Happy Nice Mall

OAKLAND, California — Last fall, as the weather turned cold and coronavirus cases began to rise, May Seto, owner of Grand Lake Kitchen in Oakland, refurbished a used pizza oven and began serving takeout and pizza from an extra kitchen that had cooked for meals and special events. .

Now, one of Grand Lake’s two locations serves as a hub for couriers who receive the restaurant’s cafe fare and pizza. Ms. Seto also plans to rebuild the entryway elsewhere to provide more space for herds of food-gathering couriers.

“We could rearrange the front of the restaurant a little bit and keep the delivery in mind as if we were going to stay here, because it is,” he said.

Delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats have become a lifeline for businesses during the pandemic. Restaurants learned the logistics of dealing with them—reorganizing kitchens and stocking takeout containers in abandoned dining rooms—and reluctantly accepted delivery fees that slashed their already weak profit margins.

Some of these changes are starting to look like they may be permanent, as consumers are sticking to their newfound fondness for getting food delivered to their doorstep. In a recent JD Power survey71 percent of consumers said they will continue to order as many or more deliveries as they had during the pandemic.

The company said DoorDash’s order volume in previously reopened markets in most places, such as Florida, Texas and Australia, fell nearly 20 percent from the peak of the pandemic. Uber Eats has experienced declines as communities reopen, but its revenue is up 230 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year – a welcome break from Uber’s crumbling ride-hailing business.

Similar things are happening in places like San Francisco. Laurie Thomas, co-owner of two restaurants in the city, said deliveries were dwindling this spring as curfews eased. But when San Francisco began to fully reopen in June, Ms. Thomas’ DoorDash orders were up again, slightly lower than they were during the pandemic.

“Delivery has been a big part of life during the pandemic,” said Ben Bleiman, leader of the San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance. “The question is how much of it will stay here and how much will leave.”

There is little doubt that the pandemic is a boon for online delivery services. DoorDash handled 329 million orders in the first quarter of the year, a three-month record for the company, up 219 percent from the previous year. DoorDash estimates it will process orders between $9.4 billion and $9.9 billion in the second quarter, after processing $9.9 billion in the first quarter.

If delivery is to stay here, restaurant groups are looking for ways to deal with it financially. Ms. Thomas leads the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, an industry group that is lobbying to limit fees for delivery companies while allowing them to charge additional fees for their marketing services. Early in the pandemic, many cities set emergency caps on the fees delivery companies can charge restaurants. But most of these orders will expire. The business owners said delivery would become unaffordable if wages returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Last week, San Francisco’s board of supervisors voted unanimously for a permanent 15 percent cap on delivery fees. Similar measures are being considered in Chicago and other cities.

“We can’t have a system where people are charged more than 30 percent of their sales for survival,” said Ahsha Safai, a board member who co-sponsored the law.

DoorDash and Uber Eats have responded to emergency limits by revamping the way restaurants pay for their services and tracking local rates. In April, DoorDash offered restaurants the option to pay a 15 percent fee for basic services and higher fees for marketing and other services. In some cities, like Chicago, DoorDash charges customers a $1.50 “Chicago fee”. In Jersey City, NJ, which has temporarily capped fares to 10 percent, Uber Eats added a “temporary local fee” of $3.

DoorDash’s president, Christopher Payne, said there are other ways legislators can support restaurants, such as allowing alfresco dining and alcohol distribution.

“Most restaurants want to meet customers where they want to be,” Mr. Payne said. “The truth is, customers want both situations. They want to go to restaurants and have the great experience they’ve been longing for, but they also want to get what they want at home.”

Even high-end restaurants that have turned to takeout as a lifeline during the pandemic have said they can keep it as a complement to fine dining.

“There is current excitement about the return to in-person dining, but we firmly believe that the long-term health of restaurants and other service businesses requires creativity and diverse revenue streams,” said Nick Kokonas, co-founder of the company. Alinea is a Chicago restaurant that offers fine dining experiences ranging from $210 to $415 per person.

During the pandemic, Alinea started offering continue options at $35 per person, and Mr. Kokonas, who is also managing director of restaurant software company Tock, said Alinea will expand its ongoing offerings.

Genie Kwon and Tim Flores opened their Filipino cafe and bakery Kasama in Chicago last July. Delivery wasn’t part of their initial vision for the restaurant, but the pandemic changed their plans. They filled their bars with takeout containers, and their dining room filled with couriers and customers taking their orders.

Ms. Kwon said she made it a habit to wait an hour before testing new menu items so she could be sure they were still delicious after they were delivered. With coronavirus cases rising in the winter, he and Mr. Flores discussed adding a special window for couriers to pick up groceries as a social distancing measure. During storms, Ms. Kwon said there were often not enough couriers to deliver orders, so she and Mr. Flores began making the deliveries themselves.

Ms. Kwon said Kasama, which she estimates accounted for 25 percent of her business during the pandemic, hopes to reduce its reliance on delivery and phase it out over the coming months to make room for in-person dining.

“At this point, we don’t have enough space or manpower to continue the volume of deliveries we’re making,” he said. “We’ll probably keep the day as is, and then stop making deliveries for dinner.”

DoorDash and Uber Eats have rapidly expanded their delivery offerings to keep customers connected. Companies now deliver groceries, pet supplies, alcohol and dry goods alongside hot meals, encouraging customers to add new offerings to their carts when they order dinner.

“Many Uber Eats users who primarily use the app to order food are now moving to other parts of the business and staying connected,” said Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber’s senior vice president of delivery.

“One of the consistent trends is that consumer expectations go up, not down, as we get more convenience,” said Mr Payne of DoorDash.

“The arc of wanting more convenience, more things delivered to you faster, seems to only go in one direction,” he added.