Food delivery's not cheap and besides fries, often includes unexpected fees and surcharges
A $62 McDonald's family meal might be quick but affordable? Not really
People used to go to McDonald’s because it was at least consistent and not likely to cause any major gastric side effects. Now, it seems that everyone just orders out and lets DoorDash or UberEats do the legwork.
That saves time, but it’s a far cry from picking up a nice bag of salty fried fat for $10 and millions of consumers are choosing to stay home and let the food come to them.
So, food delivery is suddenly big business. In fact, one recent analysis found a standard McDonald’s family meal averaging about $62 via delivery apps, versus about $37 in-store.
Both fast food and groceries are increasingly being carted from the curb to your front porch or lobby, to the tune of about $130 billion annually, according to Market Data Forecast. Uber says its delivery division now exceeds $100 billion.
As with so many things we buy these days, a fairly hefty portion of this rather wanton spending consists of fees, surcharges and other often-unexpected add-ons.
Feds urged to act
The National Consumers League (NCL)and six other public interest organizations are upset about that. They’ve filed a joint comment supporting Federal Trade Commission (FTC) action to prohibit hidden fees in food delivery services.
The FTC’s proposal would bring relief and clarity to shoppers who use food and grocery delivery apps, they say, noting that a fair portion of home delivery customers have limited mobility or disabilities.
NCL urged the agency to go after hidden fees in additional industries by expanding the scope of the regulation to apply economy-wide, rather than being specific to food delivery. The groups also urged the FTC to ban personalized pricing, also known as predatory or dynamic pricing — a practice fueled by invasive data collection that preys on everyday Americans.
“There is a longstanding consensus that hidden fees harm consumers and violate the law. Americans now know that dynamic pricing is just as rotten, especially when it’s personalized to exactly how much businesses think they can squeeze from you,” said NCL Senior Public Policy Manager Eden Iscil. “We should not be subjected to a guessing game just to figure out the price of something. It’s important that the FTC works quickly to investigate and stop these unlawful business practices.”
Rental housing fees
Recently, the FTC initiated a proceeding to address hidden fees in rental housing. In 2024, the Commission finalized a regulation to prohibit hidden fees in live-event ticketing and short-term lodging. NCL said it supports each of these rulemakings, but the FTC’s industry-by-industry approach will take several years to adequately address the breadth of fees plaguing the American economy — and risks excluding currently unforeseen industries’ use of hidden fees.