DealMeal JournalGood food.
Good food.
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Practical reads on comparing delivery apps, finding real savings, and making the “what should I eat?” decision much easier.
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The latest from DealMeal
One useful idea, made for the moment before you order.
chains vs independent restaurants
Chains vs. Independent Restaurants: Who Offers Better Deals?
Chains showed deals more often in a DC-area test and set lower minimums in nearby comparisons, but typical discounts matched independents.
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37 more stories in the journal.
fast-food deal tracker
The Fast-Food Deal Tracker: How Major Chains Run Promotions
An analysis of 44 chains shows recurring deal formats, meaningful differences between apps, and why a free item does not establish the cheapest order.
premium delivery items above $26
Premium Delivery Items Above $26: What the Price Really Buys
A Washington DC metro menu analysis separates individual mains from group food and examines the limits of premium popularity signals.
cheap delivery menu items
Cheap Delivery Menu Items Under $5.50: What Can You Buy?
A Washington DC metro analysis finds inexpensive listings, but drinks, sides and unmeasured checkout costs complicate the cheap-meal promise.
delivery menu
How Large Is the Average Delivery Menu?
A DC-area study of 4,926 menus separates listing count, food choice, and what the data can tell us about finding deals.
delivery menu price curve
From Cheap Eats to Premium Plates: The Delivery Menu Price Curve
Across 302,637 dish listings in DealMeal’s Washington DC metro dataset, prices form a broad spread below $20, with a $13.65 median.
burger prices on delivery apps
Burger Prices on Delivery Apps: What Does a Burger Really Cost?
A Northern Virginia menu-price study finds a $13.43 median burger listing, a measurable combo advantage, and no detected app-wide price winner.
pizza price index
The DealMeal Pizza Price Index: A Northern Virginia Baseline
A first reading of delivery-app menu prices, with size gaps, restaurant mix, and checkout limits kept visible.
store-level vs. item-level deals
Store-Level vs. Item-Level Deals: Where Is the Better Value?
Order-wide discounts are easier to calculate; selected-item rewards can offer more value, but only when the eligible food fits your order.
item-level promotions
Item-Level Promotions: The Deals Hidden Inside Restaurant Menus
DealMeal Labs examines what promotion titles reveal, what menu sections add, and why eligible items matter more than a headline badge.
meal subscription alternatives
Best Meal Subscription Alternatives to CookUnity, Tempo, HelloFresh and Forkful
Compare restaurant pickup, delivery deals, grocery options and individual dishes without confusing a bigger discount with a cheaper meal.
prepared-meal subscriptions
Are Prepared-Meal Subscriptions Worth It After the Introductory Discount?
Compare the regular delivered price, the offer timeline, and the meals you actually use before deciding to renew.
meal kits vs restaurant pickup
Meal Kits vs. Restaurant Pickup and Delivery vs. Prepared Meals: Which Offers the Best Value?
A data-backed comparison of meal-kit subscriptions, ready-to-heat prepared meals, restaurant pickup deals, and restaurant delivery across price, effort, fees, variety, and real-world savings.
food delivery menu prices
Same Restaurant, Different App: Do Menu Prices Change?
DealMeal compared 70,803 cross-platform menu prices at 757 matched Northern Virginia restaurants, and found that identical prices are the rule, but not for every restaurant–app relationship.
how food delivery deals are measured
How DealMeal Measures Food Delivery Deals
An evidence-based look at how DealMeal turns marketplace observations into comparable deal data—and where the method has limits.
food deals by distance
Are Better Food Deals Farther Away? What 180,068 Offers Show
DealMeal found almost no practical relationship between restaurant distance and advertised discount value, with one limited exception on Grubhub.
DoorDash sponsored placement
How Much of DoorDash Is Sponsored Placement?
DealMeal found that sponsored offers look different in format, but not more valuable at the median.
biggest food delivery discounts
The Biggest Food Delivery Discounts DealMeal Observed
The largest advertised numbers came with small baskets, high minimums, item restrictions, and even non-restaurant merchants.
pickup vs delivery deals
Pickup vs. Delivery Deals: Where Are More Offers Available?
