Katz’s Delicatessen has launched local delivery, directly from its website — the owners of the iconic Lower East Side restaurant concluding they can offer a better deal than third party delivery companies like Seamless and Grubhub.
Citing both the COVID-19 crisis and frustration from ever-increasing fees levied by third party delivery services, owner Jake Dell told us that Katz’s has decided to handle delivery itself, avoiding increased pricing on their end, and on the customer side as well. “We’re in a pandemic. It’s obviously a tough situation and we all need to watch our dollars,” Dell said.
Once the fee cap was set at 15% by the New York City Council back in May to alleviate COVID-19 financial pressures, food delivery apps ended up passing more fees on to consumers, Dell explained.
Now Dell wants to encourage customers to go to directly to local restaurants when possible. Not all restaurants offer direct delivery, but he said, it’s wise to give them a call first, before going online to third-party delivery apps. These companies offered a lot of support, publicly, when the pandemic first hit, but, Dell noted, when push came to shove, some of them didn’t actually step up and work with the restaurants to help them out financially.
Also, Dell said, “The tip doesn’t go to the guy making the sandwiches, it goes to the currier.” If you go directly to the restaurant for delivery, Katz’s (and other local spots) can make sure employees preparing your food get a little extra cash in their pocket, which is desperately needed these days.
Katz’ is currently offering no-fee delivery to the first 132 local customers who use the site, using code: SINCE1888, for any order south of 42nd Street in Manhattan.
