HACKER Q&A
📣 throwaway413

Thoughts on Food Deliveries


Hi HN, random question for you as I’m assuming there are a good amount of folks here ordering food via apps.

How do you feel about food being left on the floor at your front door?

Does this bother you at all? Have you put a bench or something in place for orders? Do you request drivers hand you the food directly? Could you not care less?

Any other food delivery based complaints you would like to share?

Thanks for taking the time to provide your thoughts.


  👤 vhodges Accepted Answer ✓
While it was extremely convenient (and allowed for deliveries from some places that did not normally do delivery) I no longer order using any of the apps.

Not only is there a delivery fee, there is also a mark up on the food AND you're expected to tip the driver on top of that since they're not paying enough to the drivers.

Which brings me to the last issue I had and that was the driver was obviously driving for multiple delivery apps (presumably to make it worth while) and they did three other deliveries before mine (in a non-optimal path no less) getting my food to me late and cold.

We do use delivery for groceries sometimes, but they're managed directly by the retailer with their own staff. We're always home to receive the order so it's never left outside.


👤 cwmoreiras
Delivery drivers leaving food on the ground doesn't bother me.

Main complaint I have with app food delivery is that my food is usually delivered to the wrong apartment. I try to be empathetic towards the drivers but this problem has been so consistent for me that I lost my patience and completely avoid apps now. I only order delivery from places where the restaurant actually does the delivery themselves.

The apartment number is obvious, so I can only assume that the drivers' payment structure forces them to be in too much of a hurry to look around a little bit.

Another thing that annoys me is that I believe the food is worse when I order through an app.


👤 cm2012
I am a hardcore user of delivery apps, I spend about $3k a month through them. I always ask for it left at the front door, I don't want to have to run to the front door when I can instead amble at my own pace.

👤 RicoElectrico
Well, I don't care where the courier leaves the food. Why would I if the container is solid, wrapped in a plastic bag as well? It won't sit there forever.

I tend not to order food, as the times you want it (i.e. weekends and other occasions where you have time off) are the very times restaurants are pretty much overloaded.

That, and the fact they just can't estimate the time well enough.

It also seems that ordering a day ahead can't be trusted. You'd think this could be something they could actively encourage to ease their planning, but no.

The above holds also (or mainly) for non-app orders.


👤 ziml77
Doesn't matter to me that it's on the ground as long as I get the notification right away. But it also seems that mandatory contactless deliveries are dead, so if you don't like it on the ground then get it handed to you. I doubt that 5 seconds of interaction is very risky in terms of disease transmission.

👤 tucaz
I don’t like it on the floor. I leave a step stool in front of my door when I order food and have also left a note so the driver puts the food on top of it but sometimes it still gets placed on the floor :/

👤 qnsi
I never thought about this and dont care