Ghost kitchens are dying

Trust, Transparency, and Customer Behavior

• Many stopped using delivery apps after encountering ghost kitchens that hid their true identity or piggybacked on existing restaurant brands.
• Lack of a physical presence or clear brand makes it hard to build trust or loyalty; people largely prefer ordering from places they already know or have visited.
• Some note that even “real” branded listings in apps may actually be fulfilled from anonymous ghost facilities, further eroding confidence.

Economics and Delivery App Incentives

• Delivery commissions (~30%) plus ghost-kitchen rent, percentage fees, and maintenance often leave little or no profit; some argue this can even exceed the cost of a physical dining room.
• Several commenters describe the whole stack (apps + ghost-kitchen landlords) as parasitic or “Uber-esque,” extracting rent while pushing risk onto operators.
• Many refuse to pay high fees and instead order by phone and pick up, undercutting the model that relies on delivery volume.

Quality, Product, and Operations

• A recurring complaint: ghost kitchen food is low-effort and feels scammy—menu names promise complex dishes, delivery yields cheap, bland approximations.
• Shared facilities with staff cooking for multiple “brands” are blamed for inconsistent quality and lack of accountability.
• Others argue bulk/assembly-line cooking can work (caterers, diners, airports, hotel kitchens), but requires serious process engineering, training, and R&D—something many ghost-kitchen schemes skipped.
• Packaging and travel time are nontrivial: keeping food hot vs. preventing sogginess is dish-specific; menus rarely seem optimized for delivery.

Comparisons: Pizza, Food Trucks, Catering, Takeout

• Pizza and long-standing Chinese/Indian takeaways are cited as successful “proto-ghost kitchens” because they had stable brands, employee drivers, and food that travels well.
• Food trucks are seen as the “honest” low-capex alternative: physical presence, face-to-face accountability, harder to rebrand away from bad reputation.
• Catering and small, mostly-takeout shops are framed as the preexisting, viable version of the concept; “ghost kitchens” are viewed as a tech-industry rebranding with worse incentives.

Viability and Counterexamples

• Some say ghost kitchens are broadly failing; others argue many are simply poorly run and chasing fads.
• One commenter relays a friend’s “playbook” for profitable ghost kitchens: prep-heavy, 5‑minute ticket times, strict packaging standards, honest photos, aggressive early app promotion, then scaling only after proving unit economics.
• A few report local CloudKitchens-style facilities that are busy and useful, especially for pickup, suggesting pockets of success.

Meta: Article and AI-Writing Concerns

• Several dispute the article’s quality, noting lack of hard numbers on closures and possible AI-generated style.
• Others push back, saying AI accusations without evidence add little; if the community upvotes it, it’s at least discussion-worthy.