Ordering food online helps you save time and effort that might be spent on cooking, and oftentimes, you might be in such a rush that there is no option but to get your food delivered.

It can be your quick lunch, dinner after a long and tired day or even breakfast. You open a food delivery app, browse through various restaurants available, look at the menu and their prices, choose the food you would like to have and place an order within minutes with a few simple steps. It feels straightforward yet dishonest. Food delivery offers convenience at the expense of a little money. But what if this little amount of money turns into a noticeable increase in your monthly spending?

It all starts with the unexpected increase in the amount that you need to pay at the final stage of payment. The difference is, however, not accidental. It comes from the blend of all the visible and hidden charges that you, as users, pay.

Breaking Down the Bill

To understand the actual cost of ordering food online, you need to look beyond the actual food price and break down the cost of the bill that you usually ignore.

When you first browse through the menu, the prices may appear pretty normal however, they may already be slightly higher than what the restaurant charges. This mostly happens because food delivery platforms charge restaurants a commission, so the restaurants, in return, increase their listed prices on platforms to maintain their own profit.

The next comes the final payment stage. This is where you notice the additional charges. A part of these additional charges is the delivery fee, which is justified in itself as it covers the cost of transporting your food from the restaurant to your doorstep. This depends on various factors, including the distance from the restaurant to your location, the demand at the time of ordering and the time of the day.

Another common addition is the platform fee that you pay for using the services of the app. This neither goes to the restaurant nor the delivery partner. Then comes the packaging charges. However less it might seem, restaurants oftentimes already factor packaging into their pricing, meaning that the packaging may just be an extra layer of cost for you to bear.

Then comes the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It is applied to the total amount. With all these additional charges, the amount increases, resulting in increased GST charges.

That ₹500 biryani? By the time it reaches your door via a traditional platform, you've paid ₹700 or more. The math is not in your favour.

The Alternative

This is the reason why the idea of zero-commission food delivery is gaining attention nowadays. In this model, the platforms do not charge restaurants a high commission. The Kwikkit app is one such model. Instead of adding multiple layers of hidden charges, the pricing is kept simple. No platform fee, no inflated menu prices, what you see is what you pay, plus the delivery cost.

It is not something revolutionary, it is just honest because food delivery should feel easy, not calculated.