1. Tony Marciante has run Chef Tony’s Seafood in Bethesda, Maryland since 2007 and is weaning his restaurants off food delivery apps like DoorDash and UberEats.
2. Marciante cited quality control and high fees as the main drawbacks to using food delivery apps for his restaurants.
3. Marciante now uses a white-label delivery service called Owner.com to take orders directly from his website, pay a flat delivery fee, and avoid the high commission fees charged by traditional food delivery apps.
Tony Marciante has been running Chef Tony’s Seafood in Bethesda, Maryland, since 2007. Initially, he was using food delivery apps like DoorDash, UberEats, and Grubhub, considering them a necessary evil. However, Marciante is now looking for alternatives and weaning his restaurants off the apps due to high fees and concerns about quality control. He mentioned that the drivers are a representation of the restaurant to some degree, and some customers blame the restaurant for mistakes made by the drivers.
The cost associated with these food delivery apps was another major factor that turned Marciante off. During the pandemic, the popularity of food delivery apps increased, impacting the margins of his seafood restaurants significantly. Marciante now uses a white-label delivery service called Owner.com, which charges a flat delivery fee of $7 per order. This service allows customers to place orders directly on the restaurant’s website and has its own network of delivery drivers.
Despite the drawbacks, Marciante acknowledged that food delivery apps are useful for restaurants to connect with first-time customers and get discovered. He plans to maintain his presence on the apps to reach new potential customers but is now offering existing customers the option to order directly from his website or app, bypassing the food-delivery apps. This shift has allowed Marciante to save on fees and improve the overall quality control of the delivery process.