This Alterra food deliverer dumped the apps and actually gets more business

Misty Squier tried to work for DoorDash.

For weeks, she waited for an opening on the “dasher” app but was told there’s no dashing available. All the slots in Maricopa were perpetually filled.

So, she cut out the middleman.

The 40-year-old food delivery driver from Alterra is breaking free from the apps after realizing she can provide better service than what you get with the “service fee” — one of many upcharges that can equal half the price of your meal or more.

It’s no grand mystery why consumers and workers alike are turning their backs on DoorDash, which “holds food hostage in exchange for tips,” and Uber Eats, which publicly ridicules people with food allergies when it’s not getting sued for racketeering .

“They really appreciate what I do,” says Squier of her 20 or so customers, who “can get the actual price, not the jacked-up prices of the delivery app.”

In March, InMaricopa reported Maricopa workers increasingly relied on gig work to make ends meet, but dizzying inflation and poor customer service left consumers fatigued. Gen Z and millennials like Squier are hit hardest by the highs and (mostly) lows of gig work, says Fortune magazine .

DoorDash and Uber Eats charge a 15 to 30% commission on average, and the supermajority of restaurants respond by raising menu prices by the same margin or more, according to the Wall Street Journal .

Squier saw a McDonald’s in Maricopa charging north of $12 for a burger that’s $7.99 at the counter, and that’s not including a $2 service fee, $6 delivery fee, taxes and the suggested $3 tip.

That all amounts to $23 plus tax for a single fast-food burger. To put that into perspective, you could buy two Agave’s Burgers from Chop, Block & Brew, the most expensive restaurant in Maricopa , for cheaper than that.

“I’ve noticed, if you order through DoorDash, prices are extremely high,” Squier tells InMaricopa . “So, I just started doing pickup orders myself.”

Squier lets her customers set the price they want to pay. Once she arrives at the restaurant, she’ll share her live location from her cell phone with the customer, so they can track their order, just like on the apps.

“They don’t pay me until I get there,” Squier shares.

The most popular requests are McDonald’s and Burger King, the largest and seventh-largest American restaurant chains by sales this year, according to Food & Wine magazine . These companies notoriously inflate delivery app prices by wider margins than smaller businesses, analysts have discovered .

If you want to try Squier’s services for yourself, you can give her a call at 480-233-4343.

This post This Alterra food deliverer dumped the apps and actually gets more business appeared first on InMaricopa .