Some of my favorites do streamline the process: they keep my address on file with my phone number, so as soon as I call, they know where I am. The article adds that “Restaurants, for their part, might also want to consider incentivizing customers to call in orders by offering a discount and streamlining the process as much as possible.” Which is true, I guess, but not crucial. It makes sense that maintaining those websites is yet another cost they are reluctant to incur, but how can I order if I don’t know what’s available? Many restaurants don’t have menus up on their website, or else they don’t have websites at all. Though Yelp or similar search sites provide menus, I am frustrated to discover that they are often partial or out-of-date. The value added, really, is being able to look at a detailed menu. I find that to be as easy as going online and using Seamless. I have no problem calling up a restaurant to place a delivery or pick-up order. For small businesses, this is a big deal.” They plead with customers to call them directly instead if at all possible. One example: “ It is painful to have to share 17.5% of your already nonexistent profit just to process your payment. The article quotes plenty of dispirited restauranteurs, some of whom have to pay six figures a year to a middleman they would just as easily do without. I had assumed employees featured certain titles on tables because they liked them- or, you know, because they thought those titles could sell I had no idea that prime table placement was not merely coveted but bought. My initial naive reaction to this reminds me of my equally innocent surprise when I found out that publishers pay to get their books arranged on the front tables in bookstores rather than simply on the shelves. (And unlike with, say, Google search results, there’s no disclaimer.) When you search for restaurants on Seamless, you may have noticed that, in the default view, the results appear to be random, but they’re actually arranged by who paid what. (In April of 2014, under pressure from the New York Attorney General, Seamless agreed to stop including gratuity and tax.) Restaurants can choose from four commission levels (12.5%, 15%, 17.5%, and 20%) the more a restaurant pays, the higher up it will appear in the search results. Seamless takes a percentage, not a flat fee, of the total food and beverage amount, even though its involvement is the same whether an order is for $10 or $250. The article adds, “GrubHub Seamless also owns MenuPages, Allmenus, Restaurants on the Run, DiningIn, and Delivered Dish.”Īnother thing I hadn’t known: that the results that appear when you search for nearby restaurants are far from random. For one, that Grubhub and Seamless united to form one mega-site and, like all monopolies, it now revels in its newfound powers: “With no formidable competitors, GrubHub Seamless isn’t afraid to flex the extraordinary power it has over restaurants that offer delivery.” I learned so many things from this Tribeca Citizen piece about the downsides of the websites GrubHub/Seamless. "With the narrative that was emerging around companies starting to nip at their heels, this changes the dynamic.Restaurants are less than pleased by delivery services "They have very similar styles and work ethics, and the brands aren't that far apart - even the color scheme is the same. It has partnered with GrubHub for several years.
"I know people at both companies fairly well (and) I think culturally they're going to fit great," said Justin Massa, co-founder of Food Genius, a local startup that analyzes consumer dining data for the restaurant and grocery industry.
GrubHub is focused on consumers ordering food at home in the evenings, while Seamless got its start on the corporate side, connecting restaurants with employees at law and financial firms who could expense their meals. GrubHub and Seamless, while they have been competitive in cities such as Chicago for several years, have different historical strengths. "We thought they could own the consumer because of the way they structured their website." "We felt early on that their user interface was, by far, superior to any other," Barron said.
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