What About Using DoorDash On Labor Day? (Answered)


With Labor Day an official Federal holiday, plenty of people have the day off. And while it’s popular for grilling out and enjoying the lake, there are some who just prefer to stay home and order in. That’s when DoorDash comes into play. So is Doordash busy on Labor Day?

Though it’s traditional to spend Labor Day enjoying outdoor activities, including grilling and picnicking, there are plenty of people who use DoorDash and other delivery services on this holiday. So, DoorDash is typically available on Labor day and only limited by holiday restaurant options.

But to be clear, using DoorDash on Labor Day is dependent upon a lot of factors, from demand (how many orders are placed) to ‘supply’ (what restaurants are open and for how long) to geography (some places are more popular for DoorDash than others).

Below I’ve looked at this topic in this manner: who uses DoorDash on Labor Day (and why); what impacts this topic; and some other things to consider. Please read on to learn more.

What is DoorDash?-A Brief Overview

DoorDash is a delivery and food ordering service company established in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2013, DoorDash, Inc. is the largest food delivery company in the US with over 20 million consumers and 1 million dashers (that is, drivers for DoorDash).

Other popular food service delivery companies similar to DoorDash are Grubhub; Postmates; and UberEats. To use any of these services, usually people download the DoorDash (or other) app to their cellphone and place their food orders from that. However, it’s possible to also order online from your desktop or laptop.

Most restaurants in the area will be available through these apps but they don’t work ‘together.’ In essence, they work alongside one another. What I mean by this is that restaurants benefit from DoorDash (and the others) because it makes it easier for customers to buy their food. However, DoorDash drivers (“dashers”) don’t work for the restaurants. The drivers are contractors for DoorDash.

Having a service like DoorDash makes all kinds of foods more accessible to customers, too. Where once a customer might be hesitant to try an unfamiliar restaurant, being able to get the food delivered to your door without even having to go to the restaurant itself, makes it quite appealing.

I admit DoorDash et al has made me more adventurous in this way. While I’ve not eaten at Indian, Bolivian, and even Ethiopian restaurants directly, I have eaten take-out food from them using food delivery services.

And though I don’t utilize these as much now, in the past, I’ve used all the delivery services; and found them comparable to each other.

Does DoorDash Deliver on Labor Day?

Given this information on DoorDash and its popularity nowadays, it’s surprising that people still wonder if DoorDash is available on Labor Day and other holidays. So is it?

DoorDash offers its food ordering and delivery services all year long, including Labor Day and other major holidays. However, this service can be hit or miss on holidays, depending on where you live, the demand for the service, the number of ‘dashers’, and limitations of the local restaurants.

From the consumer perspective, it’s nice knowing food can be delivered to your door on a holiday, especially holidays like Labor Day when you really don’t feeling like ‘laboring’ much in the kitchen!

Holidays like Christmas Eve and Day; New Year’s Eve and Day; and Thanksgiving aren’t known for take-out food. People tend to cook more at home or bring potlucks to family and friends’ houses for these holidays.

But holidays like July 4th, Memorial Day, and Labor Day tend to see less big cooking. It’s true that these holidays in particular are popular for grilling hot dogs and hamburgers outside, but for those not into that, it’s often preferable to order food in.

According to DoorDash, some of the more popular holidays for using DoorDash in 2020 were Mother’s Day; Halloween; and Veteran’s Day and less popular times to use it were on Thanksgiving; Memorial Day; and Father’s Day. I guess this makes sense because Moms tend to cook special meals for Dads on Father’s Day at home, right?

However, there are some problems from a consumer point of view, too, regarding DoorDash and other food delivery services on holidays. The biggest complaint usually heard is that the service is very slow. This is typically related to fewer ‘dashers’ or drivers (mostly because of the holiday itself), so it just takes longer to have your food delivered.

A long wait time though might be unrelated to the limited drivers but rather slow service at the restaurant itself. Perhaps service is slow here because there aren’t enough employees working at the restaurants on the holiday.

Other causes for this is due to limited restaurant options. Some restaurants close on the holiday so the few that are open, get swamped and the cycle continues from there.

