Spending on Takeout/Delivery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never ever get delivery.

I used to own several restaurants. No matter how many times I and the managers would attempt to train the kitchen staff, someone invariably does lazy, mean or stupid things.

Not just the obvious of using food dropped on the floor or using items that are partly spoiled or contaminated with rat feces etc. I Chaulk it up to them being lazy and tired after busy days. It's the mean ones that Urk me. We've caught cooks literally spitting, peeing and once even putting poop in the food just because they didn't think they were being watched by cameras. It seems the more autonomy they're given, the more they do stupid and disgusting things. I used to think this kind of thing was done because they're not very bright and have a bone to pick with people that are financially better off than them. Nope, after hospital stays, even better paid healthcare workers do stupid things. I think there is just something wrong with some people.

There is no way in H E double L I'm going to ever trust a delivery driver that potentially is upset over tips for the night.

So do you not dine out either? Why is this special to delivery?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how people eat out so much.

Eating out 2-3x a month, ok. But getting takeout constantly? Just cook something simple at home. Make a lot. Eat leftovers.

The internet makes it seem like you need to eat a new/fun meal all the time, but you really don't. That shit is also terrible for your health, as well as your wallet.

When you and your spouse work 60+ hours a week, every minute not spent working is precious. And if you have a job where you're always on call, it can be really challenging to even make the weekly plan where you take inventory of what you have, build a shopping list, and procure the groceries.

I cook only 1-2 days per week. On Sunday, I do a big batch recipe that serves as lunches during the week. I also often cook on Friday night. The other nights are takeout or the healthy meal service I use.

Food prep is hard. Even simple, balanced meals require a good amount of labor. Making my own food is very low on my priority list when I have so much else going on.

Making pasta with meat sauce takes not that much longer than entering a door dash order and throwing away the massive pile of packaging. Or something like baked potato and pork loin is even faster.

But more importantly that much takeout is really unhealthy. If my spouse and I both worked that much I would use the money to hire cook.

a) Pasta with meat sauce isn't very healthy.
b) They take a hell of a lot longer and require more planning than order DD.
c) I will do some of these "quick cook" meals occasionally, but, often, premartinated meat isn't great health wise and still ends up requiring cooking a veggies, which often requires chopping, pots and pans, and sufficient advanced planning if you want to use fresh veggies.
d) You can order healthy DoorDash? You can also cook crap at home.
e) The 3x a week meal service is paying for cooking at home. We don't make private chef money (I priced it out), even with long hours, but we can swing this healthy meal service that's $25/meal.

Most takeaways and Uber eats is unhealthier than cooking a typical meal at home. It's not difficult to make basic simple meals. People just crave sugar and fat and salt. It's glorified junk food. Yes, you can order a salad but that is not what most people are doing.

When people say they are too busy to cook, that isn't true. Many people work full time, raise kids, and still cook every night. You just chose not to cook probably because you don't like cooking or can't be bothered to be disciplined about it. That’s fine. I am not judging you. But it is a conscious choice to spend money on takeaways and deliveries, and the vast majority will not be as healthy as what you can make at home. Restaurants amp up the salt/sugar/fat versus the equivalent you could make at home. Including pastas.

You’re not a morally superior person for preferring to cook (and yes, you’re acting that way despite claiming you’re “not judging”). I could absolutely eat only home cooked food if I wanted. It would also mean approximately 25-50% of my time spent not working during the week would be taken up by cooking. No, that’s not worth it to me. My free time is precious.

I can and do prioritize eating healthy foods and exercising (a good chunk of my non working time is devoted to exercise). I am selective about where I order delivery from. Sweetgreen, CAVA, and other Mediterranean spots are big contenders. Restaurants are as variable in quality as the food we make at home. And for the meal service I use, I get full nutritional info. I specifically chose this local service because the sodium content is not elevated like with Factor or similar national services.

And to your point that most people work full-time, raise kids, and cook at home, that’s absolutely not true in dual big law attorney households. The hours are extreme, and very few people with kids are devoting their free time to daily scratch cooking. Most rely on take out, hired help, meal delivery, or a combination.

Can you share the name of your local meal service?

DP but I use Havn Club.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have literally never paid for food delivery in 10 years time. I do pick up take out once or twice a week. For a famoly of 3 its usually $40ish.

Paying for food delivery is so wild to me. Why?? Why cant you just go pick it up? Such a waste.

Some people are short on time, or their time is worth more than driving to the restaurant to pick up.

I refuse to believe this is the majority of people. We live 5 minutes from many take out places. You can order online and swing by on your way home. Unless you live 30 minutes away and arent going anywhere in the vicinity, its really not about time.

