Lending a hand to local restaurants suffering economically under COVID-19 restrictions, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday capped what third parties can charge for food delivery.
DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and other services now can only charge up to 15 percent of the total cost of an order, and 10 percent of third-party orders picked up by the customer at a restaurant. Typically, delivery providers charge up to 30 percent.
The cap would be lifted once the state allows restaurants to open indoor seating at 100 percent capacity, though the board can revisit that at any time.
Restaurants have seen income plunge more than 20 percent since February 2020, according to a county staff report. Overall, total restaurant and food service income has declined $240 billion from expected revenue.
DoorDash representative Chad Horrell asked the board, if passing the ordinance, to cap the amount at 20 percent and lift it once restaurants open to either 50 or 75 percent of indoor capacity. He also asked to exclude chains of 10 locations or more in the state.
Supervisor John Gioia pointed out that Walnut Creek’s similar cap — at 15 percent and lasting beyond the time restaurants hit 100 percent indoor capacity — is slightly more restrictive.
“DoorDash is still doing a pretty robust business in Walnut Creek,” Gioia said.
While the state recently allowed county restaurants to reopen outdoor dining areas, indoor dining is still prohibited while the county remains in the most restrictive tier of California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Dozens of Contra Costa restaurants have closed in the past year as the spread of COVID-19 continues to keep people home.
Many local restaurants have survived the past year through delivery. Some establishments estimated, even when indoor dining resumed last year before the latest shutdown, that delivery made up about 70 percent of business.
Contra Costa joins other Bay Area jurisdictions enacting similar ordinances, including Santa Clara County, Alameda County, Marin County, Oakland, San Jose, and Santa Cruz County. Beside Walnut Creek, the Contra Costa cities of Lafayette and Danville already have similar caps in place, which take precedence over the county cap.
No problem for the county to restrict private industry but when the county needs income there is no remorse in raising taxes.
hopefully they will create a government bureaucracy to help “protect” folks from undue fees, instead of just letting the market decide (i.e. don’t buy from those who charge too much), because the left and dems know we the people are too stupid to think on own…
oh and charge a crap load of new taxes, to “help us”
ok, bread crumbs here. Time for the supervisors to really do something to help businesses maintain and help others open. What about business tax breaks, incentives… Some really hard stuff to figure out. Don’t just come up with this cap and think your job is done.
I order, I pick up.
Yeah, me too. Last Friday stopped at two different restaurants (people in this house have very different tastes) to get take-out and did not have to rely on some stranger carrying my dinner around. I actually think it is kind of creepy.
To Do List Nice person to go to two places. I contribute to Meals on Wheels a lot. There delivery is necessary. Not if you own a car.
@To Do List
But you are perfectly okay with a total stranger(s) making your food in private with unknown quality or cleanliness?!?
Ricardo: Thank you.
Janus: Yes. I have worked in restaurants and large quantity institutional food service. There are regular employees and they are trained for how to deal with food and there are health inspections. I know some places get flagged or closed down, but most actually try to do their best. I always did. With food delivery, I have no idea who those people are and I assume they are different each time. I am not telling others what to do, just what works for me.
Ricardo, nice to hear (for the MoW, specifically, though hitting multiple restaurants is nice, too)
More government intervention. The customers are just going to have additional fees tacked on..
It would be hilarious if these companies just pulled out of the region.
Morons.
Wasting time on this nonsense when our Public Schools are still closed.
What a bunch of lazy, inept, heels.
CoCo county is screwed. These idiots waste their time on food delivery fees when part of our social structure is crumbling around them.
Let them eat Cake!!
Delivery companies like Doordash, Grubhub, and Instacart are rip off companies. They charge you a delivery fee, service fees, and then you have to tip the driver. On the same transaction they charge the restaurant or store 20%. Instacart also charges you more than the store does for items as well. I caught that when I was in a Safeway, found the price of the item was two dollars less than it was on Instacart. These are insanely greedy companies that need to be reigned in. I am a staunch advocate for the free market except when they are ripping people off. In these cases they rip-off the consumer and the the restaurants and stores both!
Oh please. Ridiculous, and will only result in unintended negative consequences. These types of moves are just for supervisors to feel self-important, like they are “doing something”
Don’t you hate that you’re expected to tip even when you pick up the food yourself?