Thanks for joining us during the holidays. White our team is taking a break, we want to share a series with you that we think you’ll love. It’s called Diving In. Getting food delivered should be simple — but somehow it&#x27;s gotten outrageously expensive. Economist Justin Wolfers breaks down why food delivery apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub make it nearly impossible to compare prices, and why that&#x27;s no accident. Subscribe on YouTube https://youtube.com/platypuseconomics Subscribe on Substack https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com Follow on Social Media @PlatypusEconomics and @JustinWolfers Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Diving In | How Food Delivery Killed Competition (And Took Your Budget With It)

What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future

Hey everyone, it's Mary. And it's also July 3rd, which is technically a holiday, so the folks here are taking a bit of a breather to celebrate America's birthday. But we did not want to leave you high and dry. So we're going to leave you in the hands of one of our favorite guests, Justin Wolfers. Justin is one of my favorite people to talk to about economics. He's pretty hilarious. He's got a great Australian accent. His Diving In series makes economics accessible, entertaining, and actually understandable.

This episode looks at delivery apps. We've all been there. You add your order and then there's a delivery fee. And a service fee. And a tax. And a tip. Justin asks, why? And how much can these apps skim off the top before we just stop using them? So, here's Justin.

Justin Wolfers. The fact that I can open up my phone, just push a couple of buttons, and 30 minutes later have restaurant quality food show up on my doorstep. It's pretty incredible. Seriously, the magic of our times. But it's also gotten painfully expensive. That $28 burrito isn't just a meme. It's a reality. And so I want to ask, does it really have to be this way?

I mean, Amazon can get almost anything in my house cheaply and quickly. But that burrito, it's priced as if they're sending it here in a Rolls Royce. So today I want to ask, why is food delivery so damn expensive?

I mean, sure, it looks like a competitive market. There's lots of businesses competing. And they're all selling pretty much the same product. Wouldn't economics tell us that competition drives prices down? But this market, it's not delivering the one thing that I really want, which is low prices.

Diving In | How Food Delivery Killed Competition (And Took Your Budget With It)

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Diving In | How Food Delivery Killed Competition (And Took Your Budget With It)

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.