once orders leave their premises.
“We are a business that takes our service to our customers and the quality of our food very seriously,” Santi said. “The challenge we see with delivery is that we are not always able to maintain that control once the food leaves our premises. If we hand it off directly to you, because it was a takeout order, we have much more ability to make sure that we’re having a great service interaction and that we’re having a great quality interaction with you as a guest.”
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA senior Alyna Lewis, who works at the front desk of the South Quad Residence Hall, said she has noticed students frequently receiving food deliveries. She herself uses food delivery services primarily for the convenience they offer.
“I don’t have a car on campus,” Lewis said. “If I wanted to get food from somewhere that wasn’t walkable, and food is available through DoorDash and UberEats, then convenience with time, school and everything — it’s great.”
However, Lewis said students, who are drawn to food delivery apps for their convenience, should use these apps responsibly, citing added delivery costs.
“I would say try to limit how much you use them,” Lewis said. “Save your money, go outside, go walk to your place if you can, but obviously if you can’t, then utilize this tool.”
LSA senior Camryn Toth, a former DoorDash driver, told The Daily she was able to cultivate personal connections with some of the restaurants she delivered for.
“At a mom and pop shop or something like that, they would ask ‘How are you doing?’ when handing you the food. I got more interaction when it was not a chain restaurant, which was nice when I was out and about,” Toth said.
Toth said a lack of parking makes downtown deliveries difficult, which motivated her to start delivering outside of Ann Arbor where there is more parking and better pay .
“I drove — I didn’t do any of the biking or anything,” Toth said. “I made a delivery to one of the apartments downtown, and it was such a mess to find somewhere to park. … I did more deliveries in the Saline area. There are definitely more tips in the more settled areas of Saline where there are families.”
Toth said one difficult aspect of delivering was waiting for restaurants to finish preparing food.
“The chains or fast food were just more used to it, so they had a system going,” Toth said. “Sometimes the local places or ones that maybe didn’t have delivery as much were a little bit more disorganized.”
Daily Staff Reporter Erin Chow can be reached at erinchow@umich.edu.
