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Amazon Restaurants

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Re: Amazon Restaurants

#31

Post by hkmurakami »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #19

This is kind of terrifying after hearing so many life-ruining stories about the rash decisions Amazon makes when dealing with 3rd party sellers ([1] from last week, for example). Everyone always says "Don't stake your livelihood on platforms you don't control" (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but what happens when one of those platforms suddenly forces its way into your business? How can a restaurant owner tur…

This reminds me of the predicament that young'ish hardware component supplier companies get into. They win a huge contract with a prominent customer, but then that one customer represents 60%+ of their revenues (ex: winning a Cisco, Nintendo, or Apple contract).

I've worked at a few such companies, and they all work extra hard trying to diversify their revenue sources, for both customers and industry. If it's a startup, then such revenue dependence can mean the difference between being able to go IPO or not.

For the situation you describe for restaurants, they'd have to be vigilant about catering to multiple platform providers, and not neglecting their in-person customers (I've definitely seen a restaurant cater more to delivery rather than sit down, and slowly deteriorating in reputation among customers as order times became longer).

It's just like managing an AAPL supplier contract. Some will thrive, and others will suffer, like the sapphire supplier in Arizona.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#32

Post by BinaryIdiot »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #19

This is kind of terrifying after hearing so many life-ruining stories about the rash decisions Amazon makes when dealing with 3rd party sellers ([1] from last week, for example). Everyone always says "Don't stake your livelihood on platforms you don't control" (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but what happens when one of those platforms suddenly forces its way into your business? How can a restaurant owner tur…

That story is just...insane. I'm glad I have a separate account for my maybe-one-day-business and one for personal use but still they need to let them talk to a real PERSON before locking out an account like so.

I can only imagine what would have happened if he didn't post to a website where it gained traction. If it wasn't upvoted out of reddit's new, would he just be completely screwed? Damn...

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#33

Post by wwalser »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #19

This is kind of terrifying after hearing so many life-ruining stories about the rash decisions Amazon makes when dealing with 3rd party sellers ([1] from last week, for example). Everyone always says "Don't stake your livelihood on platforms you don't control" (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but what happens when one of those platforms suddenly forces its way into your business? How can a restaurant owner tur…

Is signing up for an Amazon service any different to opting into something like DoorDash or Seamless? Amazon is big/established and probably has the data necessary to understand exactly when they can screw you. They also have a large enough customer base that they will take steps to automate a large percentage of day-to-day operational decision making which will occasionally go wrong such as detecting and shutting down fraudulent seller accounts as exemplified by your reddit link.

A funded startup on the other hand could go under at moment when their next round of funding doesn't come in. It's also a sure bet that any success you're seeing from them early on will diminish over as they attempt to actually make a profit.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#35

Post by wwalser »

I like DoorDash and I hoped that they would end up winning in this space but it seems unlikely when their two competitors have other things that the supply side (delivery people) can do if food deliveries aren't needed. Amazon is likely re-using prime instant delivery and Uber is transparently using their drivers to deliver food.

It's kind of like competing with Amazon or Google for cloud infrastructure. Very few companies need all of those machines or that tech, they have no use for it other than renting to people. Amazon and Google on the other hand already needed that tech. They are essentially renting their own excess.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#36

Post by rajathagasthya »

They advertise Bay Area as one of the regions they deliver, yet it's not available in the South Bay. I wonder what's the logistics overhead to make it available elsewhere in the Bay Area where you already have a Prime Now delivery network.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#37

Post by godzillabrennus »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #19

This is kind of terrifying after hearing so many life-ruining stories about the rash decisions Amazon makes when dealing with 3rd party sellers ([1] from last week, for example). Everyone always says "Don't stake your livelihood on platforms you don't control" (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but what happens when one of those platforms suddenly forces its way into your business? How can a restaurant owner tur…

Is it such a bad thing for society if a business fails when transparency is added to how they conduct their business? Yelp reviews are also intregal to the success of a restaurant and similar complaints are lobbed at them for destroying revenue at small companies. Have you ever gone to a restaurant that is poorly ranked on yelp? I have. They tend to deserve the poor ratings.

This is a valuable service to the consumer and good restaurants will thrive while bad ones will fail.

Also, any halfway decent owner/marketer knows you need to capture email addresses for people you want to sell to. Never rely on social media alone. Just use it to get them to give you an email.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#38

Post by [deleted] »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #19

This is kind of terrifying after hearing so many life-ruining stories about the rash decisions Amazon makes when dealing with 3rd party sellers ([1] from last week, for example). Everyone always says "Don't stake your livelihood on platforms you don't control" (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but what happens when one of those platforms suddenly forces its way into your business? How can a restaurant owner tur…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#39

Post by burntwater »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #2

A few years ago when I began to use Grubhub more exclusively to order food, I realized that I was effectively being shut out from other establishments that weren't on Grubhub, simply because I hadn't checked to look at what was nearby, and because the options on Grubhub were usually good enough on their own. It was "post-Google," in a way. I imagine this effect would be even more pronounced with "the everything store…

I intentionally shut out a restaurant that didn't have online ordering. I like their food, one sandwich in particular was a favorite, but they had a nearby competitor I liked just as much that DID have online ordering.

I'm hard-of-hearing, so online ordering is a godsend compared to the old days of calling up a fast speaking, often accented person with terrible background noise. So if the choice is between calling one restaurant, or ordering online from a different restaurant, I will always pick the online ordering.

The restaurant without online ordering eventually closed, despite the fact the neighborhood has really boomed, and I'm sure no small part of it is because of their refusal to do online ordering.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#40

Post by adventured »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #19

This is kind of terrifying after hearing so many life-ruining stories about the rash decisions Amazon makes when dealing with 3rd party sellers ([1] from last week, for example). Everyone always says "Don't stake your livelihood on platforms you don't control" (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but what happens when one of those platforms suddenly forces its way into your business? How can a restaurant owner tur…

It's not possible to operate an online business (any business?) without being dependent on a platform. There is no scenario under which you can build anything that functions as a serious revenue generating business without being in that position.

Search discovery: Google, Bing

Social promotion: FB, Snap, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc

App & software stores: Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Steam

General commerce: Transaction networks, Paypal, banks, etc

Online commerce: eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Craigslist, Zillow, Priceline, Airbnb, Alibaba, hundreds more

There's nothing new about this. All businesses utilize platforms they don't control. There are no exceptions.

Radio, TV, newspapers, mail catalogs were discovery and promotion before Google search was. The dependency was just as high.

Want to open a hotdog stand or a gas station? The absolute minimum platform you'll be dependent on will be local political system/s in dozens of ways (infrastructure, zoning, health laws, employment regulations, and on and on).

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