Building H Index
DoorDash
INDUSTRY
food
Category
food/grocery delivery service
products Profiled
DoorDash prepared food and grocery delivery service
H-Score
28
ranked 16th of 16 within food industry
ranked 31st (tie) of 37 overall
product description
DoorDash is a local commerce platform that uses independent contractors to deliver food and groceries (and other items) from third-party vendors to customers. DoorDash’s DashPass is a membership program that allows subscribers to get $0 delivery fees and reduced service fees on restaurant orders over $12 and grocery orders over $25.(1) DoorDash also enables users to supplement their order with additional items from other nearby stores for no additional delivery fee through their DoubleDash feature.(2)
product usage
Customers can login to the DoorDash app or website, enter their address and browse options from restaurants, grocery, convenience and retail stores in their neighborhood. Once they choose what to order, customers can place their order and wait for a courier (a Dasher) to pick up their order and deliver it to their doorstep. Customers also have the option of picking up their orders at certain restaurants and retailers.
influence on health-related behaviors
EATING
slight to moderate negative influence
DoorDash primarily offers delivery of restaurant products, though it also offers delivery from certain convenience stores (e.g. Wawa and 7-11) and grocery stores or supermarkets. Non-restaurant deliveries made up 14% of DoorDash’s overall deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2021.(3)
Prepared food delivery services often substitute less healthy restaurant or fast food options for home-cooked meals. In general, fresh, home-cooked meals have been shown to be healthier than meals eaten at or taken out from sit-down or fast food restaurants.(4-8) People who cook at home more frequently also tend to have diets that have higher compliance with dietary guidelines.(9)
In Building H’s consumer research, 47% of users of food delivery services (not specific to DoorDash) say that their orders typically replace home-cooked meals. In addition, the research showed that 37.1% of users eat home-cooked meals five or more nights a week vs. 58.1% of the general public.(10)
Building H’s consumer research showed that users of food delivery services more often order from sit-down restaurants (27.6% say usually or always), than from fast food restaurants (18.0%) or convenience stores (10.9%).(11)
The most popular food items delivered through DoorDash’s convenience store include desserts, sodas and energy drinks, and snacks high in calories and sodium.(12)
DoorDash does include an option for “Healthy” food, and it is easy to find on the top of the homescreen. At the time of review, the “Healthy” was presented after “Fast Food” (first on the list) and “Desserts” (fifth).(13) It is not clear how DoorDash determines which restaurants merit the “Healthy” tag. In addition, restaurants and merchants can also be tagged as “vegan,” “vegetarian,” “gluten-free,” or “halal.”
- Work across the industry to pursue options to rate food establishments on the basis of how healthy their menus are and then integrate these ratings into the presentation of restaurant options and search results. Options for this integration could include featuring higher-rated establishments more prominently, using the ratings to filter search results and raising healthier establishments higher in result lists; or displaying the ratings in the results lists.
- Healthfulness ratings at the individual menu item level could also be used to nudge users toward healthier items.
- Enable users to express preferences for how healthy they want their diet to be; align recommendations with those preferences; and provide users with feedback on how well their choices are supporting those preferences.
- Offer price discounts for healthier orders.
PHYSICAL ACTVITY
slight to moderate negative influence
By decreasing barriers to getting restaurant quality food, DoorDash has made it possible for people to have a dining out experience without the physical activity of getting to and from the restaurant.
DoorDash does offer a pickup option. It is not clear how often users select pickup instead of delivery.
- Consider setting pickup (vs. delivery) to be the default option, subject to conditions such as distance, weather and individual abilities.
- Prompt pickup users to walk if the distance is relatively short (i.e. less than a mile), subject to conditions such as weather and individual abilities.
- Promote the pickup option as an alternative prior to finalizing a delivery order.
Sleeping
neutral to slight negative influence
DoorDash Dashers (couriers) can work at all hours, as long as there are establishments open at the time. Through their services, getting late night food is more convenient than ever before, and consequently, customers could forego sleep in favor of late night food.
In addition, studies have shown that eating within three hours before bedtime increases the likelihood of sleep disruption.(14)
By offering the opportunity to obtain food quickly, DoorDash could potentially be saving people time for sleeping.
- Enable users to set preferences as to when they wish to be done eating at night and introduce some friction into the experience of ordering deliveries that will go past their set end points.
Engaging Socially
slight negative influence
By allowing the delivery of restaurant food that may have not been available for delivery before, DoorDash effectively substitutes an at-home, potentially isolated dining experience for a public experience.
However, DoorDash does offer a Group Order feature(15) that makes it easy for people to share a food delivery (and presumably eat together).
- For its grocery delivery service:
- offer party planning features to simplify the process of developing menus and ordering ingredients as a way to lower the barriers to hosting meals with friends and family
- experiment with “preferred shopper” service to foster relationships between customers and shoppers
Getting Outdoors
moderate negative influence
If ordering to their home, a customer is remaining indoors throughout the whole process of selecting and eating a meal, as compared to the outdoor experiences that could come from traveling to and from grocery stores or restaurants.
Using DoorDash’s pickup option would entail some amount of outdoor exposure, depending on the chosen transportation mode.
- Pursue opportunities for encouraging use of the pickup option (see above).
- Offer deliveries to outdoor locations such as parks and playgrounds.
Notes
DoorDash. DashPass FAQ on DoorDash website. Accessed January 27, 2022
DoorDash. Introducing DoubleDash, a new way to shop multiple stores in one order. DoorDash blog, August 5, 2021
DoorDash. 4Q2021 Investor Letter. February 16, 2022
Julia Wolfson and Sara Bleich. Is Cooking at Home Associated with Better Diet Quality or Weight-Loss Intention? Public Health Nutrition, Volume 18, Supplement 8 June 2015 , pp. 1397-1406.
Junxiu Liu et al. Quality of Meals Consumed by US Adults at Full-Service and Fast-Food Restaurants, 2003–2016: Persistent Low Quality and Widening Disparities. The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 150, Issue 4, April 2020, pp. 873–883.
R. An. Fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption and daily energy and nutrient intakes in US adults. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2016 Jan;70(1):97–103.
S.I. Kirkpatrick et al. Fast-food menu offerings vary in dietary quality, but are consistently poor. Public Health Nutr. 2014 Apr;17(4):924–31.
L.M. Powell and BT Nguyen. Fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption among children and adolescents: effect on energy, beverage, and nutrient intake. JAMA Pediatr. 2013 Jan;167(1):14–20.
A. Tiwari et al. Cooking at Home: A Strategy to Comply With U.S. Dietary Guidelines at No Extra Cost. Am J Prev Med. 2017 May 1;52(5):616–24.
Steve Downs. A Survey of Modern Life: Food; Delivery Apps, Meal Kits, Groceries and Cooking Dinner. Building H on Medium. January 20, 2022
Ibid.
DoorDash. The DoorDash Deep Dish: Best of the Neighborhood in 2021. DoorDash blog, December 14, 2021
DoorDash website, accessed January 27, 2022
Nicola Chung et al. Does the Proximity of Meals to Bedtime Influence the Sleep of Young Adults? A Cross-Sectional Survey of University Students. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Apr 14;17(8):2677
DoorDash. Get Started with DoorDash FAQ on DoorDash website. Accessed January 27, 2022