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Yelp Delivery Secrets Restaurants Don’t Want You To Know!
- Joseph Mandracchia
- Aug 10
- 5 min read
So as I am expanding my business through developing my own DSP, I end up involved in a few different conversations and meetings about saving restaurants money on their 3rd party delivery services.
One of those conversations I had recently was about Yelp and when some people order on Yelp, they don’t really know some of the behind the scenes details of what takes place.
So in this article, We are talking about:
What you MUST know about Ordering food through Yelp
What they tell you vs How it ACTUALLY is
Everything in between!
Disclaimer: The content of this article does not contain and is never intended to be legal, business, financial, tax, or health advice of any kind, This article is for entertainment purposes only. It is advised that you conduct your own research and consult with qualified professionals before applying anything you find online.
I also want to be clear that everything we are going to go over is very market dependent, and what applies to me and my market may not apply to you.
Who is Delivering Yelp Orders?
Okay so one of the things that people don’t know about Yelp is that some people actually place orders to be delivered through there, from there the order would be powered by some other company such as Grubhub or ChowNow and be delivered by a local gig worker.
I call it 4th or 5th party delivery where they have the menu on their website or app, you order through there and it is then outsourced to Grubhub or another 3rd party service.
In theory this actually makes a ton of sense, especially if you are in a local area that you aren’t familiar with, or even just someone who is looking to just scope out where the real restaurants are as opposed to ghost kitchens, that is a good place to go and find local spots.
In practice however, there are some problems with ordering on Yelp that are actually incredibly problematic for the customers and for the restaurants.
Has the Restaurant Consented?
One of the things that ordering on Yelp has been known for, specifically those restaurants who have their Yelp orders powered by Grubhub, and that is… they didn’t ask for their Yelp orders to be fulfilled by Grubhub.
I kind of thought that Grubhub and Doordash were past the days of forcing themselves onto restaurants like a predator around an elementary school, but now they are also using Yelp to accomplish this as opposed to building fake websites.
This is especially for various reasons which make the experience of ordering something in more costly and disappointing for the end user.
Even More Jacked Up Prices
On a lot of the 3rd party platforms, restaurants raise the prices a bit to offset the cost of being on the platform and commissions they would have to pay when an order is placed through 3rd party websites.
However, if the restaurant doesn’t know they are on Yelp and have restaurant delivery available on Yelp, it is up to the people who are running it, in this case it is Grubhub.
I was involved in a meeting with a restaurant who we may be partnering with to save them huge money on 3rd party delivery, and they didn’t realize how jacked up the prices were on Yelp and didn’t even know they were on there for the purposes of delivery.
Outdated Menu Items
Another major issue with this is that they make these menus based on outdated information such as items they no longer have, items that may not be in season anymore, or bundles are meal deals they stopped offering.
This was another major problem that the aforementioned restaurant was going through and the most frustrating thing about this is how Grubhub won in the end:
“You know, I had to I actually dealt with GrubHub. I just I finally just threw my hands up in the air and was like, "Whatever. I'm just going to sign up for it." Because they would have our menu on their site without our knowledge.”
“it was wrong. Some things that, you know, we do seasonal menus twice a year. So some things that we took off our menu were still listed on GrubHub. I had no access to it. So we would have customers ordering this stuff and I had no I had no access to their phone number. Nothing.”
Imagine just trying to access your own menu and make edits based on the availability of an item, especially if it is seasonal, and you can’t do that because a 3rd party or some POS system won’t let you?
Really changes the definition of POS from “Point of Sale” to “piece of shit”...
How You Can Save on Delivery
Look, we all know that we are in a world where delivery is one of the staples of our industry now, and there is no real way around that. That said, I wanted to add some options that not only saves the customer money, but also saves the restaurant money as well.
If you still want to enjoy the quality foods from your local restaurants with the added benefit of keeping the convenience of delivery at your finger tips, make sure to look into the restaurants online website or app.
Ordering through the restaurant directly can give you access to savings, loyalty programs and benefits and ensure quality as you order with your local favorites. Not to mention that if you are ordering through the restaurant website or app, they aren’t raising their prices there for some 3rd party as much. Therefore, those savings are passed onto the customer.
Now this might ruffle some feathers in my community to be honest because this has been one of the sore spots for drivers for a minute. Some restaurants have been known for stealing some of the tips from the drivers, and keeping it for themselves.
Which is why some people in the gig community hate talking about it, even though it is true.
That said, this is not something that drivers would have to worry about if they started working on their own DSP like I am, where the software would integrate into their POS system to send orders directly to qualified drivers who are onboarded their platform.
This is one of the things I am teaching other people to accomplish in the Build Your Own Delivery Service Provider Course.
One of the things I constantly say is to treat the gig economy as an income bridge to what would be a long-term goal and not simply the goal and to develop an exit strategy like building your own delivery service provider company.
I partnered with experienced professionals to create a step by step guide to create a six figure earning business in as little as 90 days of focused hard work.
The course will guide you to:
Creating Your Own Business Entity and Foundation
Methods to Source Restaurants and Drivers with Game Changing Opportunities
Work with Top of the Line Seamless technology for drivers and merchants
Resources and Done for You Contracts to protect you financially
You will also have access to high level professional guidance to help you build your business foundation and support as you grow your business to reach greater heights.
Sign up here and get started on transforming how businesses serve customers and how gig workers will get greater opportunities with you! We are excited to help you secure your financial future.
If you would like to add some other perspective to ordering delivery on Yelp, feel free to email me: drivenwyld@gmail.com and who knows? Maybe your email or perspective and be featured in a post as well!
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