The online Doordash community seems to have quite the love-hate relationship with the app and the people working for it. While some encounters are quite positive and heartwarming, others portray quite unpleasant behavior from both delivery people and customers alike. The pics share some of the best and worst attributes of humanity.

For both customers and workers, some of the problems may be due to growing pains. Food delivery apps around the world have experienced extraordinary growth in recent years, and society may be experiencing growing pains as we all wrap our heads around an economy in which nearly anyone can decide to become a food delivery worker and almost anyone can order food from a restaurant right to their doorstep.

An article by consulting firm McKinsey & Company puts the meteoric rise of food delivery businesses into context: “A little under two decades ago, restaurant-quality meal delivery was still largely limited to foods such as pizza and Chinese. Nowadays, food delivery has become a global market worth more than $150 billion, having more than tripled since 2017.”

The switch to new interfaces between restaurant customers and their food was bound to happen as tech innovators worked to expand the role of apps in our lives, but global lockdown efforts for the COVID-19 pandemic had an especially significant role to play in the proliferation of these apps. As McKinsey & Company writes, “Lockdowns and physical-distancing requirements early on in the pandemic gave the category an enormous boost, with delivery becoming a lifeline for the hurting restaurant industry. Moving forward, it is poised to remain a permanent fixture in the dining landscape.”

Despite their proliferation, however, it is clear that working in the industry isn’t a cakewalk. Industry representatives claim that margins are quite thin and that the business has high costs. Depending on the region and on the app (there’s much more out there than just DoorDash), restaurants may be taking a hit by working with these apps as well.

The average food delivery platform customer may not realize that the apps charge on both ends of their order. In addition to the service fee you pay as a consumer, the restaurant will pay (usually between 15-30% of the order price) for the pleasure of reaching a broader consumer base thanks to the app. Depending on the restaurant and the market, this may significantly reduce or even eliminate their profit margins.

Indeed, the existence of these apps has allowed for a new type of restaurant to flourish that may challenge the traditional types of places that we sometimes like to visit. As McKinsey & Company point out, “This pressure on traditional restaurants could be tightened further by the proliferation of “dark kitchens” (a restaurant that has no front of house for customers) and other delivery-first and delivery-only restaurant models. Since these lower-overhead businesses can afford to pay the platforms’ higher commissions, they are often featured more prominently in the platforms’ apps.”

Restaurants aren’t the only players feeling the pressure. The apps have also been reluctant to provide their delivery workers with the wages and benefits that some laborers expect. People who rely on the gig economy may be especially vulnerable, and efforts to ensure that they get the benefits they need can shake up the industry. “Shifts in how independent contractors are paid, as well as what benefits they receive, could significantly shake up the economics for all major stakeholders across the marketplace,” McKinsey & Company writes.

As consumers, it’s worth thinking twice before completing an order on our food delivery app of choice. On the one hand, we could be providing a local gig worker with a slice of much-needed income. On the other, we could be depriving a beloved but struggling local restaurant of some much-needed income.

Sometimes, going for a walk and sitting down to eat at a local restaurant just might be worth it!