All-in-one app for Online Ordering that prioritizes restaurants

I kind of feel like this is the most shit-on idea in the world, but I actually want to make it clear at the outset that I didn't really just make this problem up. It's a problem.

Here's the skinny:

Online ordering apps like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Seamless have been really screwing up when it comes to this industry. Maybe that's not putting it accurately enough. These companies are outright exploiting people; drivers, restaurants, and customers.

For those that don't know about the problem, it is real and it is getting a lot of coverage in the last year or so. Easiest way to get up to speed is to google, "why restaurants hate Grubhub" and then simply "grubhub" after that.

To summarize, restaurants are on these platforms that charge 20-30% commission on each order (sometimes more). This leaves restaurants with little room for profit, and in the worst cases, they actually lose money in the transaction.

On the customer side of things, this results in menu prices needing to be jacked higher online, and other "service charges" being added. There's a story going around where a person tried to order a $5 dish on Grubhub and because of the charges and a $3 tip, the grand total was $23-$26.

So what is a solution I propose? It's essentially the same kind of platform but without the erroneous fees. Yes, it's possible. Yes, I did the math.

The way it works is that restaurants provide their own drivers for delivery -- as many of them already do -- and they can get their charges and commission reduced to a flat 4.9%, which saves them 15-25% per order. This makes a difference.

But I have something for the customers as well. Restaurants can opt-in to a dynamic pricing service which actually helps everyone. It's simple, too: Restaurants have slow periods of the day, so they can offer deals and discounts during those times to fill up tables, and customers can get to eat for cheaper than they would have. This is like how a hotel temporarily lowers prices to fill more rooms when they're slow. Everyone wins.

The biggest pushback I get for this idea is actually: "why would a restaurant use that?".

-- I try to tell them that it makes it so that they are profiting from online orders instead of losing money, but people aren't really trying to hear that. Granted, these guys aren't restaurant owners, but I thought it'd be clear.

The second biggest pushback is why would a restaurant choose your service when they could just get their own platform and app built and reduce the costs to 0%.

-- There's no such thing as 0% in any online transaction, because you have to at least pay the credit card processing fee, and if not that, then you will be paying a monthly subscription to cover those processing fees. In addition to that, a large number of restaurants would prefer not to have to maintain their own app and platform and customers would prefer to just search an aggregator for food rather than installing an app for each restaurant they eat at.

The third pushback is: "There are so many food apps out there already!"

-- Yes, I know this too.

As I'm writing this, I feel like I'm about to hear the exact same things I always hear. This is definitely been the most interesting problem I've tried to solve. If it ever came down to it, I could just abandon this idea because I'm not really passionate about restaurants or the industry. I just saw a problem and thought to provide a solution.

Am I really on the wrong track here? Personally, the only thing I hate is that because of apps like DoorDash and Grubhub, whenever I place an order, I feel bad that this restaurant I like is likely being hurt in some way by me doing this. But at three of my go-to places there's a language barrier (I live in NYC) so phone ordering is too error-prone. I'm glad that apps clear that part up, but I don't want to contribute to the chances that one of my favorite restaurants will fail as a result.

I'm just a person with the means to solve this problem. And I would like to if I can.