Sydney chicken shop, Super Nash Brothers, exposes Uber Eats fees
Super Nash Brothers, known for their Nashville-style burgers and tenders, used their social media to accuse the food delivery service of 'unfair, anti-competitive practices' this week.
It centred on two new developments that Uber introduced this month – a 'merchant success score' that affects the visibility of shops in the app, and an offer fee charged to shops that promote discounted products.
Co-founder Ross Kemp told news.com.au it felt like the global giant was 'trying to fix the prices', effectively punishing local shops attempting to cover Uber's 30 to 35 per cent cut of all orders.
Mr Kemp believed the success score would 'de-prioritise restaurants' listings based on the mark-up on their products' in the app.
'So effectively, if you're marking your products up on Uber over in-store prices, they're limiting your visibility in the app,' he said.
'So they're effectively trying to, or it certainly feels like they're trying to fix the pricing in the market, much to the detriment to the restaurants who are the ones that are paying most of Uber's bills.'
Mr Kemp said he and business partners Joe Avers and Will Kierath had 'no problem' with Uber charging a percentage of sales for the service it provides.
Super Nash Brothers has been on Uber Eats since it opened in October 2021, and the owners accepted it as a 'necessary evil' of doing business.
But Mr Kemp said he felt they were changing the goalposts for small businesses and 'milk restaurants for as much as they possibly can'.
'So Uber Eats, for the last 18 months, has allowed us to run consumer offers on the platform,' he said. 'That's a cost of our own, in terms of food costs.
'And we regularly do that because, we're pretty transparent that our prices are marked up on Uber Eats. But we still want customers to see value.
'So we did those deals, but now we're going to be charged to even offer a deal to the customer as well.'
The owners have called on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate, saying the new costs were compounding increasing rents, wages and power bills.
An Uber spokesperson said it was 'committed to a fair, transparent marketplace that supports merchant growth and delivers quality experiences to customers'.
'We've introduced the Merchant Success Score to assist merchants to better understand their performance, and the Offer Fee enables us to support enhanced tools so merchants can reach their customers,' the said.
'We know change can raise questions, so we've provided tools and resources to support partners during this transition.'
The ACCC was contacted for comment.
Uber assigns a success score to businesses based on the reliability of orders, the quality of photos and descriptions of menus, customer ratings, and how closely prices align with in-store costs.
The offer fees would be charged when a customer redeems an offer, and restaurants with high merchant scores would be eligible for reduced or waived fees.
Mr Kemp said he wanted to raise awareness among customers that they can save local businesses – and themselves – costs by ordering directly through the shops.
'There's not much else we can do,' he said.
'You know, they're a massive, multinational billion-dollar company. And we're a small restaurant chain in Sydney.
'So, we just want to try and raise awareness and get as many customers ordering direct through our website as possible.'
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