It is indeed a perk for an introvert like me, but having to chose between empathy for another human and my discomfort, I prefer the former.
Yes, it will cause me anxiety to talk to someone, and go pickup an order. But if I was to avoid that and use an app, I'd be dipping my hand into their pockets and stealing money for a middleman. So I end up calling my preferred restaurant and picking it up myself.
I also struggle with phone calls (or even ordering in house). Apart from the empathy side that you mention my reasoning is also that confronting the anxiety and getting used to it is the only way to manage it.
I rather face the discomfort from time to time and learn to handle it than being paralised in situations when there's no other way and you can't avoid it.
But are you stealing money for a middleman? From what I can tell, the delivery is paid from a mix of an extra fee for the customer and some cash from investors, not from the restaurants.
I'm an introvert and please don't include me in the tiny subset of introverts who consider this a perk.
There's a spectrum within introversion, and this sounds more on the edge of that spectrum.
Full disclaimer: I too originally had trouble with calling to order pizza. But in retrospect it wasn't introversion: I just wasn't used to initiating conversations with strangers on the phone. The solution was trivial: Script the "opening lines" before calling. After a few of these, it all became natural.
If the vendor can just get it right with minimal interaction on my part, I usually prefer not to interact.
In my experience, though, this is rarely true of restaurants, especially the less expensive ones. I usually won't even do drive-through, under the experience-informed observation that they're less likely to mess it up if they know I'll be standing at the counter checking their work.
This is a misunderstanding of what it means to be an introvert. Introverts are capable of talking to people. The inability or disinclination to place an order for food delivery is a sign that you are disabled, not introverted.
It is indeed a perk for an introvert like me, but having to chose between empathy for another human and my discomfort, I prefer the former.
Yes, it will cause me anxiety to talk to someone, and go pickup an order. But if I was to avoid that and use an app, I'd be dipping my hand into their pockets and stealing money for a middleman. So I end up calling my preferred restaurant and picking it up myself.
I also struggle with phone calls (or even ordering in house). Apart from the empathy side that you mention my reasoning is also that confronting the anxiety and getting used to it is the only way to manage it.
I rather face the discomfort from time to time and learn to handle it than being paralised in situations when there's no other way and you can't avoid it.
But are you stealing money for a middleman? From what I can tell, the delivery is paid from a mix of an extra fee for the customer and some cash from investors, not from the restaurants.
I'm an introvert and please don't include me in the tiny subset of introverts who consider this a perk.
There's a spectrum within introversion, and this sounds more on the edge of that spectrum.
Full disclaimer: I too originally had trouble with calling to order pizza. But in retrospect it wasn't introversion: I just wasn't used to initiating conversations with strangers on the phone. The solution was trivial: Script the "opening lines" before calling. After a few of these, it all became natural.
If the vendor can just get it right with minimal interaction on my part, I usually prefer not to interact.
In my experience, though, this is rarely true of restaurants, especially the less expensive ones. I usually won't even do drive-through, under the experience-informed observation that they're less likely to mess it up if they know I'll be standing at the counter checking their work.
This is a misunderstanding of what it means to be an introvert. Introverts are capable of talking to people. The inability or disinclination to place an order for food delivery is a sign that you are disabled, not introverted.