♪ [ theme ]
-[ Makda ] This is
your Marketplace.
Why does this $11 pizza cost
$26 on a food delivery app?
That's a big difference
that I didn't know.
-[ Makda ] Hidden markups.
How much is it in
the restaurant?
-$9.99.
-Wow.
And what else are
you buying into?
Uber, shame on you!
Shame, Foodora, shame!
-[ Makda ] They were asking you
about the food and the delivery?
It's like I'm not even a person.
-[ Makda ] Love to eat?
Love to save money?
You're gonna hate
what we dig up.
Battle of the
food delivery apps,
on your Marketplace.
[ ♪♪ ]
Butter chicken's ready, guys.
Let's go.
-[ Makda ] Restaurants are an
$80 billion-dollar business.
And taking a significant
bite out of that are
food delivery apps.
So which is the best?
The fastest?
The cheapest?
Which food delivery
apps do you guys use?
-I use Skip The Dishes.
-Foodora.
-UberEats.
-Foodora.
I use UberEats, so that's
what I'm all about.
-[ Makda ] Most of us don't
know because we only
really use one app.
So you use...?
Skip The Dishes.
And how often do you use it?
About once a week.
-Once a week?
-Yeah.
Why do you use it?
Just convenience, I think.
Sometimes you're at home, and
you don't want to cook a meal.
Skip The Dishes
is easy, it's quick.
-[ Makda ] Oh, really?
Marketplace puts the
biggest food apps to the test.
Here we go.
We recruit a team of foodies...
Eden.
I run a site called BlackFoodie.
-[ Makda ] Hubert...
I run a food blog
called Good Food Toronto.
-[ Makda ] Steph...
I have my own blog
called Candy Complex.
-[ Makda ] Social media
influencers, to test...
UberEats.
Foodora.
Nailed it.
-[ Makda ] And Skip The Dishes.
And behind every good tester
is a Marketplace record keeper.
Boom.
-Ready?
-Ready.
Alright, welcome to
the battle of the apps.
Are you guys hungry?
-Very hungry.
-Yes.
Starving.
That's what I
like to hear.
So here's what
you guys are doing.
You are ordering
the same a meal,
from the same restaurant,
at the exact same time.
When the food
arrives, take a bite.
We want you to score
the delivery time,
the presentation, the price, and
whether they got it all right.
-[ Makda ] You heard right.
From the same ten restaurants,
the same ten meals.
From these three apps,
that's a total of 30 orders.
Grab those phones.
Fire up those apps.
All at the same time.
So, I'm ordering the
margarita pizza.
I am so hungry.
-[ Makda ] And we
throw in a $4 tip.
Now we're going to use the
Skip The Dishes app to get
a breakfast poutine.
So I'm looking up
South Street Burger on Uber.
Come on, Foodora.
You can do this.
-[ Makda ] It's lunchtime.
In three, two, one,
place your order!
And our test begins.
So I'm looking for
the breakfast poutine.
It's the best time
to eat poutine.
So I'm going to go ahead
and choose the spaghetti.
Oh, I really want
to add hot chillies.
I'm looking for
the spicy salmon.
-[ Makda ] We're about
30 minutes into our test.
[ Knocking ]
We've got our first order in.
Let's see who it is.
Oh, is it going to be Uber?
-[ Makda ] Ready?
I hope it's mine.
-[ Makda ] Hi, how are you?
Thank you very much.
UberEats!
Alright, let's see
what you have.
Beat you, beat you.
-[ Makda ] UberEats delivers.
It looks and feels like
the typical burger
from Burger's Priest.
Okay, you like
how it looks,
but how does it taste?
How does it taste?
I think it's time
to test it out.
That's a big bite.
It's great.
And before I do
anything, of course,
I need to take a
picture of this.
For your Instagram?
Of course.
-[ Makda ] Who will be next?
Yeah, it's been over 20 minutes.
