FOOD D ELIV ERY LIFE SAVING OR PREDATORY?
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ost of us have taken advantage of food delivery apps such as UberEats on those days and nights when we‘re feeling too lazy to go out or craving something across town. Within the last decade, the world has seen a drastic evolution in the food delivery market. Now, it has become an integral part of our lives, especially with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Online Food Delivery” have surged worldwide since 2020. In Canada, food ordered through online platforms increased by 36% in March 2020 compared to the previous year. With online food orders amounting to $4.7 billion in 2019, the entire market is projected to reach US $85.54 billion by 2024. SkipTheDishes, which holds the most significant market share in Canada, doubled its business in 2020.
The rise of online food delivery
The growing “convenience economy” also calls for collaboration from various fields, creating more job opportunities in e-commerce, software development, customer services and finance. Contrary to the belief of inevitable automation and displacement of workers, the growth of the convenience economy has created more job opportunities in areas including fulfilling and delivering orders. With unemployment rates reaching a record high in Ontario in March 2020, and employment in food services dropping 55.8%, we saw an influx of unemployed workers into the delivery business, partly due to its low barrier for entry and partly due to rising demands with a larger population working from home. On the other end, food delivery apps had served as the lifeline for many restaurants since the pandemic, primarily when COVID-19 related restrictions were being implemented, and indoor dining was restricted. It was reported that around 20% more of the revenue from restaurants was generated via delivery in April 2020 compared to April 2019.
Online food delivery services were established not long after the advent of the Internet; however, they only started to get more attention with the increased usage of smartphones starting in 2010. That was also when soon-tobe successful services like SkipTheDishes and UberEats were launched. The market experienced excessive expansion and collapse in the following ten years, with numerous start-ups being founded, shut down, and acquired. In 2020, three companies, DoorDash, UberEats and SkipTheDishes, constituted more than 80% of the Canadian market share, forming a monopolistic market.
Food services during COVID-19 The food delivery business has bloomed since the pandemic. Restrictions on restaurants across the world, while negatively impacting restaurants that heavily relied on dine-in patrons, significantly boosted the popularity and usage of food delivery services. Google searches for
Altogether, the delivery apps, restaurants, and workers seeking flexibility in work hours and extra cash have formed a seemingly three-way beneficial co-dependent relationship. Yet, colossal delivery service providers like UberEats have been increasingly criticized as “unethical” on many levels.
Restaurants’ perspective Despite the drastic growth in revenue for delivery app companies, over 85% of food services and drinking places in Canada experienced a decrease in revenue in 2020, and half suffered a decline in revenue of 40% or more. The loss
22 IMMpress Vol. 10 No. 1 2022
