I’ve only ordered uber eats when travelling for work (and the company paid), but even then it was a bad experience. Took about an hour to get delivered, and the food was mediocre and expensive.

Every few months we visit Melbourne to take the kids for a city trip. We order uber eats at the hotel because it’s just easier than trying to visit a CBD restaurant with two little kids.

I’m in Melbourne twice a week for work and I always go out and buy lunch. At home we have a pub that opens 3 nights a week, of course I’m buying lunch when I’m in the city.

But I can’t understand the thought processes people have outlined in the article. Someone just spending all day thinking about food and what they’re going to order, that’s fucking insane. Multiple food deliveries per day? What the fuck

My friend asked how often I got delivery. “More thna 5, less than 10.” I answered. He was surprised to find out that was my total, ever. Probably just over ten these days, less than 15 for sure.

I grew up poor, am still poor, but my answer to food insecurity is meal prep and bulk buying.

As someone on dsp, that’s more than I get a year :/

I used to know a guy through online gaming who was like this. He was from country/outer suburbs (not sure how you guys qualify that) Victoria, moved to Melbourne for uni and then a career. He was in his early-20s and was a typical young Australian male with very poor financial literacy. We used to joke about his Uber Eats spending (AFAIK it’s no longer a problem for him), but for many people it could easily turn into a very serious addiction.

It’s not surprising to me that for people around his age, living in the city, this could become a big problem. You’ve just come into a lot of money (relative to your teenage life) with your new job, you’re surrounded by ways in which you can spend that money at all hours of the day, the choices are right there on the device you carry with you and use for 5+ hours a day, and they appeal to and are designed to target very primal instincts that can be difficult to control. Particularly when your brain is overwhelmed by long work hours and constant stimulation and wants to default to making easy choices. If you’ve gone from your parents house to life as a single adult, you’re suddenly in control of all your financial decisions and don’t have to answer to a partner or family member when you do dumb shit like waste most of your money on overpriced food.

The ease of access we now have to easy dopamine hits through shopping, food and even sex is very problematic when it’s tied to an addictive-by-design device that we carry with us 24/7. For younger generations that have grown up online and seem to be struggling with face-to-face social interaction more than previous generations, always being able to default to the equivalent of a dummy for adults to fulfill these base desires is another layer of the problem. There’s no friction to help reset your brain and think about the longer-term consequences of what you’re doing. It’s just constant, instant gratification via the phone.

I’ve personally never used one of those apps, and I don’t intend to. But I’m a bit of an outlier for this kind of stuff. I could give my reasons, the response from ‘normal’ people would just be “yeah, but …”

I wouldn’t be surprised if “some” Australians are spending absurd amounts of money on… well… anything really. There’s a lot of people in Australia, and so if you look for someone with a trait like that, you’ll probably find someone. And I also wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people had allowed themselves to be deskilled in terms of meal organisation and food preparation to the point that they now are reliant on a service that has burrowed its way into their psyche. … Not sure how widespread that is though.

There’s probably something to this. I haven’t touched a delivery app in quite a while, but I’d find it very surprising if they didn’t employ some kind of dark patterns to keep users coming back.

Is it the spiders? Scorpion spiders flying all over the country. You better let somebody else to the shopping

I used to order somewhat frequently when I first moved to the city on a weekend before the pandemic and the prices became cooked. Going from a small city of 3 Chinese restaurants and one sushi place to an entire city you can order from was awesome and novel.

Gradually every other order just started getting messed up. I was home pissed one night and decided to order some food while gaming with some mates. It came hours late and Uber offered me like five bucks off my next order and that’s after bitching about it. That’s was pretty much the end for me. The food can arrive whenever, in whatever state and so long as it arrives, fuck you eat your hour cold slop. I can buy and/or make better junk food myself for far cheaper in most case. With one of their main competitors folding I doubt it’s gotten better.

It also felt like some of the stores didn’t want to do Uber. That management saw the dollar signs but then wouldn’t put more staff on Fri/Sat when the stores would get swamped with orders from boozers.

De-paywalled link: https://archive.is/Emaug

Wild to me.

I’ll stick to my poached chicken and salad.

During lockdown I used them and booze delivery a lot. The big junk food companies suck you in with deals but the “food” is dog shit. Delete those apps, just use ones with local restaurants. Better for you and them.