This is disappointing from an innovation perspective. I know Deliveroo are just there to make money but they were uniquely positioned to do something transformative with their apps over the past ten years. Instead, we’ve basically seen little to no innovation on the consumer product other than an expansion from restaurants to now including grocery deliveries and group ordering.<p>What about including a human, social element? Deliveroo could have been a channel for building a relationship between customers and Frankie’s Pizza where I could hear about upcoming specials, promotions, news about their expansion to a second location etc.<p>There could be an integration with power users (superhosts, sort of, but the analogy isn’t exact) where consensus can form around who really <i>is</i> the best Chinese food in town. Let’s get the hygiene rating of the kitchen front and centre too (perhaps they do this in some markets?)<p>For the riders, why has there never been a successful internal commitment to building a positive human workforce on the city streets? I feel like the brand started that way with their iconic jerseys and oversized food boxes but devolved into freelancers of the lowest common denominator. When my orders started arriving 50/50 in a just eat thermal bag, it really drove home the point that these services are never about long term value for the human workforce. We are now haggling on price in an auction against everyone else in the same way airline flights compete solely on price. When that happens, just as with airlines, any notion of a quality product or differentiation on service goes down the drain. It’s as if the major component of service differentiation <i>is</i> the lower price which is such a shame when there’s so much opportunity to shine as a food service app.<p>If these companies truly do want to race to the bottom as generic low latency courier services then perhaps we will hopefully see them exit the app layer and solely occupy the transport layer, leaving space at the app level for someone who cares about the state of restaurants, food, and quality, leaving the delivery part to the auction apps. I’d much rather have a high quality integrated service but if we’re obviously not going to get that then the sooner they stop trying the better.