this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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Fuck Cars

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[–] Horsey@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Americans are too lazy to travel to their lunch. However, for the vast majority of the people, you’re not 15 minutes of walk away from a healthy assortment of food. Even in NYC, depending on where you are, it may not be possible to always go to your food. The idea of your lunch being paid is also not common, and you’re expected to be back to working (not done eating) within 30 minutes or less. In many cases, your lunchtime is timed and unpaid. Nurses and hospital staff? Eat the shit downstairs in the cafeteria or nothing; if you’re late coming back from lunch, it’s almost as bad as being late to work itself.

[–] possumparty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 6 days ago

NYC primarily does not use cars for food delivery, there's a 99.8% chance they will deliver it via bicycle.

[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Why was the subtotal of the actual food being ordered omitted?

Likely because it would give meaningful context to the amounts of the fees, and the ragebaiting OOP wants to avoid that.

[–] faltryka@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

$92 assuming they’re being honest about it being New York and it’s for food delivery. Since their tax rate is 8.75% for prepared food.

[–] faltryka@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

The $30 in fees don’t seem unreasonable when you think about it.

A chunk is taxes and well, they’d have been there anyway so I’m not counting them.

A chunk is tip, which was voluntary so I’m not including it.

That leaves about $15 for a delivery fee, in New York. Not sure what the driver makes but a portion of that $15 is going to them.

The real question is about how this person values their opportunity cost, because they actively decided that the time they would save was worth paying the extra delivery fees and tip. They made that decision and THEN complained about the injustice of…. Their own behavior and choices?

[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Damn, I think I'll be in the ground before I've ever paid that much for a meal, delivery or not, lol.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I've honestly never quite realized up until now how utterly ridiculous it is that people regularly demand that their food be cooked for them.

I've honestly never quite realized up until now how utterly ridiculous it is that people regularly demand that their food items be prepared and packaged for them.

I've honestly never quite realized up until now how utterly ridiculous it is that people regularly demand that that the animals they eat are slaughtered for them.

I've honestly never quite realized up until now how utterly ridiculous it is that people regularly demand that their grain be milled for them.

Society evolves buddy. I don't churn my own butter, but my grandmas did, and would find it ridiculous I have 247 access to a supermarket selling some. And it's even being kept at an exact temperature, all the time? Packaged without any sweat on it? Ridiculous!

[–] kreskin@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Rodney Cheng did a comedy skit on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGEAiUeiaKs

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 130 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (39 children)

A lot of these are delivered by bike nowadays, no?

Edit: since people keep asking without reading below, I mean specifically in NYC.

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[–] TheCleric@lemmy.org 90 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just fyi, like 99% of food delivery via gig workers in nyc is done via e-bike

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 32 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (16 children)

Even if done in a car in areas where a e-bike isn't really feasible, they usually take several orders at at time. I think 1 car picking up and delivering 3 orders is probably slightly more efficient than each person driving to the restaurant.

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[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 54 points 1 week ago (2 children)

More people need to learn about and think about externalized costs.

"This plastic cup is free! ... if I ignore the fact that it's going into a landfill or worse"

"This delivery is free! ... if I ignore the fact that the delivery guy is getting fucked by capital"

[–] grue@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago

More governments need to tax externalized costs.

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[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 50 points 1 week ago (7 children)

other countries deliver most things using motorbikes, it always sounded ridiculous to me to use a car to deliver food

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[–] blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works 39 points 1 week ago (19 children)

I've lived several places. In some, I could walk to get food, and I gladly did so. In others, I could not.

Should I have starved?

If your argument is "you should have driven," then you are depending on cars. Whether it's the buyer or an employee doing the driving has little effect on how much a car is being used. The environment doesn't care who's burning the gas.

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[–] DigDoug@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (5 children)

...if you think delivery is too expensive, maybe don't get your food delivered, then? Just a thought.

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[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Delivery is good option for people with limited mobility

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[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago

It was always obvious that the shared delivery model would result in massive delivery fees. Store employees doing deliveries were always at least partially subsidized by sales. Going third party means another company needs to suck more profit out of each delivery.

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 32 points 1 week ago (23 children)

What's more ridiculous? 10 people each driving to the fast food joint individually or one delivery driver making a round trip to 10 people?

We pay other people to do the things we can't or don't want to do all the time, this isn't different.

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[–] Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 1 week ago (15 children)

Why does OP think every delivery is made by car? Often times they are made by bike.

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[–] koper@feddit.nl 31 points 1 week ago (10 children)

Do delivery drivers in NYC really use cars? 🤨

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