Ordering food through Uber Eats, DoorDash has become extremely expensive

The sandwich alone cost $19 via the Uber Eats app, according to the video — a $3 premium compared to what the deli itself charges. But with a service charge, taxes and a separate fee that Uber Eats added in response to Seattle’s workers’ wage law, the cost of the sandwich comes to just over $34. A tip would increase the price even more, he told Business Insider in an interview.

Instead of paying twice as much for delivery, Wadan said he now walks the four blocks to the deli to get the sandwich himself. “What’s the cost-benefit analysis here? Is it worth it to spend 10 minutes walking down the street and save $20?” he said. “For me, it is.”

An Uber spokesman said the company operates “a dynamic market” and Wadan’s charges “are not representative of the national average.”

Uber seeks to provide “selection, reliability and value,” the spokesperson said. “Everyone wants to know that when they open the Uber Eats app, they’ll find what they’re looking for and have confidence that it will be delivered in a timely manner at a price that’s right for them.”

There have been plenty of signs lately to suggest that many low- and middle-income diners are scaling back their spending. Fast-food chains like McDonald’s and Taco Bell are offering revamped value options, hoping to appeal to diners on a budget.

Many diners even drive to Domino’s to pick up their own pizzas to save money on delivery costs, the company’s CEO told BI in July.

The premium customers pay to have their food delivered can be high. A study by FinanceBuzz in January found that ordering from McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A can cost twice as much through delivery services like DoorDash and Postmates as it would at a restaurant, for example.

That could make delivery seem like an obvious place for consumers to cut back on their spending these days.

But delivery companies say that doesn’t actually happen.

Both DoorDash and Uber reported earnings this summer that beat analysts’ expectations — and showed that many people are still willing to pay for delivery, even if they’re more frugal in other areas.

“We’re seeing very strong consumer demand,” DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said on the company’s August earnings call. “We don’t actually see some of the challenges that you might hear about or read about in other headlines.”

DoorDash customers continued to order groceries — and increasingly, groceries and other products — from the service, Xu said. Both DoorDash and Uber Eats have also seen growth in their subscription programs, which come with a monthly fee but offer discounts on individual orders, among other benefits.

“By any objective measure, we haven’t seen a consumer pullback, either broadly or in our own results,” a DoorDash spokesperson told BI. “Consumers from very different economic backgrounds are willing to pay for what they value, and we’ve enhanced our platform to serve more use cases, bring those things to you at a lower cost, and make sure you get what you want you want it when you want it.”

Meanwhile, Uber hasn’t seen its customers stop using the platform for delivery or ride-sharing, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during the company’s earnings call last month. Uber’s clientele is more affluent, he said, although the company hasn’t even seen a drop in lower-income customers.

“It’s clear that delivery is much more common than many assumed,” Khosrowshahi said.

Even Wadan, the content creator who posted on TikTok, said he still uses delivery sometimes. He and his wife still have Thai food, for example, when they have friends over in the evening and don’t want to interrupt socializing with a trip to dinner.

“There are certain situations where we just order the food because it’s convenient and it makes sense,” he said.

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