DealMeal’s historical analysis finds that most eligible promotions supported both ordering methods, while delivery-only deals formed a smaller minority.
food delivery minimum order
Which Food Delivery Platform Has the Highest Minimum Order?
DealMeal data shows Grubhub attaches far higher promotional spending thresholds than Uber Eats or DoorDash, especially on dollar-off offers.
food delivery discounts
Why Food Delivery Discounts Keep Using the Same Numbers
DealMeal’s analysis of 253,204 observed offers shows that percentage deals draw from an exceptionally short list of familiar values.
membership-only food delivery deals
How Common Are Membership-Only Food Delivery Deals?
DealMeal found none in public marketplace listings—but signed-in subscriber offers remain outside the dataset’s view.
new-customer deals vs regular-customer deals
New-Customer Deals vs. Regular-Customer Deals: What the Data Found
DealMeal’s historical analysis found no new-user promotions in public marketplace offer titles—and one DoorDash first-order fee waiver layered beside ordinary store deals.
free item with purchase deals
Free Item With Purchase: The Overlooked Delivery Deal
DealMeal data shows that one in four current offers gives away food, yet most free-item promotions do not identify the reward.
food delivery deals
The Current State of Food Delivery Deals
A 14-day DealMeal Labs analysis finds a near tie overall—but three platforms using very different promotion strategies.
free delivery promotions
Why Free-Delivery Promotions Are Surprisingly Rare
Across 399,799 historical offers, fewer than one in 100 advertised free delivery—and almost all came with conditions.
percentage-off deals
Percentage-Off Deals: How Deep Do They Really Go?
DealMeal data shows that 20% and 25% dominate, while bigger headline discounts are rare and often limited to selected items.
average food delivery discount
How Big Is the Average Food Delivery Discount?
DealMeal data shows the typical dollar-off promotion is $5, while rare large offers make the arithmetic mean look higher.
food delivery deal types
Every Food Delivery Platform Has a Signature Deal Type—But Not Equally
DealMeal analysis found different historical leaders across Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub, yet only Grubhub behaved like a true deal-type specialist.
DoorDash vs Grubhub discounts
DoorDash vs. Grubhub: Which Platform Has Better Discounts?
DealMeal data shows that DoorDash is usually stronger for orders under $40, while Grubhub’s larger dollar-off deals tend to take over at $50.
Uber Eats vs Grubhub
Uber Eats vs. Grubhub: Which App Saves You More?
DealMeal data shows Uber Eats leading most $20–$40 orders, while Grubhub becomes competitive once the basket reaches $50.
percentage off vs dollar off
Percentage-Off vs. Dollar-Off: Which Deal Saves More?
Model different order totals to show when a fixed discount beats a percentage promotion and when it does not.
food delivery app with the most BOGO deals
Which Food Delivery App Has the Most BOGO Deals?
DealMeal’s historical archive and a current snapshot both point to Uber Eats—but the right metric is BOGO share, not raw deal count.
minimum-spend food delivery deals
The Minimum-Spend Trap: The Median Deal Requires $5 of Spending per $1 Saved
DealMeal’s August 5 snapshot found a $5 median spend requirement, and no platform winner, after correcting how percentage-off caps are counted.
food delivery menu prices
Food Delivery Menu Prices: What 330,988 Items Reveal
DealMeal Labs compared menu prices across Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub—and found that restaurant mix matters far more than raw platform averages suggest.
food delivery deals
We Analyzed 680,678 Food Delivery Deals Across 12 Months
DealMeal’s year-long analysis reveals how discount depth, deal format, restaurant type, sales channel, and timing shape food-delivery promotions.
Uber Eats vs DoorDash deals
Uber Eats vs. DoorDash: Which Has Better Deals?
DealMeal analyzed 391,612 Uber Eats and DoorDash offers to identify which app delivers better promotional value. Uber Eats led in BOGO offers, deeper upper-range discounts, and pickup promotions, while DoorDash provided more predictable 20% discounts with generally higher spending requirements.
Uber Eats vs DoorDash vs Grubhub deals
Uber Eats vs. DoorDash vs. Grubhub: Which Has the Best Deals?
DealMeal analyzed more than 454,000 observed promotions to determine which platform performs best for BOGO offers, dollar discounts, percentage savings, and minimum-order requirements.