As many states end their lockdown, one thing is sure. The leisure of going to your favorite fast-food chain or restaurant will not be the norm for quite some time. During the stay at home order, grocery delivery apps such as Instacart saw a huge rise in usage and membership. The same goes for food delivery services such as DoorDash, Chownow, and UberEats amongst many others.
A family’s weekly trip to McDonald’s for the kiddos to enjoy a Happy Meal? Canceled.
Going out to brunch with friends? Also canceled.
However, due to food delivery service, people across the nation can enjoy their favorite restaurant menu items from the comfort of their own homes.
While it is not the same as getting all dressed up and going out to eat or going to Chick-Fil-A to enjoy some chicken nuggets with friends, it is the best we can all do right now.
According to statistics, DoorDash made up the bulk of sales in April 2020, earning 45% of U.S consumers’ meal deliveries. Grubhub, UberEats, and everything else earned 23%.
Before giving the rundown on each food delivery service, it should be noted that each service has specific contracts with different places. For example, you can only order Starbucks through UberEats, DoorDash serves Chipotle, and more secured a partnership with Little Caesars Pizza. This was all over the news because the pizza place had never offered delivery until then.
What does this mean then?
Well, it means it can be pretty difficult for consumers to be loyal to one specific app. Many end up hopping between apps depending on what they want to eat and where it is coming from.
Most of the apps have the same interface, with food options categorized by cuisine/type, with the ability to see what is available for delivery depending on your radius, so for the sake of this article we won’t touch on the app interface. These cheap food delivery apps are all relatively easy to use.
Cheap Food Delivery – Restaurants or Delivery Apps?
It is also important to note that some restaurants may charge a bit more when you order through an app versus directly placing the order with them. It usually is not a huge amount. I’ve seen a pasta dish be around 50 cents more on an app versus the menu, but it can add up – so just something to think about. Do your due diligence on this one and make the comparison. Make sure to tip the driver as well. They do not receive the delivery fee.
Here is a Round-up of The Best Food Delivery Service to Get Cheap Food Delivery From!
DoorDash
Ranked the most popular food service app recently, DoorDash provides food delivery service from 310,000 restaurants in 4,000 cities. 80% of these are located in the United States.
Promo: New customers can enjoy $1 delivery for 30 days for orders over $10.
Fees: There is a $1.99 fee waived for new customers. There is the option to purchase a DashPass for $9.99 which lowers service fees.
Notable places: Subway, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Jersey Mike’s Subs
COVID-19: Contact-free delivery
Grubhub
Grubhub offers delivery and pickup, featuring over 300,000 restaurants. They are found across over 4,000 cities in the US and London.
Promo: You can get $10 off any order of $30+ from specific restaurants.
Fees: They don’t have any set fees of their own – those are set by the restaurants individually. The minimum fee and delivery charge are listed right at the top of each menu so you can’t miss it.
Notable places: Auntie Anne’s, Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread, Dunkin’, and Panda Express
COVID-19: Contact-free delivery and the option to request drivers to leave food at the door, porch, or most preferred place.
UberEats
UberEats has partners in more than 500 cities globally, partnered with over 320,000 restaurants in these cities. One of the nice things about UberEats is that you can track where your driver is so you can literally see when your meal is getting closer to you.
Fees: The customer pays delivery and service free. The former is a flat rate of $3.49 – $4.99. The service fee will be 15% of your order. An additional order fee of $2 is placed on orders that amount to less than $10 total. It is automatically dropped once your order reaches the $10 minimum.
Notable places: Starbucks, Papa John’s, Denny’s, and KFC
COVID-19: Contact-less delivery. The company is also equipping delivery employees with sanitization materials to ensure a safe delivery for both employee and consumer.
ChowNow
ChowNow has been around since 2011. It isn’t solely a food service app. Delivery is available at select locations, but ChowNow focuses on letting you place orders for pickup at your local restaurants. So while picking up may seem more like a hassle instead of having your food delivered, it does have a bright positive to it.
During COVID-19, many local places have had to close down due to little business. ChowNow is catered for those who enjoy local eateries versus chain restaurants. ChowNow is available in 18 US cities and regions.
Fees: Depends on the select restaurant. Minimum order amounts also vary depending on the restaurant.
Postmates
Postmates is a pretty big company. They are found in over 4,200 cities in the United States and have more than 500,000 restaurants for you to select from. Your Postmates driver can also communicate with you through text (without actually having your number) so you are able to track the status of your order.
Just an FYI – In case you didn’t know, Postmates is more than a food delivery service. They can deliver groceries and much more.
Fees: This depends on whether the place is a partner with Postmates. If they are, the delivery fee is between $1.99 – $3.99. If they are not, the delivery fee is $5.99 – $9.99 per order.
COVID-19: Contact-free delivery. Postmates has set up a relief fund called Fleet Relief Fund in order to assist employees who may have COVID-19 expenses. Employees who test positive will receive two weeks of paid sick leave from this fund.
Delivery.com
Just like Postmates, Delivery.com does more than deliver food. They also deliver groceries, can pick up your dry cleaning, and so much more. Covering 100 cities in the US, Delivery.com has partnerships with over 12,000 places.
Fees: Restaurants charge the delivery fee themselves and can also implement an order minimum.
So how does Delivery.com make money then? Instead of a fixed fee of sorts, they take a small percentage from the pre-tip subtotal.
So that is a wrap on six cheap food delivery service in 2020. With the state of the country surrounding the COVID-19 situation changing so fleetingly, we can be sure to see a continuing trend and rise in the usage of food delivery apps.
While stay-at-home orders are gradually being lifted, restaurants are practicing social distancing in accordance with state laws. This could mean only offering outside seating, limiting customer entrance by eliminating and spacing out seating, and requiring everyone to wear a mask. Thus, people most likely will not feel 100% comfortable eating out for a while.
We do not know when things will really go “back to normal” so until then, the usage of food delivery services is still presumed to be consistently popular and preferred for the time being.