-[ Makda ] Skip or Foodora?
Foodora, come on, now.
We've got a delivery.
Hi.
Who do we have here?
Oh, damn.
Thank you very
much, UberEats.
It's UberEats, again,
and Foodora right behind.
Foodora!
I got pizza!
Where's my food?
This looks really nice.
And it looks like she
doesn't have a burger yet,
so I feel really bad that
I'm eating the pizza next.
How do you feel looking
over there and seeing him
with the pizza?
Envy.
That's the best thing I can say.
I feel envious.
He's got two options already.
-[ Makda ] That's
two for UberEats.
All right, Burger's Priest,
let's see what you got.
It's pretty clean.
I'm impressed, because
I was expecting it to be
really greasy.
-[ Makda ] One for Foodora,
and nothing from Skip.
Okay, so my first order is,
still-- it still hasn't reached
the restaurant.
-[ Makda ] And while she waits,
now Hubert's taking a bite out
of his fourth meal.
I am gonna try the
pasta right now.
All right, so it has been
about 15 minutes since
we placed the first order.
We've got nothing here.
What's going on?
I really don't have anything.
I'm so hungry.
-[ Makda ] Yup.
In our test,
Skip is the slowest.
Oh, we got a call.
I think that's them,
I think we got an order.
Hi.
Oh, finally.
Oh, please let there be food.
-[ Makda ] Skip The Dishes,
you got your first meal!
-Yes!
Okay, I'm ready to eat.
-[ Makda ] Out of the
ten orders on Skip,
nearly half take
45 minutes or longer.
Two of them, over an hour!
If I'm really hungry,
I need it to come fast.
-[ Makda ] And ordering
in from any app?
You might wanna
lower your expectations.
You post your delivery fails.
What do you think?
I don't think I would order
a burger on this app again.
-[ Makda ] We've got
some of our own, too.
They taste better
at the restaurant,
so that's one thing I was
kind of disappointed about.
-[ Makda ] Nearly half our
meals don't look too great.
It looks like its
a bit squished.
-[ Makda ] Restaurant
owners tell us,
delivery means sometimes
you sacrifice quality
for convenience.
The crust is really dry.
-[ Makda ] And time to
break down the costs.
Bet you wanna know
who's the cheapest.
Not so fast.
We discover our bills
aren't quite adding up.
Back on the street, we
break those bills down.
You were just in
Burger's Priest?
Yeah.
-[ Makda ] To show
you what we've found...
What did you have?
I had the double
bacon cheeseburger.
And how was it?
-Amazing.
-Amazing?
Yeah, it was really good.
So do me a favour and look up
at the bacon double cheeseburger
on Skip The Dishes.
Oh, there it is.
How much is that?
It's $11.99.
$11.99 on the app.
And how much is it
in the restaurant?
$9.99.
Wow, why?
Yeah, what's the deal with that?
Why is it like that?
-[ Makda ] Some, shocked...
Whoa, I didn't
know that, actually.
What do you think about that?
I would say, keep the
same price as the menu.
You can't just change it.
Bit of a sham, really.
Just, like, why is it a
different price when
they are already paid
more to deliver it?
-[ Makda ] Some of you
don't seem bothered by
the hidden markup.
I don't care.
It's for the convenience.
They're just charging
us for our laziness.
I'm willing to spend an
extra two bucks if it comes
straight to me.
Do you realize that's an
extra two bucks on top of
any delivery fees, service fees
that you may be paying?
No, I had no idea.
I'd be curious to see
how they justify that cost.
I think it's unfair.
Why would you charge me an
additional cost on top of having
to pay for delivery?
So who gets the
extra money, though?
Does the restaurant get it,
or does the app get it?
-[ Makda ] Good question.
We want to know, too.
So Hubert helps us investigate.
So we're at Little India
right now on Queen Street.
We're inside Touhenboku,
and we're going to check
the price of veggie miso ramen.
