In the USA, food delivery has always been an option. Whether it was pizza or the local Chinese, the American demand for convenience dictated you could get hot food delivered to your home almost 24/7. Even in my childhood home out in the wilds of Washington State, we would regularly have take-away with a couple of Papa Murphys pizzas reliably waiting in our freezer.

That has only increased in recent years with the advent of an ever-diversifying range of restaurants and delivery services. I have only heard of the wonder of Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Doordash. Want a brunch delivery? They got it. Fast food lunch? At your door. Late night drunk food? Of course.

Germany has traditionally lagged in these convenience services. When I used to run a series of expat interviews, Americans often listed the thing they missed most as simply “convenience”. Life abroad is hard in a multitude of ways, especially when you have had a lifetime of things being made easy. Food delivery service is really just the tip of the iceberg, and Germany wasn’t even providing that.

When I first came to Berlin in 2007, there wasn’t a great diversity of food offerings. Any kind of fast food was limited to international chains or döner kebab. Don’t get me wrong – I love döner kebab. But some times you need something a little different.

Photo: Franklin Heijnen – CC BY-SA 2.0

The food scene – like the rest of Berlin – has changed a lot in recent years. Underappreciated gems from the city’s Vietnamese community have gained notice; there has been a growing acknowledgement of the many Middle Eastern foods found throughout the city (not just Turkish); African, Korean, and Napalese food are having a moment; and even classic German food has received a polish. Foods that Americans abroad once only dreamed about finding in Berlin – Mexican food and a proper burger – are now almost commonplace.  Berlin’s food scene has come a long way.

But it still isn’t that easy to get that food to your house, at least not during a pandemic. Most of us are trying to do our part and stay home. My family rarely even rides public transport. Instead, we walk. Walk to KiTa, walk to parks, take a break from working from home to go on a walk. Walks are our social life. Unfortunately our area isn’t know for its food options and the inability to go other places mean we are mostly cooking at home, or grabbing a lazy Döner for the billionth time. Our palates are tired. So, why isn’t food delivery in Berlin a thing? It is a story of cutthroat capitalism….

History of Food Delivery in Berlin

The bike lane is a high-speed path running along most sidewalks. Walk down the street in many areas of the city and you will have to dodge multiple food delivery couriers, or shuffle by a bunch hanging around the elevators of transportation hubs. Bedecked in the gear of their chosen company, the names and colorful gear of turquoise, pink, and orange have undergone several changes over the years.

Food delivery only became a thing in major German cities in the latter half of the 2000s – I still don’t think many of the Dorfs (villages) have this service. The word “Liefer” meaning “delivery” was used heavily in branding with lieferservice.de and Lief­erando, as well as the clearly named pizza.de. Lieferheld soon joined the scene. These German upstarts enjoyed healthy competition and modeled themselves after international delivery, but food selection was still pretty limited and customer service was nonexistent. There were rumors that their slim margins cut small restaurants to the bone and tips never made it to the over-worked delivery riders. Berliners had gotten a taste for food delivery, but the system was far from perfect.

In 2013 London-based Deliveroo joined the market, striking fear into the lackluster current services. Munich-born Foodora further compounded the crowded field. Suddenly there was a new job market non-German speakers, students, and part-time artists. Most didn’t care who they worked for as the pay was low, conditions tough, and companies uncaring across the board. Riders were treated as self-employed freelancers, which could be on the shady side of legal.

Changes like Delivery Hero, Berlin-based owner of Lieferheld, buying out pizza.de, brought little to no change to working conditions of the riders. Similarly when Takeaway.com, Lieferando’s Dutch parent company, took over Delivery Hero’s German operations. Deliveroo simply disappeared with hardly a word of warning to its estimated 400-800 delivery riders. It appeared Lieferando had won the Hunger Games of delivery services by paying employees on mini-job or part-time contracts (eligible for huge benefits like health insurance) as well as allowing use of e-bikes, e-scooters and providing weatherproof bright orange gear. These were hard-won battles as the gig economy continued to come under the scrutiny of the German laws with the likes of Uber periodically banned in Germany. It was really the bare minimum, but a vast improvement over what had been offered. The pizza, burgers and sushi flowed.

However, there is still competition in the food delivery wars with alternatives periodically poking their head above the water. A collective of bike delivery riders known as Kolyma2 has struggled to find traction with their good vibes of riders collecting fees directly, but practical difficulties of small numbers and hyper-local service. A much bigger threat to the current hierarchy is the recent arrival of Wolt with its electric blue riders. Taking advantage of ground-roots marketing and lightening speed expansion, they seem poised to take over. And they are coming in at just the right time with numbers of online orders for takeaway and food delivery in Germany said to have jumped a massive 245% during the COVID-19 crisis.

Alternatives to Food Delivery in Berlin

The waters are still churning for the world of food delivery in Berlin and many of the same issues – treatment of riders, shady business practices – continue to be a talking point. We have tentatively been ordering out since the pandemic and thankful to see services expanding to our area.

However, like many Berliners we still prefer to order direct from restaurants when possible. Some restaurants will even offer a discount for forgoing the delivery services. The current crisis has led to many restaurants getting inventive with their offerings and even some Michelin star restaurants are providing 5-star take away. There are also a number of new pop-ups like authentic Indian startup Tiffin that is earning rave reviews and is delivery only. There is even a new rapid-fire grocery delivery service, Gorillas, with deserved hype for getting items to your door in 10 minutes.

Eat up! This seems to be a silver lining of the pandemic.