PETALING JAYA: High delivery charges have forced several café and restaurant owners to stop using e-delivery services to send food to customers.
Restaurant owner Willie Yau said the charges sometimes exceeded 30% of the cost of the food they delivered.
He said the delivery service providers contended that the restaurant owners could widen their customer base by using their services.
“However, after discussing it, my partner and I decided that it would not be profitable for us,” he told theSun yesterday.
Yau said while they could get some new customers, it was not worth it after taking the added cost into consideration.
“Our main target market is the middle class and office workers, and pricing and profits play an important role,” he said.
According to him, if their prices were too high, the number of customers could drop drastically.
He said it was then decided that it was best to close their operations until the movement control order (MCO) was lifted.
Café owner Ruben Jayaraj said he met with several e-delivery companies before the MCO to discuss the possibility of using their services but decided against it.
“They want to charge me over 30% to deliver my food. They also told me that the price I charge customers using the e-delivery service must be based on my menu price,” he said.
“I would make about 30% profit from dine-in customers. But that profit would be wiped out if I use the e-delivery service,” he said.
“So I decided against it.
He hoped that more players would enter the e-delivery service to help bring the cost down.
Ruben said it would only be profitable to use the service if the restaurant had a high sales volume.
He said some restaurants had come up with innovative ways to cover the cost of delivery, and that involved reducing the portion size or they would only take orders for expensive items.
“More people are using the e-delivery service now because of the MCO but I expect a big drop in demand once the order is lifted.”