-[ Makda ] Turns out Burger's
Priest isn't the only restaurant
with hidden markups.
It's $13.45 picked
up from the store.
On each of the apps
it was $1.50 more.
The chicken tikka masala is
$16.95 on the Foodora app.
So, same as UberEats,
it's one dollar more.
So the margherita
pizza is ten dollars.
We're going to
compare it to the apps
and see what the
price difference is.
-[ Makda ] That pizza,
ten bucks.
Hubert's in-store
total with tax, $11.30.
That same pizza on
the apps listed for $12!
Two bucks more,
but you wouldn't know it.
Throw on delivery
fees, tip, and taxes,
now you're paying double.
That's a big difference
that I didn't know.
-[ Makda ] Not all restaurants
markup their prices.
But we had no trouble
finding ones that do.
We call all ten restaurants
in our demo to ask,
why the markup?
Little India takes a big step.
Co-owner Sri Selvarasa
is nervous.
He doesn't want to get
booted off the apps,
but feels it's important
customers know the true costs
of delivery apps.
We found that in your
restaurant and some others,
food costs more on the
apps than in the restaurant.
Why is that?
It's just because of the
percentages that they take.
It's 30%.
That's most of our profit
that's going into
their commissions, right?
I thought we could just markup
the price a little bit to at
least make a little money.
If we don't do that, then
we would make no money.
-[ Makda ] Wait, what?!
A 30% cut?
30%?
That sounds like a lot.
Yes, it is.
And what are you left with?
Pretty much nothing.
So that's why we have
to make up the price,
so at least we can
make something.
-[ Makda ] And from
more restaurant owners,
we hear the apps can
take anywhere from 20-35%.
We might not even
make any profit.
It's very difficult for
restaurants to offer
30% just for delivery.
We make very little but
there is no other choice.
Everybody's on them.
Like, it's kind of hard
not to be on there.
Damned if you do,
damned if you don't.
-[ Makda ] Lots to digest
on your Marketplace.
[ ♪♪ ]
-[ Makda ] We're testing
the top three food apps,
and the results are in.
Skip The Dishes,
come and get it.
I am so happy.
-[ Makda ] Skip is the cheapest
when it comes to delivery fees,
but it also takes the longest.
What's up with that?
I might have wasted a bit of
time but I saved some money
in the process.
-[ Makda ] Skip tells us,
several factors may impact
delivery time, including
courier reassignment,
restaurant requests for
more order preparation time,
and traffic conditions.
[ Knocking ]
Looks like we have a delivery.
Looks like my food's here.
[ Laughter ]
Pretty sure.
Hi.
Uber!
Yes, Uber!
Two orders from Uber.
-[ Makda ] UberEats was
the fastest, but at what cost?
It's got the highest delivery
fees from $3.50 to seven bucks.
It can make a one-item
order quite expensive.
-[ Makda ] Uber tells us
consumers pay depending
on time and distance.
And get this.
That delivery fee you
see on your phone?
With some apps, it doesn't
go directly to couriers.
It goes to the company.
If you're ordering for one...
That's really expensive.
-[ Makda ] ..Foodora might
not be the app for you.
The total is $26 and two cents.
-[ Makda ] Yup,
with fees and tip,
most of Steph's meals
cost that much.
If you actually do the
math like we just did,
then I think it would change
your opinion on which apps
you should use depending
on what you value.
Do you think that delivery
apps should make it
more clear when it comes
to these additional costs?
Sure, yeah, absolutely.
I think they should.
They probably should.
I just like to know exactly
what I'm paying for, right?
I'm lazy.
I don't want to look it up.
Absolutely, because that way
I can make a well-informed
decision if I want to proceed
with paying a few dollars more
if I can go get the food myself.
-[ Makda ] We think so, too.
So we go to the apps
for some answers.
UberEats and Skip won't
do an on camera interview.
But Foodora steps up.
-Hi, David.
