Popular Local Pizza Spot Ditching Uber Eats Over High Fees

A local pizza restaurant took to their social media to explain to their patrons why they were ditching Uber Eats for delivery service.

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When the cities and states began shutting down because of the novel coronavirus, locally-owned restaurants became worried about how they were going to be able to keep their doors open, or the lights on. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to rage on, people who were trying to support local businesses started looking at take-out food as a way to show their support. But let's be honest, people can be lazy, and who wants to drive all the way down to a local restaurant just to grab a bag of food and leave.

So people started using delivery services more, and more restaurants began putting themselves on delivery apps and websites. At first, it seemed like a great idea, a lazy way to get delicious cuisine and support local businesses during an extreme time of need. But some of the problems with using delivery apps were brought up and many restaurants had to figure out if the delivery services were worth it.

When a restaurant sets up an account on UberEats, they are charged a one-time $350  activation fee to receive a tablet with the Uber Eats software installed. Then, there is a marketplace fee that's applied to every order fulfilled using Uber Eats. According to Uber Eats, the marketplace fee "varies depending on how you choose to have your orders delivered."

One local restaurant is saying they've had enough. Pizza Joint is a locally owned pizza shop with 3 locations in El Paso. The local pizzeria made an announcement on social media saying they were going to stop using the delivery service due to high fees.

"Uber charges small businesses 30% commission fees- The Pizza Joint will no longer be participating in this unfair program... Please continue to support this local pizzeria by ordering directly from our website or app for both delivery and take-out."

According to the New York Times, it also costs you the consumer a lot more too. In an article in 2020, the newspaper found an order with Uber Eats has a 91% mark-up compared to picking up the food yourself. So unless you're made of money or don't mind the fees, maybe it's time to stop being lazy and go get your food yourself.