Current Events in October 2024

Uber Eats, DoorDash or Grubhub – they’re all pretty much the same business model, but one shines much brighter in consumers’ eyes when it comes to food delivery satisfaction.

A new study by Intouch Insight evaluated the three companies and looked at factors such as speed of service, accuracy, fees and overall customer experience. DoorDash captured the hearts and minds of consumers -- and the race wasn’t even close.

DoorDash led the pack in overall satisfaction, boasting a 90% satisfaction rate among users. It also outclassed the competition in delivery speed and accuracy, with orders arriving ahead of estimated times and with the correct items.

Even though it trailed in overall satisfaction, Grubhub gets a consolation prize. It stood out for consistently beating its estimated delivery times.

What mattered the most to consumers

There were three things that the study concentrated on:  the impact of order batching, time versus temperature and the customer’s satisfaction with the speed of delivery.

Order Batching

The KISS principle weighed heavily on the impact of order batching. When drivers delivered orders directly to the customer without bundling multiple deliveries, the orders arrived 13 minutes and 34 seconds quicker.

“This had a clear impact on customer satisfaction, as faster deliveries led to significantly better experiences,” Intouch Insight Director of Marketing, Sarah Beckett, told ConsumerAffairs.

“In contrast, when drivers completed other deliveries first, the total delivery time increased to an average of 42 minutes and 32 seconds, which negatively impacted satisfaction.”

Time versus Temperature

When it came to time versus temperature, delivery speed also impacted the customer’s perception of food quality. Orders that arrived at the correct temperature were delivered nearly 10 minutes (9:52) faster than those at incorrect temperatures.

Overall, 91% of customers were satisfied with the time it took to receive their orders, with DoorDash leading the way at 94% satisfaction. But it wasn’t a runaway victory. Uber Eats was only two points behind at 92% and Grubhub seven points shy with 87%. 

Speed of Delivery

Compared to the satisfaction metric, there was a little more of a gap when it came to actual minutes and seconds. On average, the time it took to get the order from the restaurant to the consumer was 33 minutes between all three, but DoorDash was nearly five minutes quicker than the norm with an average delivery speed of 28:03, nearly 13 minutes off the 15 minute goal it set for itself in 2021.

Both Grubhub and Uber Eats were several minutes slower than the average with times of 35 minutes and 35 minutes and 19 seconds, respectively.

In the race to see which delivery service fulfills orders the quickest, we might see some changes the next time this report is released. DoorDash is now shooting for 10 to 15 minutes thanks to DashMart, a new service it’s offering retailers.

Fees: getting better or worse?

Fees for delivery services work like they do for Uber and Lyft ride services – based on distance between the restaurant and the delivery location. Here’s how those fees break down in the InsightIntouch study:

Beckett said that when it came to fees, they have decreased overall compared to a similar study conducted in 2022. But, consumers continue to complain about the varying types of fees these companies charge.

Take DoorDash, for instance. In its "What Fees Do I Pay" section, it states that in addition to service fees and delivery fees, it can also charge a "Small Order Fee" if someone doesn't order what it considers enough.

Similar to what ride-sharing services do, delivery services may also jack up their fees based on demand during peak hours. Some may also do it by the size and dollar of the value, too.

As an example, Sheila of Waleska, GA, complained in her ConsumerAffairs review of UberEats that when she attempted to place an order of $47, the service tacked on $21 more in fees.  "I thought they had lost their minds," she said. 

And there could be other fees that aren't disclosed. In DoorDash's case, it says that, "This list of fees is not exhaustive and may be subject to change" -- meaning that the list someone looks at doesn't include every single fee they might be charged.

If fees are too high in your estimation, there are ways to lower them.  You can:

• Sign up for a membership program offered by the delivery service like DoorDash's DashPass or Grubhub+ which often waive delivery fees and reduce service charges for eligible orders when you order frequently.
• Order directly from the restaurant's website or app to bypass third-party delivery fees.
• Plan your orders in advance to potentially qualify for lower fees or free delivery options.
• Check for promotions or deals that may offer reduced fees.
• Consider the distance of the delivery as closer deliveries might have lower fees.

