By Alberto Gilman

The Somerville City Council gathered remotely on Thursday, May 14, discussing a resolution submitted and headed by Ward 3 Councilor Ewen-Campen, other councilors and the mayor in support of Somerville restaurants.

“Every single restaurant in Somerville, in the state, basically in the country has either been forced to close its doors all together,” Ewen-Campen said. “If they’ve stayed open, they’ve switched entirely to pickup and delivery.”

Since the initial beginning of lockdown in the state, COVID-19 has caused difficulties for the restaurant industry. The resolution calls for supporting Somerville restaurants by capping fees charged by third party delivery services during the COVID-19 state of emergency.

Ewen-Campen went on to further say that some of the restaurants in Somerville are dependent on third party delivery apps such as Grubhub, Uber Eats and Doordash. This is a first time process for these businesses.

People transition to takeout and pickup options from local and chain restaurants and distributors for the convenience. Yet these apps also stimulate discussion about how charges are made.

Ewen-Campen further stated that third party delivery services are charging fees as high as 25-30% per order. In the midst of the pandemic, falls in revenue make this burden on struggling businesses difficult. Uber and Grubhub are currently in discussions for a merger, which causes more difficulty.

“We are not in a position to just set a cap,” Ewen-Campen said. “Thankfully, there is a bill pending now which is 5054 in the house that would cap delivery fees for the duration of the pandemic.”

Councilors McLaughlin, Rossetti, Clingan and Davis signed on to the order during the meeting. Councilor Davis commented by stating that even before the pandemic, these third party entities have caused problems for these companies.

The steps that residents can take to lend their support on this issue is to spread the word and go through direct websites and use pickup instead of delivery.