Why is GrubHub buying thousands of urls similar to restaurant names, and launching 'shadow sites'?

To piss on small restaurants

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yes yes yes. i am tired of politics as usual. america does not need to be pissed off - america needs to be pissed on

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Couldn’t the restaurant just not use grubhub and keep itself from being killed?

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But what if they don’t deliver and you want delivery? Then you’re stuck with Grubhub.

I don’t see how Grubhub can “kill” a restaurant, they are providing a service. If the restaurant wants to deliver food, they will deliver food. But they use Grubhub to outsource delivery. If this is somehow killing them, then they have a bigger problem than Grubhub.

Of course the cybersquatting is deceitful and should be stopped, but the basic model for Grubhub should be sound - it either helps a business or the business won’t use them.

If GrubHub is altering menu prices or otherwise taking some or all of their service fees out of the money that the restaurant would normally receive for their services, that can definitely have an impact on a restaurant’s profitability. And if GrubHub is also throwing up essentially fake websites with fake phone numbers that they bill to the restaurants, that’s an additional expense that they would otherwise not have to worry about.

Essentially, it’s possible that restaurants are losing more money to GrubHub than they are gaining in order volume. And because the goods aren’t digital, there’s an upper limit to how much they can afford to increase production to meet demand.

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If it can generate enough dine in and takeout orders on its own. The problem is grubhub tends to have the lion’s share of online ordering business in many cities (such as NYC).

Its not a matter of doing the delivery, its taking the orders. They use Grubhub for marketing. Grubhub seldom uses its own delivery people. The costs to the restaurants which don’t supply their own delivery people is even higher than the usual exorbitant fees. So most do that themselves.

Put down the game controller, hoist your lazy butt out of that chair, and cook your own meal. Momma didn’t let any of us boys leave home without knowing how to cook and sew, and it’s worked out well for all of us.

I’m not taking that advice from someone named @Alfred_Packer1, TYVM

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Isn’t this exactly the problem? McDonald’s are big enough and ugly enough to fight off this sort of land grab. Your favourite, family run restaraunt around the corner - they’re already struggling to compete against the big chains, who will always better the smaller places on price (or profit margin). Now they’re being hussled off the internet.
The more I read about it, the more I realise the whole gig economy is basically about finding a way to skim off of established small businesses.

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Good people make good food??

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Unless you own a restaurant.

Those websites that want to sell you hotel rooms take commissions from hotels also, making hotels rooms cost more for everyone, whether they use those websites or not. I only use those sites to find hotels, then I use their own brand/chain websites to actually reserve the room.

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Why do you feel the need to get all judgemental over ordering take-out? That seems like such a stupid thing to get worked up about, and unnecessary too. What is wrong with ordering take-out every once in a while?

And even more importantly, what is wrong with not wanting part of your take-out payment to end up at a middleman at the cost of the already meager income of the people that actually make your food?

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Well said. I do a great deal more of my own cooking these days than I used to (just to save me money), but I still like to occasionally eat out or get take-out, particularly if it’s something I love but don’t know how to cook or would take too much time or effort [ETA: I’m usually cooking for just myself.] In general, I don’t order things delivered, but that’s my own choice.

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