Lennys charging $1 delivery fee

[hesse23]

It's true....at least the location at 43rd and 9th beginning January 1. They are attaching a note to all deliveries stating that due to high insurance costs they are forced to add a $1 delivery fee to all orders. As someone who orders in every day in Manhattan I find this shocking. I wonder how this will effect their delivery business as some people out of principle will not pay a delivery fee. Are there other restaurants/delis out there that already do this? What are the Chwhounds opinions?

[Produce Addict]

Focusing a little more on the chow--Lennys just replaced Two Boots on the Rock Center concourse which is a frequent lunch spot for me (limited option). What's good at Lennys and what should I avoid?

[thew]

they make many good sandwices. the italian combo

any of their chicken cutlets ones are good. i like the spicy grilled chicken one, only w/the grilled chicken replaced with a cutlet instead

[ellabelle]

If you like avocado the Chicavo sandwhich is delish... I used to work near a Lennys and no longer do, so I can't have it for lunch anymore, but its a great chicken sandwich. Also The spicy grilled chicken one is great but it's definitely very spicy!

[Cpalms]

if you don't like it, order from some place else....my lennys is decent, quick and usuallt gets the order correct. given their popularity, they could easily just raise prices, its commendable that they don't...

[hesse23]

Cpalms, there is no bigger fan of Lennys than me, the food is good, delivery excellent and I will continue to order from them based on that. I am however interested in hearing opinions on this and finding out if others charge a delivery fee for standard orders in the normal delivery area.

[hesse23]

One more thing...they could easily raise prices? I love Lennys but they are not inexpensive to begin with....good food, the prices are fair but I order a salad with 5 ingredients for $10.50 plus tax and delivery almost every day...this is not affordable for many people

[Cpalms]

you don't think a good fresh made salad hand delivered to you for $10.50 does not provide a good value proposition but at $9.50 it does? Perhaps they are trying to discourage people from ordering one salad at at time. Lenny (whoever that is) is actually trying to run a profitable business in a very difficult enviroment.

[hesse23]

Brilliant response, for that matter they should charge a $2 fee as in a difficult environment what's the difference beteween $9.50 and $11.50

You are completely missing the point, NYC restaurants/delis don't charge a delivery fee. That's why I posted in the first place, not to debate whether $1 changes the value proposition. The fact that Lennys is starting this will most likely hurt the delivery person as many people will tip less which keeps the total price the same. In thinking about it further, for Lennys it makes sense...if they deliver 1,000 orders per day from all locations...which is probably light.they will ean $365,000 more in 2009.

[Pan]

"Brilliant response, for that matter they should charge a $2 fee as in a difficult environment what's the difference beteween $9.50 and $11.50"

That's precisely correct. Supply and demand.

Like it or not, a business's first concern is not how many people tip their deliverymen, nor how much, but what their bottom line is. Whoever doesn't want to order from a place that charges for delivery always has the option of not patronizing them.

I can't address delivery charges in that neighborhood specifically, though, because I don't live or work there.