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Credit Isabella Gomez Sarmiento / NPR
Many area restaurants have relied on third party companies to provide food delivery services during the pandemic. But some restaurant owners, associations, and elected officials have accused these services like GrubHub and DoorDash of jacking up their rates, especially at times when establishments relied on take-out and delivery to be able to serve customers.
Erie County Legislature Minority Leader Joe Lorigo said something needs to be done to make sure restaurants stay afloat.
“Their costs are going up in unanticipated ways, because they re having to purchase more and more to go containers. So that s eating away at their profits,” Lorigo said. “Then as the third party delivery apps continue to raise their prices, that eats away even more. They re operating on razor thin margins as it is, and they continue to get hammered by additional costs. This is one way to cap that.”
Credit Santora s Pizza Pub & Grill
A State Supreme Court judge ruled the over 90 restaurants involved in the lawsuit would be able to re-open under yellow-zone guidelines, but it doesn’t reopen all restaurants in Erie County’s orange zone.
For that to happen the state would need to budge, or the county may need to go into court, something Erie County Legislature Minority Leader Joe Lorigo is looking into.
“For it to extend further, you would either need, Erie County government to take that action,” Lorigo said. “I ll be contacting my colleagues today to find out whether or not there s any interest in doing so. Maybe even reaching out to the county executive to see if we can get the county attorney to start a lawsuit challenging the orange zone designation on behalf of restaurants in the county.”