Apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats have provided restaurants a flood of customers in the pandemic. Now a host of food-ordering tools, along with some restaurants, are finding ways around those apps and the commissions they charge.
DoorDash Inc., Uber Technologies Inc.’s Eats and Grubhub Inc. can charge restaurants up to 30% of every order—a chunk many owners say dents profits even as more orders come in.
A new crop of services is promising online ordering at a lower cost to eateries, by letting the restaurants arrange more deliveries themselves.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Shake Shack Inc . and a growing number of chains have acknowledged the cost of app-based delivery orders, and many say they intend to address it. Local governments from New York to Seattle have enforced rules capping delivery-app fees, in an effort to rein in restaurants’ costs while the health crisis keeps people home.
