Berkeley Bowl:
Multiple employees at both locations of the grocery have tested positive for the virus. The locations remain open after being disinfected.
Berkeley has joined a growing list of cities across Northern California, including San Francisco, to shield local restaurants from high commission fees charged by thirdparty food delivery apps.
On Tuesday, Berkeley’s City Council unanimously approved an emergency ordinance to cap commission fees charged by Uber Eats, Postmates, DoorDash and Grubhub at 15%. Other fees levied by the apps, not including the delivery fee, are capped at 5%.
The legislation was introduced by Berkeley Councilwoman Rashi Kesarwani, and the cap will remain in place until indoor dining resumes in Berkeley or 90 days after the local health emergency ends.
Vice Mayor Sophie Hahn said via email that even with the cap, she will continue to encourage diners to order directly from restaurants, or use restaurants’ own delivery services if available, to curb the expense of using delivery apps, a cost that is often not readily evident to consumers when they place
an order.
“At a time when many small restaurants in Berkeley are struggling to stay open, we must protect them from corporate delivery apps that seek to profit off this pandemic,” Hahn said.
San Francisco passed a similar emergency ordinance in April, which also capped commission fees from food delivery apps at 15%. Since then, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Marin County, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City and Jersey City put similar caps in place. Berkeley is the first city in the East Bay to approve such an emergency ordinance.
The rates charged by delivery apps, which typically ranged from 15% to 30% of an order before the coronavirus pandemic, have been a concern for local restaurants and city officials since state and local shelterinplace orders went into effect. Most Bay Area restaurants that have had to stop dinein service are heavily relying on delivery apps to generate revenue.
For their part, delivery app companies, most of which have been consistently unprofitable, say the high fees are necessary to pay delivery couriers, process payments, handle customer service and otherwise run their operations.
The sector is seeing considerable consolidation. Uber said
Monday it would acquire San Francisco rival Postmates for $2.65 billion. DoorDash, also of San Francisco, bought meal delivery service Caviar from Square last year. Chicago’s Grubhub agreed to sell itself to
European firm Just Eat Takeaway for $7.3 billion last month.
The commission caps appear to be adding to the financial pressure on the companies. Uber Eats stopped delivering to Treasure Island in April, saying it could not serve the San Francisco neighborhood under the new restrictions and citing a need to “reduce operational costs.” Supervisor Matt Haney criticized the company, saying the move was a retaliation against the city for imposing caps.
Some appear to have struggled with consistently adhering to the newly imposed limits. DoorDash recently admitted to mistakenly charging a handful of San Francisco restaurants more than was allowed under the city’s cap. GrubHub said it had raised its commissions when the cap briefly expired in June.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who along with Supervisor Ahsha Safaí initiated the talks about the commission caps in San Francisco, recently said on Twitter there is additional legislation in the works to “end these predatory practices.”
Under the Berkeley legislation, delivery apps that violate the ordinance will have to pay back the money to the restaurant.