The Cost of Convenience: Which Cities Pay the Most for DoorDash?
By
Mike J. Davies
Editor in Chief at Casinos.US Updated: 06/14/2024
Mike is our Senior Editor and experienced gambling strategist. A former hockey player, he transitioned to the casino industry after finishing his B.A. in English. Blackjack systems, online casino guides, gambling terms, and more – Mike is familiar with all fine points of gambling.
DoorDash is the epitome of convenience. Not only do we want someone to make our food for us, but we’re willing to chuck a roll of cash at someone to deliver it straight to our house (still surprised there isn’t a “feed it to me when you get here” option). We all know we pay dearly for that service, but most of us ignore the total and subtotal…just double-click on the power button, smile for the camera, and soon you’ll be in junk food heaven, right?
WRONG. We were determined to find the true cost of convenience, so we figured out the standard DoorDash orders for four popular restaurants and got detailed pricing information in 100 cities across the U.S. Be prepared to apologize to your wallet…
Key Takeaways
- Residents of New Orleans, LA, see the lowest DoorDash charges overall, and people in Honolulu, HI, see the highest.
- High-volume times increase DoorDash prices by an average of 2.69% and more than 5% in some cases.
- Buffalo Wild Wings orders are 36.6% more expensive at peak times, the highest surge among all the most popular restaurants studied.
DoorDash Is Most Affordable in New Orleans
If you live in New Orleans, you can indulge in DoorDash guilt-free, but you better be willing to work some serious OT if you call on a Dasher in Honolulu.
New Orleans is the cheapest place in the country to order DoorDash, with the standard breakfast order totaling “only” $128.88. Following the Big Easy in terms of affordability are the following four cities:
- Elko, Nevada: $130.19
- Grand Island, Nebraska: $131.54
- Cedar City, Utah: $140.79
- Hattiesburg, Mississippi: $142.02
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Honolulu, where that same standard order totals $278.10—that’s 113% higher! Below are the next top four most expensive major cities in the U.S. to Dash your next meal:
- Chicago, Illinois: $271.45
- Charleston, South Carolina: $266.10
- New York, New York: $261.36
- Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: $246.85
DoorDash Fees Are the Lowest at Noon
No matter where you live, if you want to avoid price hikes due to high demand, order from DoorDash at noon. That’s when the prices across all the most popular restaurants are the lowest.
And to understand why, you need to understand surge pricing. Here’s how it works: if no one is ordering through DoorDash, your food arrives quickly, and it might even still be hot when you get it. Your driver will still undoubtedly eat some of your fries on the way over to you, but you’ll pay the lowest prices due to low demand. When everyone is ordering DoorDash, you still lose those fries to your hungry driver, the food takes longer, it’s ice-cold when it arrives, AND you pay out the nose for it. That’s what high demand does.
So, for the penny-pinching people out there who are still too lazy to make their own food (or go pick up food that’s made for them), when’s the best time to indulge in a DoorDash order? That would be 12pm noon.
There are four factors that affect your pricing: base cost, delivery cost, recommended tip, and fees and taxes.
Base cost is what the restaurant charges for the food itself. DoorDash can’t control this, and it varies minimally across the board. The highest base cost bump is from BWW at midnight, at which point those dry rub wings will run you an extra $2.66. Not so bad. They do close at midnight most nights, so an extra $3 isn’t bad for a buzzer-beater.
Delivery cost is what DoorDash charges for the delivery, before you pay the additional DoorDash fees and the Dasher tip. We honestly don’t even know what this is. It ranges from $1.68 to $2.60. The lowest delivery cost is $1.68 from Starbucks at noon, but it goes up by as much as 54%.
Next, you have your recommended tip. This is based on the order total and the time of the order, it seems. This goes up as much as 50.8% for BWW orders at midnight. Starbucks orders are the least prone to recommended tip spikes, with a bump of just 1.52% for late-night orders.
Finally, you have the dreaded DoorDash fees and taxes, where you’ll see the largest price hike during high-volume times—as much as 60.4% for Pizza Hut orders at midnight as compared to the same order at noon. McDonald’s has the lowest hikes here of “just” 5.02% at midnight.
Pizza Hut Is the Most Immune to DoorDash Surge Prices
When you consider all four of those adjustable cost factors, though, Pizza Hut is the best place to order from if you want to avoid overall price bumps due to surges in volume. Despite the ludicrous 60%+ increase to DoorDash fees, the price for the standard order from the Hut only goes up a maximum of 13.3% at midnight. And ordering at 7pm as opposed to noon will only bump up your total by 0.03%.
BWW orders see the highest overall price hikes, with the standard order costing 36.6% more at midnight than at noon.
Below is a breakdown of average order prices for the four most popular DoorDash-ed restaurants:
McDonald’s
- Average order: $22.37
- Best time to order: Noon ($21.38)
- Worst time to order: Midnight ($24.78)
Pizza Hut
- Average order: $32.40
- Best time to order: Noon ($32.39)
- Worst time to order: Midnight ($36.70)
Buffalo Wild Wings
- Average order: $27.30
- Best time to order: Noon ($27.00)
- Worst time to order: Midnight ($36.89)
Starbucks
- Average order: $14.37
- Best time to order: Noon ($14.04)
- Worst time to order: Midnight ($18.05)
Order at Noon, Avoid Financial Ruin
Make this your official DoorDash mantra: order at noon, avoid financial ruin. It almost rhymes; that’s how you know it’s almost true. You might also adopt some other helpful but less concise mantras:
- DoorDash in Honolulu, and you’ll be making a financial boo-boo
- DoorDash in New Orleans, your bank account will…get…more wins?
- Stop DoorDash-ing because the taxes and fees add an AVERAGE of 87.45%
And if you absolutely must Dash your next meal, make it a large pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut to minimize those added fees and taxes.
Methodology
We used the DoorDash app to calculate real prices of some of the most popular menu items at four prominent DoorDash restaurants in May 2024: McDonald’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks. We got actual pricing based on locations in 100 different major cities at three prime ordering times: noon, 7pm, and midnight. We then compared our data based on location, total prices, and added fees.
Fair Use
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