Probably not the majority, but not uncommon in my universe. I make over $300/hr. I live in the burbs and take highways home. There’s one restaurant that’s 5 min away and not on the way home. Next closest set is between 10 and 15. Round trip we’re looking at around 30 min. Unless I’m going to the one close restaurant (which happens to be an expensive sushi spot), it’s not worth my time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have literally never paid for food delivery in 10 years time. I do pick up take out once or twice a week. For a famoly of 3 its usually $40ish.

Paying for food delivery is so wild to me. Why?? Why cant you just go pick it up? Such a waste.

Some people are short on time, or their time is worth more than driving to the restaurant to pick up.

I refuse to believe this is the majority of people. We live 5 minutes from many take out places. You can order online and swing by on your way home. Unless you live 30 minutes away and arent going anywhere in the vicinity, its really not about time.

Probably not the majority, but not uncommon in my universe. I make over $300/hr. I live in the burbs and take highways home. There’s one restaurant that’s 5 min away and not on the way home. Next closest set is between 10 and 15. Round trip we’re looking at around 30 min. Unless I’m going to the one close restaurant (which happens to be an expensive sushi spot), it’s not worth my time.

Exactly. You don’t get it unless you’re highly compensated and busy. If your money is from a trust fund or a business that effectively runs itself, you aren’t facing the same time constraints as highly compensated W2s/partners/etc who are expected to be on calls from 8am until 10/11pm in many cases. These people aren’t paid $2-5M+ a year because they work 40 hours / week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We spend close to $0.

We never get delivery.

Same. I understood this during COVID, of course, but now that we can go to restaurants or pick up food, why would anyone choose to substantially overpay unless they have a physical limitation or circumstance that requires it? Also, you end up paying so much for food that is not at the correct temperature, uses a wasteful amount of packaging, and is not presented well, as it is in a restaurant. I don't get the appeal. Once a month I receive a meal delivery credit as a perk for a work meeting - and even with a $35 credit, I can get one salad and with all other charges, usually end up spending a few dollars of my own to cover the total.

[Anonymous]

We did door dash during the pandemic but more recently, the food consistently arrived cold. It’s annoying but we pick up instead of getting food delivered.

We spend about $125/week on delivery, either two cheaper meals or 1 more expensive. We probably add another meal out every other week, so maybe over the month we spend $800 on eating out.

2 adults, 2 teens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We spend close to $0.

We never get delivery.

Same. I understood this during COVID, of course, but now that we can go to restaurants or pick up food, why would anyone choose to substantially overpay unless they have a physical limitation or circumstance that requires it? Also, you end up paying so much for food that is not at the correct temperature, uses a wasteful amount of packaging, and is not presented well, as it is in a restaurant. I don't get the appeal. Once a month I receive a meal delivery credit as a perk for a work meeting - and even with a $35 credit, I can get one salad and with all other charges, usually end up spending a few dollars of my own to cover the total.

The appeal is saving time.

[Anonymous]

I've never even used UberEats or DoorDash. I will order ahead on an app and pick up sometimes, but that's maybe a couple times per month.

But I work in education, so my spending is probably really different from most.

Looking at this guy's kitchen from the article and I'm both jealous and judgmental. Column fridge and freezers with panels. Full size wine fridge. More brass cookware than a professional cook. Beautiful kitchen, but...

His 4-year-old son doesn’t read yet, “but he can put together an order” on the Chick-fil-A app, said Mr. Caldwell, 39. “I am impressed, but I am also terrified.”

[Anonymous]

Comments from the article...

DoorDash culture is downstream of the failure of Americans to teach their children basic life skills, including home economics and cooking. It takes little time or effort to organize a week’s meals and the savings would allow one to eat out on occasion. But it’s easier just “go click”. No sympathy.

Dad says he’s too busy with work and parenting to prepare meals, but teaching kids how to cook *is* parenting.

The cost of it all. Find it hard to square with the complaining I read about not being able to afford to save for mortgages, get out of debt to the hundreds people are spending on basic meals. Live how you want to live but it’s not a mystery why saving is not possible when hundreds are spent on stuff that would be much much less from a supermarket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have literally never paid for food delivery in 10 years time. I do pick up take out once or twice a week. For a famoly of 3 its usually $40ish.

Paying for food delivery is so wild to me. Why?? Why cant you just go pick it up? Such a waste.

Some people are short on time, or their time is worth more than driving to the restaurant to pick up.

I refuse to believe this is the majority of people. We live 5 minutes from many take out places. You can order online and swing by on your way home. Unless you live 30 minutes away and arent going anywhere in the vicinity, its really not about time.