When shopping online for groceries, you may try to pick healthy options based on the information provided by the online retailer. You can tell that the products you’re choosing are organic, non-GMO, or Fair Trade Certified. But in many cases, you can’t find the nutrition facts, ingredient list, or even a list of allergens.

A new, comprehensive study of online grocery retailers shows this problem is pervasive, to the detriment of public health and safety in the U.S.

The study, led by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and published in Public Health Nutrition on Oct. 17, shows a lack of present, accessible, and legible information about the food consumers buy, while marketing claims are still prominent.

The absence of accessible food labeling has tangible consequences for public health, said Julia Sharib, first author on the study and manager of research and communications for the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School.

“The government has clearly intended that you should be able to know certain things about your food,” said Sean Cash, senior author on the study. “The way we’ve regulated that in the United States is to put that information on the packaging. But that hasn’t carried over to online spaces very well.”

A lack of information

An earlier pilot study of 10 food products across nine online grocery retailers found similar deficiencies. That study found that information required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about food, such as nutrition facts, an ingredient list, and an allergen list were often absent, and were less present than marketing claims.

The lack of information accessible in online settings reveals a “major gap” in federal regulations, Cash said. While food manufacturers are required by the FDA to present certain information on food packaging, online grocery retailers aren’t required to reproduce that information on their websites.

That means that consumers won’t necessarily be able to access information about calories, nutrition content, or allergens when buying their groceries online.

Since 2022, there were some reasons to think that retailers would step up their game. First, online grocery shopping is here to stay—recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicates that 20% of Americans buy their groceries online, while over 80% have done so in the past three years.

The trend has been aided by a drop in online food prices relative to in-store shopping: Prices are now roughly comparable between in-store and online groceries, which hasn’t always been the case.

Second, online food retailers could have responded to the growing market by deciding to get out ahead of any regulatory action. “We thought there might be practical changes in what food retailers are doing,” Cash said.

“We, and others, have been pushing for change,” Cash said. But the FDA has not yet taken regulatory action to close the gap.

Study findings

The new study gives a more complete look at the issue and analyzes 60 food products across 10 different online grocery retailers. The results show the trend has persisted: Each FDA-required label was present, accessible, and legible for just 35.1% of products.

Marketing claims and labels, though, were present for 83.7% of products. That’s what Cash finds unpalatable. “It’s far easier to find marketing that’s trying to sell you the food rather than the information that our society agrees should be there to tell you about your food,” he said.

“We saw many cases in which a nutrition facts label, for example, was only accessible after scrolling through a dozen marketing images, essentially forcing any consumers seeking that label to interact with marketing language,” Sharib said.

Go to the source

The best way consumers can get the FDA-required information is to visit the websites of the food manufacturers themselves, Cash said. On those sites, nutrition information and ingredient lists are much more likely to be present and legible. Cash cautions that food labeling found in product reviews can be helpful, but may also be out of date or inaccurate.

And ultimately, the onus should be on regulators and the industry to provide important information to consumers, Cash said. “Putting the burden on consumers is not what we should be doing,” he said.

Governments are increasingly getting noisy leaf blowers out of neighborhoods.

There are now 217 policies or programs in 26 states, plus Washington D.C., that are taking aim at gas-powered leaf blowers, nonprofit U.S. Public Interest Research Group said Wednesday.

The actions range from outright bans on the use of gas-powered leafblowers and bans on their sale to restrictions on their use and financial incentives to transition to electric leaf blowers.

There is little effort to curb gas-powered leaf blowers in the South, but much more activity in the Northeast and in California, a map of the policies shows.

So far, there have been gas-powered leaf blower bans passed in 77 locations, such as Fairfax, California and Nantucket, Massachusetts.

And since the start of 2024 in California, all newly-manufactured lawn equipment must be zero emission.

But the most popular policy are programs that offer financial incentivizes, typically from utilities, to switch to less noisy and polluting electric leaf blowers.

The incentive programs are present in 80 locations with many in Colorado.

But not everyone is onboard: Texas and Georgia have prohibited municipalities from restricting or discouraging the use of some gas-powered lawn equipment.

On the business side, retailers Lowe's and Home Depot's have set goals to sell more electric lawn equipment as part of their environmental goals.