DoorDash Is Telling Some People That Everything Is Closed, but Why Does That Happen?

One of the miracles of modern life is that, through apps like DoorDash, you can get any food in your area delivered to your door in mere minutes. Now, the fries might not be quite as good as they are in the restaurant, but the sheer convenience of DoorDash has led many people to pay for their food to be delivered.

Sometimes, though, DoorDash lets its users down. The app might even suggest that restaurants are closed when they aren't, and might also say that every restaurant around you is closed. Here's what we know about why it does that.

DoorDash might sometimes tell you that every restaurant around you is closed for a couple of different reasons. The most obvious one is that it's true, either because of the hour of the day when you're trying to order or because you're trying to order food on a holiday.

If you're pretty confident that at least some of the restaurants around you should be open, though, the issue might have more to do with DoorDash itself.

The app might be telling you that everything is closed because you're trying to order during a peak time when demand is particularly high. Essentially, the app is telling you that getting food delivered will be impossible, even if it's wrong about the reason.

DoorDash also has to keep itself regularly updated so that it actually knows the hours when various restaurants are open or closed, and this task can cause glitches.

High demand can also come from the restaurant itself, which might pause DoorDash orders because it has received too many and knows how many it can fulfill before becoming overwhelmed.

Typically, though, this issue is just a temporary one, although it can be undeniably frustrating to those who want to use the app to satisfy their own hunger pangs.

Typically, restaurants prefer to serve customers who come to their physical locations, and as a result, DoorDash customers can sometimes be de-prioritized. It's undeniable that the company has helped restaurants ensure that they have even higher demand for their foods, but plenty of restaurants will shut off the service if they're busy enough with their in-person diners.

It's rare for that to be true at every restaurant, but if you live in a particularly busy city, it's certainly possible that the vast majority of the restaurants in your area don't need any help from DoorDash at the moment.

That can be frustrating, to be sure, but DoorDash isn't going to ensure that you're never inconvenienced when you try to buy food ever again.

Restaurants are low-margin businesses that thrive on their own reputations. If they can't fulfill DoorDash orders, they're not going to allow them to come in, even if that means you have to leave the house in order to get some food. DoorDash is convenient, but fresh air or a home-cooked meal can also be nice on occasion.