Almost Half of Restaurant Sales Go To Delivery Services, Association Warns

Up to forty per cent of the restaurant’s food prices are taken by delivery services, Luboš Kastner from the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurs and Tradesmen (ASMP ČR) has claimed.

As part of the Czech Republic’s State of Emergency, restaurants are currently banned from serving food on their premises.

With the use of food delivery apps expected to shoot up because of this, the ASMP has called on popular food delivery services to share their margins. They have also criticized the business practice of meal voucher companies.

“Delivery services charge from 25 to 40 per cent of the price of the meal and, in addition, have the customer pay a shipping fee. For example, Dámejídlo.cz takes 25 per cent of lunch, in the evening it’s over 30 per cent. The Wolt service even takes 35 to 40 per cent,” Kastner told Práva.

“At the same time, restaurants have to cook food, buy packaging and pack food,” he added.

When asked to comment on the situation, a media representative for Dámejídlo.cz replied: “Unfortunately, we cannot react to this at the moment.”

Restaurants can of course avoid the fees of selling via a delivery app by offering their own delivery, but this comes with its own issues. Kastner explained that gastronomes would need regulars and great marketing to get people to come directly to their website to order.

A comment left on Novinky.cz’s article argued: “Transport must include costs (car, fuel, driver’s salary) and some profit. So it’s up to the pubs to include it in the price of the meal or to arrange their own transport.”

Another claimed they would ‘no longer support’ Dámejídlo, saying they had deleted the app from their phone since learning of this news.