Are you a 'treatler'? How on-demand delivery services are turning people into tyrants
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Buying a little treat to alleviate the agony of modern life used to be a fairly uncontroversial activity. But if you’re using an app-based food delivery service to have said treats couriered straight to your door, then you might have become a “treatler”. Especially if you go on to post online about your dissatisfaction with a gig worker.
![[London’s addiction to food delivery apps comes with a troubling hidden cost — but does anyone care?]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2024/08/20/12/56/UK-Eases-Some-Restrictions-In-Eighth-Week-Of-Coronavirus-Lockdown-dtij510r.jpeg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
A portmanteau of “treat” and “Hitler”, treatlerites want their treats and don’t care who has to suffer. The insult-slash-meme has been percolating online since the summer of 2024, when X user @posting_forever (an account that uses art from the best video game ever, Disco Elysium, as their profile picture) made fun of someone who “loves their fancy treats”. User @NukeJokes replied with the immortal put-down – treatler – and the term snowballed in popularity.
![[Are food deliveries a lifeline or a death knell for restaurants?]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2024/12/10/14/36/YSP-East-Dulwich-JustinDeSouza-27-(2)-(2).jpeg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
Any time someone posts above the parapet with a criticism of a delivery service worker the cycle of debate starts again. If you want to start a fight on X, simply suggest that your delivery app order was wrong, slow, and/or expensive, ideally with a screenshot to shame the gig worker attached.
![[Deliveroo drivers hold London motorcade protest against 'soul destroying' working conditions]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2024/05/23/16/23163737-8610c356-6d22-48ac-84fa-e06b4d227285.jpeg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
Defendants of the practice claim that getting food delivered by gig workers is a service, so it’s totally fine to complain about poor service. The customer is always right! Some are quick to jump in with the argument that, for disabled people, getting groceries picked out and carried over to your front door is a lifeline. Abusing gig workers is woke, actually!.
But if you are, as another popular meme goes, ordering a private taxi for your burrito, then trying to shame the person that made or delivered that burrito, you’re hardly aligned with the struggles of the proletariat. It’s always more expensive for the customer, the gig worker is being paid peanuts, and the restaurant is getting most of their profits skimmed off the top by the app company.
