Grubhub Taking Advantage During Coronavirus Pandemic, Says RI Restaurant

Grubhub Taking Advantage During Coronavirus Pandemic, Says RI Restaurant

A Rhode Island restaurant is saying that its “unauthorized” placement on the Grubhub food delivery platform has caused a multitude of problems for their business. 

This week, Jack’s Family Restaurant in Warren let customers know if they place an order through Grubhub, that prices and menu items listed are often incorrect.

Maria Gomes at Jack’s spoke with GoLocal about the issues that the unsolicited inclusion on the Grubhub platform has caused for the restaurant.

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She questioned whether big online food delivery businesses are trying to capitalize on the coronavirus epidemic and an increase in demand for delivery.

“We’ve only just recently been getting phone calls [through Grubhub] for orders to go,” said Gomes. 

Gomes said that Jack’s has been doing a steady takeout business throughout the coronavirus, and has just now encountered this frustrating issue with GrubHub.

Grubhub Adds Restaurants Unilaterally

GrubHub acknowledged in a statement to GoLocal that it adds restaurants in certain instances -- without their authorization. 

A Grubhub spokesperson said in an email to GoLolcal, "Starting in late 2019 in select cities across the country, we’ll [sic] add restaurants to our marketplace when we see local diner demand for delivery so the restaurant can receive more orders and revenue from deliveries completed by our drivers,"

"This is a model that other food delivery companies have been doing for years as a way to widen their restaurant supply, and we’re trying it as well to close the restaurant supply gap created by our competitors," said Grubhub.

Gomes said Jack's is not pleased with Grubhub's practices and it is doing damage to her business. 

“Now, we’re getting phone calls from people — workers for GrubHub — with orders that don’t accurately reflect our menu or pricing,” said Gomes. 

Restaurants that opt-in to utilize Grubhub can take orders online; restaurants that don’t, such as Jack’s, get orders from customers who have placed them through the platform, which then get called in from drivers. 

“Whatever Grubhub has on their site, it’s got some major differences from our menu, and it’s creating problems,” Gomes said. “And oftentimes, [drivers] are asking for an order in one size for a customer, or a differently posted menu item, and it’s not what we offer.” 

“I got a call from a gentleman asking where his order was, and I said what order, and he said it was Grubhub,” said Gomes. “And again, we didn't have. We’ve had drivers come charging through the restaurant with orders on their phones, which aren’t even what our menu actually is, and meanwhile, we’ve got customers respecting the rules, standing six feet apart, and [the drivers] just don’t care.”

“I think [delivery companies] are trying to take advantage of COVID,” said Gomes. “Look, we’ve been doing takeout the whole time. It’s slowing down a bit with more restaurants, but I really thank all my loyal customers. They’ve been phenomenal. So to have this now, I think these delivery companies know more people are ordering online and are taking advantage."

“I haven’t even raised my prices during all of this,” said Gomes. “I know some restaurants have, but we don’t want to yet, unless we absolutely have to. We love our customers."

Grubhub said "local officials" should intervene in instances where restaurants do not want to take part -- but could not provide specifics. 

"We strongly believe partnering with restaurants is the only way to drive long-term value in this business – which is why we support efforts by local officials in Rhode Island and other cities across the country to prevent non-partnered restaurants from being listed on platforms without the restaurant’s prior consent," said the spokesperson. 

Grubhub is in a battle with other food delivery corporations including Uber and Doordash.

The business space is now being consolidated. “Just Eat Takeaway, a European food delivery service, [in June] that it had agreed to buy Grubhub for $7.3 billion, a deal that would give it a foothold in the United States. In the all-stock deal, Just Eat Takeaway said it would value Grubhub at $75.15 per share, a 27 percent premium to Grubhub’s closing price of $59.05. Grubhub’s founder and chief executive, Matt Maloney, will join Just Eat Takeaway’s board and oversee its business in North America, the companies said,” according to a report in the New York Times on June 10.

Not the First Problem

This is not the first problem for Jack's caused by a food delivery service. Gomes said that before the virus hit, they had issues with Grubhub’s rival DoorDash.

“We dealt with DoorDash in the past, and it was pretty much the same issue," she said. 

With DoorDash, Gomes said she had to call up the company to demand her restaurant be taken off their platform.