Restaurants declare war on Uber Eats

Restaurants in Australia's biggest cities are asking customers to shun services such as Uber Eats and Menulog,

They say these third-party operators are exploiting small businesses and delivery drivers.

One example is  iconic Melbourne eatery Marios Café. It’s calling the food delivery platforms "parasites". It’s telling its customers to stop ordering their food from systems like Uber Eats. Taste of Texas BBQ in Sydney’s north shore has stopped accepting delivery requests via Menulog.

All this coincides with delivery service Foodora announcing that it is exiting the Australian market.

Marios Cafe, part of Melbourne's Brunswick Street Fitzroy since the 1980s, has put a post on Facebook  pleading with customers to "get up off your ass". It’s told them to pick up takeaway orders instead of relying on third-party sites, which hurt small hospitality venues.

It’s reminded customers that these platforms take commissions of up to 30 per cent, and that isn’t fair given the number of people - including restaurants and delivery drivers - losing money.

"Do not order from any of the delivery groups call the restaurant direct and make sure they have their own delivery," the Facebook post said.

"Please spare a thought for the people who are loosing [sic] money for your comfort factor and the delivery people are earning next to nothing for their work, while the people in their ivory towers are earning big time for doing nothing: PARASITES."

Marios co-founder Mario Maccarone said these food delivery services might work "brilliantly" for some businesses,  but they have no appeal for him and his business partner Mario de Pasquale.

"We’ve been approached by all of the platforms - but with those huge big plastic backpacks, well, there’s a certain ugliness about it," Maccarone told Fairfax Media.

"It’s a thing that may work brilliantly for some, but we’re not interested in buying into it."

Leon Gettler - 8th August 2018