ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — One popular delivery service has been receiving some negative feedback on new policies they are testing in Rochester.
Grubhub is one of the most popular food services, serving more than 20 million customers, or “diners” across the country. Rochester is one of more than 2,700 U.S. cities that have the service in place. Other food apps like Door Dash and Uber Eats provides similar services.
“It’s always something we’ve utilized, specifically for delivery,” said Dara Dunim, the front of house manager at Sol Burrito in Rochester. She says Grubhub is a huge portion of their delivery orders, sometimes 50 percent or higher.
They have been working with Grubhub for over eight years, but at first, the relationship was rocky.
Sol Burrito already had a delivery service. After some kinks were worked out with Grubhub, the restaurant is now able to use their own drivers, so the service is strictly for ordering.
“We are able to utilize it for the order processing part of it, but we don’t fall victim to having to pay them that additional compensated commission payment for the drivers,” Dunim said.
Other restaurants may feel a bit more uneasy about the services provided. According to a Grubhub spokesperson:
“We’ll add restaurants to our marketplace when we see local diner demand for delivery so the restaurant can receive more orders and revenue from deliveries completed by our drivers. We work to provide accurate menus and hours for these restaurants on our marketplace based on available information online.”
This means the company can still list a restaurant within the app without their permission. If an order is placed from that restaurant, a team member orders ahead or in person, a driver picks it up and pays for the order. That order is then delivered.
Rochester is one of a few select cities for this new policy. While a vast majority of Grubhub’s restaurant partnerships are sales that go through the app and into the restaurant, this method does not include the restaurant at all.
This caused frustration at Spirit Room, a bar and restaurant in Rochester. The new policy requires restaurants to reach out themselves to update accurate information or to be removed from the service. According to Grubhub, Spirit room asked to be removed and was done so in late December 2019.
If the restaurant is not partnered with Grubhub, you can expect to pay more not only in delivery fees but service fees as well.