From a dasher or driver viewpoint, not all want to work on holidays so some might opt to not work. Others work and enjoy bonus tips from happy customers; on the flipside, though, a few end up working for less because of unhappy customers who choose to reflect that in less tipping.

Any holiday could be considered the worst day to order a food delivery service, though, so again, it can be hit or miss. You might end up with quick service because more drivers are working hard or end up with slow service for the aforementioned reasons above.

More Hopeful Holiday articles on Doordash or Labor Day like this one:

To be sure about DoorDash in your area, you can use the app and check ahead. I’ve always been able to place orders a day or two in advance and so with this option, you could check about it for the holiday. Another way to check about restaurants in your area is to simply call them directly. This way you’ll know if they’re open, any changes in hours or foods, and so on.

Of course, you can always just wing it and see what happens!

What Days are Busy for DoorDash?

For any new person wanting to drive for DoorDash or just use the service, YouTube is a good way to learn about the ins and outs.

So what are the busiest days and times for DoorDash?

In general, the busiest days for DoorDash are the weekend, with Sunday being best of all. During the week, Monday is the slowest, but weekdays are steadily busy at 11 AM-2 PM (lunch times), and then the dinner hours of 4-9 PM. By dark, it slows down just about everywhere during the week.

Keep in mind that ultimately busy times for DoorDash and any food service business is market dependent. This means that it depends upon locale, that is ‘supply and demand’ so to know the real data, you must do locale/market research.

Sunday: But in general, it’s true that Sunday is the busiest day of the week and it stays busy basically all day. Now this doesn’t automatically mean supply can keep up with the demand for it, so it may or may not mean consumers get ‘good’ service or not.

There are several reasons that Sunday is the busiest for food delivery (DoorDash). Even though people tend to work at all different times and days, the most common ‘day off’ is Sunday. Thus, people have time to enjoy a take-out meal.

Another reason is that since people have the day off, they tend to relax more and use it for family or friends time. So rather than cook a meal or eat something from the microwave, they opt to order in.

As well, Sunday is a religious day. Many feel it’s not appropriate to ‘work’ on this day, even working at home, like yard work, cleaning house, or cooking.

My family and I are devout Catholics and I love to cook, but don’t do it on Sundays if possible. We rarely use take-out, but we have from time to time on Sunday. (Typically I prep in advance and cook our Sunday meal on Saturday, so all that is required is to heat it up. Or we just do sandwiches, chips, and salad on Sundays.)

All of this is to say that these contribute to Sundays being very popular for using DoorDash.

Weekdays: Peak hours during the week will be centered around lunch times, but this is for young professionals who tend to use food service delivery for lunch. Most older working adults bring their own lunch, or skip it altogether.

This means typically DoorDash gets busy around 11AM and slacks off around 2PM.

My Connection: As a teacher, we’d use DoorDash (and others) every Friday as a group order during the lunch hour. Some of our typical orders were from Panera Bread (I really enjoy their Pumpkin Soup in the Fall!) and local favorites (of Alexandria, Virginia), Pita House and Paisano’s. So in our area, Friday lunch time was more popular than other lunch time during the week for DoorDash et al.

The dinner hours will see a spike during the week for DoorDash too. So around 4PM to about 8PM DoorDash and others will get busy. And note that this adjusts during the time change. In late Spring and Summer, DoorDash can stay busy a bit later as people are active longer during the day with extended ‘light hours’.

Wrapping Up DoorDash on Labor Day

To wrap up DoorDash on Labor Day, know this: DoorDash is available on Labor Day. However, the supply and demand (i.e. ‘market value’) is adjustable depending upon your location. Some metropolitan areas will see more drivers/dashers working on Labor Day and other holidays because there is more demand for their service in higher populated areas. DoorDash is somewhat dependent upon what restaurants offerings there are on holidays too. They can’t very well deliver something that’s not available, right.

Another thing to remember from this is that the busiest day of the week for DoorDash is Sunday, and some holidays are more popular for DoorDash than others (with Mother’s Day, New Year’s Day, and Halloween being the tops in recent years), so plan accordingly!

For more Hopeful Holiday articles on DoorDash or Labor Day, I suggest these next:

SOURCES: DoorDash; Everlance

Recent Posts