-Hi.
I'm Makda.
-[ Makda ] David Albert,
Managing Director of
Foodora Canada.
As you know, we tested some
food delivery apps...
Sure, I heard.
And it turns out that Foodora
was the most extensive.
-Okay.
-What do you think about that?
What maybe drove the price
to look higher is we--
all our restaurants have a
minimum order value of $15.
That's right.
Why do you do that?
So, it's ultimately an
economic thing for us.
So, if you have $14 in
your cart, for example,
you can choose to pay an extra
dollar or add something else
to your cart.
But aren't you forcing
customers to spend more
than they intended to spend?
We're not forcing customers
to spend anything.
A business has to charge
whatever they have to charge
to be able to make money
and pay their employees.
-[ Makda ] Sure, make money,
but what we question are those
hidden markups on the apps.
Why not be more
transparent about that?
So, it's a good question.
So, we ultimately
enabled the restaurant
to dictate the menu price.
About 20% of the restaurants
on our platform have
a price markup.
To your point around
transparency,
one thing that we're talking
a lot about internally,
actually, is whether
we should have a feature
that kind of publicizes
this to the customer.
Is this something that
consumers could look
forward to in the next year?
Yeah, again, I won't
make any promises
that I can't deliver on.
But it's something that we
think makes sense to provide
more transparency
around to the customer.
We also talked to a lot
of restaurant owners and
they tell us they're kind of
forced to markup their prices
because Foodora's commission
leaves them with little or no
profit at all.
The restaurant business
can be a tough business.
The margins are thin,
it's high pressure.
But the restaurants continue to
work with us, very consistently.
Which, to me, I think is the
best proxy for whether they can
afford to pay the fees.
But they almost feel like
they have no choice but
to work with the
food delivery apps.
For us, it ultimately boils down
to what we need to charge to
also be able to make money.
-[ Makda ] We also ask Skip and
UberEats about hidden markups.
Skip says price differences
are uncommon but do occur,
and UberEats tells us sometimes
restaurants charge a premium
to help cover packaging
costs for delivery.
I was under the assumption
that I was just paying
for the delivery.
I did not realize the actual
food items themselves were
also marked up.
That's a rip-off to me.
-[ Makda ] Battle of the
food apps continues.
[ ♪♪ ]
-[ Makda ] We test the top
three food delivery apps,
Skip The Dishes, UberEats,
and Foodora,
rating delivery times and
revealing hidden markups.
But what else are
you buying into?
Shame, Foodora, shame.
-[ Makda ] Couriers protest.
Uber, shame on you.
-[ Makda ] In the
UK, France, Italy,
China, and Australia...
We make their profits for them.
-[ Makda ] ..it's about
falling wages...
In ten hours you made 34 pounds.
-[ Makda ] ..and job security.
English is my first language.
I feel sorry for people that
it's not their first language.
-[ Makda ] While researching
our story on food delivery apps,
we get an e-mail from
an UberEats driver.
We have no rights and no voice.
You will have my full
cooperation as long as I will
remain anonymous.
-[ Makda ] She wants us to
see what life is really like
for the couriers.
I am one of those people you'll
say is a working poor person.
-[ Makda ] So we join
her for a day on the job.
Do you think the drivers are
respected by the company?
No.
-[ Makda ] We're not
showing her face,
using her name,
or her real voice,
because she's scared
of losing her job.
Why not?
Because we're left in the
dark about a lot of things.
I did it full-time in the summer
and it was exhausting,
and sad, because by
the end of the day,
I realized I was making less
than minimum wage after my gas
and everything.
-[ Makda ] Fed up,
food couriers fight back.
Uber Cheats.
-[ Makda ] In Canada,
Skip The Dishes and Uber
face potential
class-action lawsuits.
At the heart of both disputes is
that couriers get no guaranteed
minimum wage, paid sick days,
overtime, or vacation.
How to classify couriers
is what it boils down to.
