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Uber Eats Adds Pricing Disclaimer Requested by Attorneys General (bloomberg.com) 44

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Uber added a disclosure to its food delivery app saying menu item prices may be higher than those charged by restaurants, bowing to pressure from attorneys general. From a report: The disclaimer will only be shown to customers in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., after the attorneys general there pressed for a concession from the company. They said in a joint statement Tuesday that the change will offer customers more price transparency. Before customers finalize an order, Uber will show a message that reads, "Prices may be lower in store."
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Uber Eats Adds Pricing Disclaimer Requested by Attorneys General More

Uber Eats Adds Pricing Disclaimer Requested by Attorneys General

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  • and when apple bans them for listing apples cut? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @01:51PM (#61513770)

    and when apple bans them for listing apples cut?

  • Price Breakdown (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Uber added a disclosure to its food delivery app saying menu item prices may be higher than those charged by restaurants

    Instead of telling us that an item may be higher, how about providing an itemized price breakdown before we finalize the order.

    Menu price of item as charged by restaurant
    Uber Eats mark up
    Small order fee
    Delivery fee
    Service fee
    Tax
    Miscellaneous fee
    - - - - - - - - - -
    Total

  • This isn't transparency (Score:5, Insightful)

    by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:04PM (#61513818)
    Transparency is not, "prices may be lower in store."
    Transparency is charging the same for the food, and then itemizing the delivery cost so you can see what it is.

    • The disclaimer is fine. It makes people aware.

      People should price check if they are concerned with the cost of an item. It's funny that with information so much more easily available, instead of empowering ourselves, we are asking for corporations to do it for us.

      • The disclaimer is fine. It makes people aware.

        It's shown at the last step in the ordering process, rather than when people are actually looking over the prices of individual items. By the time people get there in the process of ordering food, they've already settled on what they want and have made up their minds to order at that point.

        It uses weasel words to imply that their prices aren't higher in nearly all cases.

        It's only being shown to users in two locations.

        It will almost certainly be low contrast and buried in the middle of a paragraph of other t

    • Do you expect this from a grocery store, for them to list how much the wholesaler sold it to them for, how much their markup is, or perhaps even how much the farmer got for the product and how much the wholesaler added? Do you then also want to list the markup breakdown, how much goes for what costs and how much is expected profit?

      Transparency for food delivery services should be the fact that they are the delivery service rather than the restaurant. People should be clear when ordering that they are orderi

      • No I don't expect transparency into the grocer's wholesale costs, because buying groceries from their wholesaler is not an option. Picking up an order from a restaurant, is.

        Whether to require Uber Eats to make these options transparent so the consumer can conveniently decide which to do, ok it's debatable. But just putting an asterisk somewhere and some fine print that says "these prices are may or may not be higher" does not do that.

        • Almost anything you buy today has different price point options (unless you live in communist economy where all "official" prices are fixed by the government). You should know that if you look hard enough you will find a better price somewhere, so adding such an asterisk is meaningless. I stand what I said before, transparency that needs fixing is that the food delivery companies should be clearly marketed as such, as opposed to impersonating restaurants. For example, don't list food delivery company phone

      • Do you expect this from a grocery store

        You're asking the wrong question. We don't have those expectations of grocery stores because it's obvious that they are stores. Stores own their own inventory, maintain it, and make money by selling the goods they own to customers at a markup. That's how stores operate.

        In contrast, delivery services don't own the goods they move. Delivery services don't maintain inventories of goods. Delivery services make money by charging a fee for providing a service. That's how delivery services operate.

        The problem is t

        • Plenty of online stores do not warehouse or keep any of their own inventory. You buy from them, the shipment comes direct from manufacturer warehouse. And yes, different sellers will sell you the very same item, shipped from the very same warehouse, but at different prices. Even the very same sellers, buying from their direct website is often cheaper than buying through ebay. Welcome to capitalism. In communist countries of course all prices are set by the government and buying something and reselling it hi

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sjames ( 1099 )

        Consider, how would you feel about it if, in addition to the stated price of the grocery items, the store added a "store fee" that they represented to be where their profit for maintaining the store comes from.

        That is, the store does not represent that the price on the shelf is what the wholesaler charges. They do not represent the product on the shelf as being sold by the Acme canned goods distributors ltd. They take that responsibility for themselves.

