Technology

Let's not start blaming this on the restaurants (I mean except for chains like Pizza Hut f em.)

But this is all the fault of the delivery companies. They come into an area and start listing every restaurants menu, including the ones who don't offer or don't want to offer take out. Customers order off these apps or sites and then the restaurant gets surprise orders, sometimes the systems are so bad that the restaurants don't even get notified there was an order (because obviously there is no communication network setup as they never intended to do this). Then the restaurant gets called by the customers furious about not receiving their order, their order being cancelled, their order being filled but came cold or not in ideal containers (because again, half these places never intended to do take out)

I know some of the smaller startups that were the worst offenders have mostly vanished by now, but it went on for years.

Then any restaurant that had their own delivery service setup all the sudden got massive competition from these sites/apps to the point where the startups were subsidizing the cost of the order. There were even some extreme examples where the orders were so subsidized that it was cheaper than the COG at the restaurant so the owners would have their friends or even themselves setup fake orders and they would instantly make money on the arbitrage. Then by the time they got popular enough that the subsidies stopped, no one was thinking about "Joes Pizza Delivery promise" instead they browse doordash and order from Joe's if they are in the mood. So now you have to pay your drivers even more because they aren't making tips and he is twiddling his thumbs most of the night.