Probably not the majority, but not uncommon in my universe. I make over $300/hr. I live in the burbs and take highways home. There’s one restaurant that’s 5 min away and not on the way home. Next closest set is between 10 and 15. Round trip we’re looking at around 30 min. Unless I’m going to the one close restaurant (which happens to be an expensive sushi spot), it’s not worth my time.

Your universe is literally less than 1% of the population.

The vast majority of people aren't spending exorbitant amounts on delivery. The whole article is just one of many attacks from the rich on the regular people, trying to shift the blame of our unaffordability crisis from the corporations that created it to the people that are suffering from it.

No, we are not unable to afford homes because of avocado toast and Doordash, we're unable to afford homes because corporations have rigged the system against us and on top of that put out propaganda like the linked article trying to convince us it's our own fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have literally never paid for food delivery in 10 years time. I do pick up take out once or twice a week. For a famoly of 3 its usually $40ish.

Paying for food delivery is so wild to me. Why?? Why cant you just go pick it up? Such a waste.

Some people are short on time, or their time is worth more than driving to the restaurant to pick up.

I refuse to believe this is the majority of people. We live 5 minutes from many take out places. You can order online and swing by on your way home. Unless you live 30 minutes away and arent going anywhere in the vicinity, its really not about time.

Probably not the majority, but not uncommon in my universe. I make over $300/hr. I live in the burbs and take highways home. There’s one restaurant that’s 5 min away and not on the way home. Next closest set is between 10 and 15. Round trip we’re looking at around 30 min. Unless I’m going to the one close restaurant (which happens to be an expensive sushi spot), it’s not worth my time.

Your universe is literally less than 1% of the population.

The vast majority of people aren't spending exorbitant amounts on delivery. The whole article is just one of many attacks from the rich on the regular people, trying to shift the blame of our unaffordability crisis from the corporations that created it to the people that are suffering from it.

No, we are not unable to afford homes because of avocado toast and Doordash, we're unable to afford homes because corporations have rigged the system against us and on top of that put out propaganda like the linked article trying to convince us it's our own fault.

I don’t dispute that my income is high. It’s actually not top 1% in DC, which I know because I just pulled census data. It’s actually 96th percentile, and probably similar in major metro areas. It’s also not top 1% for DCUM, where this discussion is occurring.

PP disputes that anyone lacks time or has sufficient money such that ordering delivery makes sense. She’s wrong. And she’s wrong for hundreds of thousands of people in this area. The economics of delivery do work out for a certain portion of the population.

That’s not disparaging people for whom takeout makes no economic sense. Nor is it blaming people with lower incomes for having lower incomes. Nor is it about the substance of the article, which was only the catalyst for a discussion on how much people spend on delivery.

[Anonymous]

There is no way in H E double L I'm going to ever trust a delivery driver that potentially is upset over tips for the night.

So do you not dine out either? Why is this special to delivery?

We do dine out perhaps a couple/few times a month. It's not a secret some of the precautions we take.

We dine at places that have a consistent amount of high business. Successful restaurants sell the food before spoilage and less time collecting contaminants, such as mop bucket splashes, improper handling, night time mice/roach rummaging, employee grazing etc.

Busy restaurants keep employee's too busy usually to do a lot of obscene shenanigans as well as other employees within eye shot. However, it almost never prevents the typical picking up dropped food from the floor that is just way too common in the industry. If the kitchen staff is visible to the patrons then even better. It still doesn't completely eliminate the disgusting behavior. Many times I see cooks/chefs snatch a small amount off a completed plate to stick in their mouths or drink a soda and go back to preparing. Which is a major food safety violation.

Delivery drivers usually have zero restaurant experience nor care about the product. Based on my decades of experience in the industry, I am certain delivery drivers graze on the food at best, and contaminate at worst simply because a percentage of them are petty people that think they deserve better in life. Sad but true. It's especially true in this entitlement culture now.

I haven't shared anything new to most people about these practices. But you do you, because I've also learned that it won't stop people from food deliveries because they want to think the best of people and if they didn't see it, then it didn't happen. The silver lining is that perhaps your bodies will become immunity stronger.

I can tell you this, not many people want to work in restaurants. Owners/managers are to a large percentage of times only given the option to hire the most unsanitary person in the kitchen just to get the food out. I can't even begin to tell you how often I've taken my wife/family upon entering and just left.

[Anonymous]

Low paying job. Fed up with the current administration, single parent here. Starting to get less frugal about this, we could die any day.

About 150 a month, half or more of that is doordash, but I always use the coupons and get the half price dash pass deal then cancel until I need it again , so it's cheaper than getting it myself. Former doordash driver. I figure that's less than 50 a week so not that bad for 3 people, though I only have my kids half the time.

Receive 700 a month in food stamps (yes I work full time also and went to college etc etc I am a teacher)