        • I always simply consider the out the door cost, taxes, fees, delivery, installation and all. So I would not feel any different than I do now. As a matter of fact in the USA almost every store lists their prices without taxes, so we already have this everywhere. If you buy liquor in WA state, the price tag you see is nowhere near the price out the door - there are multiple taxes and fees added at the cash register to it which can make the out the door price between 25% to 100% higher, depending on what it is

    • I don't want a breakdown of all the stupid stuff. The restaurant charged sales tax based on the sale price. Does Uber charge sales tax again on the higher price they list? All too complicated for me when ordering a burger.

      For me, transparency is when you see a price for an item the only difference in the total is tax. Not 12 "fees" that jacked up the total by 30%. This is where "free delivery" has a benefit. It's not really free, but included, so the per-item price you see is the delivered price.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        The misleading part is that they also charge a "delivery fee" separate from increasing the prices of items. It's not unreasonable to see an itemized "delivery fee" and think that's the fee for delivery. Of course, it is a little weird to complain to Uber Eats about this when it's completely standard for online retailers to have extra padding on their prices which is really used to pay for "free" shipping, even if not every order qualifies for free shipping.
      • I thought Uber Eats uses higher ala carte prices AND adds a delivery fee at the end? I think the model of showing prices including delivery would be nice, but that couldn't possibly work, since somebody might just order breadsticks or something, whereas the underlying cost of delivery is almost the same regardless of order size.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by kriston ( 7886 )

          You might be surprised that DoorDash not only users higher prices for items and adds a delivery fee, they also add a service fee and demand you tip the driver.

          It's insanity.

  • Sure, whatever.

    I wonder just how dumb the AGs really think customers are. I'm getting food delivered to my door. Of course there may be a fee for that. The fact that some places trumpet "FREE DELIVERY" is good evidence people don't expect delivery for free.

    Anyway, cynical me is sure this has nothing to do with informing customers and everything to do with hurting Uber in any way possible.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I wonder just how dumb the AGs really think customers are. I'm getting food delivered to my door. Of course there may be a fee for that. The fact that some places trumpet "FREE DELIVERY" is good evidence people don't expect delivery for free.

      Anyway, cynical me is sure this has nothing to do with informing customers and everything to do with hurting Uber in any way possible.

      Except it's not true. A common complaint is the fees Uber Eats, DoorDash etc charge kill all profit. This fee is typically 30%. And the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bws111 ( 1216812 )

        What restaurant operates on a 33% net margin? The average restaurant margin is between 3 and 5%.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          What restaurant operates on a 33% net margin? The average restaurant margin is between 3 and 5%.

          33% margin per item doesn't mean a 33% margin in the end. I mean, if you have a $3 item on the menu, you will make $1 off that item. But if that's your only sale for the month, there's no way it's going to cover rent/utilities/labor.

          The 3x rule is how to price items - if your food costs for an item is say, $3, you better be charging $9 or more for that item if you hope to make money. More often you'll charge $10

    • I don't expect delivery to be free, but I also don't expect the fee to be hidden inside individual items. So I am as stupid as that AG thinks people are. Anyhow I stopped using Uber Eats as soon as I realized they were doing this.

    • Some restaurants do free delivery. Their reasoning is that by not providing seating, HVAC and table service, they are still saving money. The perk for the customer is that they don't have to deal with Uber Eats.

  • I've seen a number of restaurants whose menu and prices are distinctly different for walkin / takeaway as they are through these ordering apps. Probably because apps like Uber Eats gouge them for so much money that they jack up the prices and take off the low margin items to maintain their profits.

  • I stopped using UberEats a long time ago. I found that since CV19 a ton of local restaurants were offering delivery or to-go ordering without all the surcharge nonsense

  • Why not put a blanket statement on all their orders? Why only these communities?

    Oh right. Transparency. Wouldn't want that, would we?

    To be blunt, short of people who can't go out, anyone that is so lazy to continually use this service has no right to complain about being broke.

  • Can't people even get their fat asses out to a restaurant anymore? What's next, spoon feeding and pee bottle service?
  • I don't use Uber Eats, not paying extra. I know some might use it to save time or medically secluded.

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