What do you think about that,
the fact that you're labelled
an independent contractor
versus an employee?
I think it's an excuse for
them to exploit drivers.
-[ Makda ] That's Aidan
MacDonald's opinion, too.
He's with an injured
workers' legal clinic.
All of the food delivery
apps classify their workers
as independent contractors.
What is the problem with that?
The problem is that when you
misclassify a worker as
an independent contractor,
they don't have access to
workers' compensation.
They don't have the same access
to employment standards
and employment insurance.
That leaves those workers
vulnerable to exploitation.
-[ Makda ] We speak to more
couriers and all of them ask us
to hide their identities.
They, too, are afraid.
They tell us the draw at
first was the flexibility.
I was studying.
I didn't find any job that I
could fit into my schedule.
So this one was the perfect job.
-[ Makda ] And the potential
pay can be promising.
I started making
a lot more money.
-[ Makda ] But for these
two Toronto couriers,
everything came to
a crashing halt.
I collided with him
somewhere around here
and landed somewhere
right about here.
I was riding my bicycle
in the downtown
and somebody opened a door.
So I crashed into the door,
and that broke my left hand.
-[ Makda ] Both couriers
alerted the apps.
They say the response
was surprising.
I was sad that Uber
even didn't ask me,
"Are you okay,
everything is good?
Do you need an ambulance?"
No, nothing like that.
They asked if I wore a helmet,
if I injured my head,
and then if I could
finish doing the order.
So I told them
I couldn't do that.
[ Laughter ]
What do you think
about that?
I thought that was so stupid.
It made me pretty mad.
It's like I'm not even a person.
To hear a courier say they
don't even feel like a person,
does that not show that
there is a problem here?
So, that doesn't
make me feel good,
hearing about that
specific incident.
So, for us, these things
are very case specific.
But we would never want to
make somebody finish a job,
nor do they have to finish the
job if they're hurt on the job.
-[ Makda ] When it comes
to workers' compensation,
the Foodora courier was covered.
But the UberEats courier
said he was left with nothing.
After I realized that I was not
going to have enough money
to pay all my bills,
I was really stressed.
I didn't have enough
money to pay my food,
to have to save
money for everything.
Even I have to ask
for money from my dad,
and that made me
feel pretty bad.
-[ Makda ] UberEats says it
never wants any of it's
delivery partners to have
an experience like that.
And it's always looking
to improve support.
But that doesn't include paying
into workers' compensation,
because UberEats
says their couriers
are independent contractors.
So does Skip and Foodora.
But Foodora pays premiums.
So, why the difference?
After questioning Ontario's
Workers' Compensation Board,
the WSIB, we learn that
UberEats is classified as
a telephone answering service,
that's like a call centre.
So that means those on
the road are not covered.
But Foodora is classified
as a courier operations,
so there couriers are covered.
Skip The Dishes' status
is still pending.
We feel that it's important that
the worker has protection in
the event that they're
injured on the job,
and in speaking to
the regulating bodies,
it seemed like it was
something we were able to do
and actually supposed
to be doing.
We ask the WSIB for
an interview to explain.
They decline, but they do admit
that our questions are forcing
them to review UberEats and the
entire food delivery industry.
And across the country coverage
of couriers is not much better.
How do you feel when you hear
that some couriers are getting
coverage if they're injured
on the job and others are not?
It's a fundamental unfairness.
There's no rhyme or reason why
some people doing the same
work should be covered
and other people doing
the same work should
not be covered.
-[ Makda ] These couriers
feel the same way.
I think it's really messed up
because the nature of the job
regardless of who you
work for is the same.
What happened to me
could happen to anyone.
I would like to feel secure
when I'm doing this job.
I would like to feel that
if something happened,
I have a backup.
-[ Makda ] We're going to
follow this fight and want
to hear from you.
When picking a food delivery
app, what matters most?
Take our poll or write us.
