I will admit to not being terribly excited about Deliveroo – I’ve always found popping out to go get something to eat to be a useful break in the working day. Perhaps others disagree and it is, of course, differences of opinion that make markets.
However, it’s clearly something that drives certain people mad:
Covid should have been a boon for Deliveroo – but it still hasn’t turned a profit
Jonathan Nunn
Well, if that was in the financial press then that would be a reasonable and fair comment. If you can;t make money now then what in buggery are you doing? Of course the financial press would then take a deep breath and remember that they’re investing in new services and new markets – that’s what explains the loss rather than lack of revenue on mature lines and places of business. If you’re in a land race and have access to capital then why wouldn’t you do as Deliveroo?
The thing is this isn’t in the financial press. This is in The Guardian:
As we become used to convenience, we’re also becoming inured to its hidden costs. Ten years ago the idea of taxiing a McDonald’s double cheeseburger to your door would have been seen as an act of fin de siècle decadence, now we complain about the artificially low delivery fees. Just Eat Takeaway is already trialling free delivery, which will force Uber Eats and Deliveroo into a mutually assured race to the bottom. That cost will have to come from somewhere. Tech promised us a utopia, but convenience is still built on the inconvenience of those with the least power: restaurant workers and delivery drivers.
Perhaps customers have ventured too far into this frictionless reality to get out of it alone. Unions like the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain have done incredible work putting pressure on the apps, winning battles on health and safety protection. But the war will be won on regulation.
Yep, Deliveroo must be banned because consumers like it. That’s The Guardian we know and love, right?
Sigh. Sometimes I pine for the old socialism which was shit just because it was shit at producing what consumers wanted. Rather than this new socialism which insists upon banning what consumers like.
‘That cost will have to come from somewhere.’ Eh? Cost comes from the expense of providing the output. It is paid for by the consumer in the end-price. If the good is perceived as being more value to the consumer than the price paid then the consumer buys it and is wealthier. And if the wage paid is perceived by the worker as being of greater value than their time, then the worker does the job and is wealthier. isn’t that how it works? There are some – many it seems – who do not understand people are free agents… Read more »
All true, but read carefully: The “cost” being discussed in the Guardian is you living your life under your (perhaps Covid-adjusted) values and not theirs; of exhibiting “decadence.”
The many vouchers and offers and cashback deals available occasionally make it worth ordering from these types of services. A few times I’ve gotten £20 of takeaway for free, and other times it has been at least cheaper than going out and getting it myself. I wouldn’t order otherwise with these apps.
I feel like I’m being scammed paying restaurant prices for takeaway food with things as they are at the moment, when I’ve got these at least, I can get the food at about the price it should really be.
The left, and particularly its environmental wing, have been targeting industries that actually need working class employees for extinction for decades. They’ve been succeeding to a great extent. They also found a side benefit. One unemployed these people often move away. They therefore hate any business that finds a way to make use of these less skilled workers because it enables them to hang on a little longer.
“Making money is something of an old-fashioned aim for a modern business.”
The investors spent a billion on the company over 7 years, and sold it for £7.5bn yesterday. They made a lot of money.
And if The ‘Ndraguia were to succeed in its drive to make such work illegal, all these drivers/bikers would gain employment as Guardian journalists. Well, they can’t be any worse than the current crop, though they probably didn’t go to the right schools.
The Guardians concern for the long term interest of Deliveroo shareholders is touching.
After all, if it is in fact a long term loss maker it is the shareholders who will lose.