Some Windsor restaurant owners are pulling back from third-party food delivery apps, saying the added costs are forcing them to charge customers more while taking home less from each order. Swan Grill, located on Tecumseh Road West, recently announced on Facebook that it would no longer be accepting delivery orders through Uber Eats, stressing to customers that the restaurant itself remains open. The restaurant says the decision came down to cost. “We don’t want to be on Uber Eats because our prices have to keep going up because of their extra fees,” said the owner, Shawn, adding the restaurant plans to continue offering its own delivery service. One example provided by the restaurant is its full kebab plate. Swan Grill says the meal costs $16 when purchased directly from the restaurant but is listed for $23 through Uber Eats in an attempt to offset the cost of selling through the platform. Even at $23, the owner says the restaurant receives less than the $16 it would have collected from a direct sale — while the customer may also face additional charges through the app. The restaurant highlighted another example in its Facebook post. A six-person family tray costs $90 when ordered directly from Swan Grill. The restaurant says it listed the same item for $130 on Uber Eats but would receive approximately $86 from the transaction. According to Swan Grill, that means a customer could pay roughly $40 more while the restaurant receives about $4 less than it would from a $90 direct order. The restaurant says customers have continued ordering directly since Uber Eats was turned off and that it would consider returning to the platform if the costs became more manageable. “We want to avoid all that and keep everything affordable,” said Shawn. Swan Grill is not the only Windsor restaurant reconsidering its relationship with major delivery apps. Cassandra Messina, one of the new owners of Sam’s Pizzeria and Cantina near the University of Windsor, said third-party delivery services were among the issues she and her business partner looked at shortly after taking ownership a few weeks ago. Messina said the restaurant had previously been available through services including Uber Eats and Skip, but the new owners wanted to find a way to keep prices affordable while maintaining their bottom line. “How are we going to keep people coming back?” Messina said, describing some of the questions the owners considered when reviewing their delivery options. Instead, Sam’s is using an online ordering system operated locally in Windsor-Essex called JAZ Eats. Messina said customers ordering through the restaurant’s website see the same menu prices they would receive by calling the restaurant or purchasing their food in person. “That to us was something super important to have,” she said, adding that keeping prices consistent encourages customers to return. Uber Eats, however, says the higher menu prices customers may see on its platform are set by restaurants themselves. In a statement to CTV News Windsor, the company specifically responded to Swan Grill’s $90-to-$130 family tray example, saying the difference “is a pricing decision made by the restaurant, not a markup set by Uber.” Uber Eats says its Canadian pricing plans for merchants start at a 20 per cent fee for delivery orders, while pickup orders start at 10 per cent and online ordering at 2.9 per cent. The company says those fees help cover services including delivery workers’ earnings, insurance, marketing, restaurant and customer support, payment processing, order management and the technology used to operate the platform. “Uber Eats is designed to help local restaurants grow,” the company said in its statement. “By facilitating delivery, technology, and customer discovery, we make it easier for restaurants to reach new customers and generate revenue without taking on the cost and complexity of running their own delivery operations.” Uber Eats added that tens of thousands of restaurants across Canada continue to use the platform because of the reach, efficiency and customer access it provides. The Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association says there is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to whether restaurants should use third-party delivery apps. The association says each business has to weigh the added costs against the benefits of being on platforms such as Uber Eats, including increased visibility and access to customers who may not otherwise discover the restaurant. For some operators, that added exposure may make the fees worthwhile. For others, particularly those already operating on tight margins, the additional costs can become difficult to justify. For Swan Grill, however, the owner says the preferred option for now is direct ordering — either through the restaurant’s own delivery service or by having customers pick up their food themselves. “The best option is to pick up the food. It’s cheaper, more affordable and you enjoy the food hot.”
