Amazon Restaurants • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#131

Post by softawre » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:05 PM UTC

Finnucane wrote: post #91

dmurray wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Amazon will figure out that hot food needs to be delivered fast and will generally get prioritised over delivering a TV. > For myself, I usually prefer to just go and pick up myself; that's almost always the fastest option. Most people don't care about getting the absolute fastest option, or if they do, they will still compromise for convenience.

I guess I don't have that much faith in Amazon's ability to prioritize the customer over themselves (i.e., prioritize routing for the least amount of driving, regardless of what is being delivered).

Really? To me, Amazon is one of the most customer-centric companies out there today.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#132

Post by Balgair » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:06 PM UTC

So, Amazon is having some issues with retailers trying to sell you some gadget that really isn't what you thought you were going to get. Like a USB stick that says it's 256GB, but is actual 2 Mb. The 'reviews' of these shadier products are shilled out or just 'bots and amazon is trying to get these types of things off their market.

So, what happens when this happens to these restaurants? Like, say I 'open' up a restaurant inside of my apartment. Maybe I list the address as some other place, or I just risk the local health inspector showing up unannounced. But I only sell via Amazon, and I get some friends and family to write reviews of my kitchen, or maybe I just pay some 'bots to do it too. Amazon has problems already with that fly-by-night operation, how are they going to combat it?

For reference, this was an issue with GrubHub last year:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Seamless-Restaurant-Gru...

http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/11/grubhub-seamless-ghost-res...

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#133

Post by pbhjpbhj » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:07 PM UTC

Dan_Nguyen wrote: post #118

Finnucane wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean your food delivery depends on the package delivery schedule? "Sorry your pizza is cold but we had to deliver a TV first." For myself, I usually prefer to just go and pick up myself; that's almost always the fastest option.

In my house, we make good use of delivery for one major reason: sports. Sometimes theres no dinner ready and in the hecticness of life, we forget to cook the night before so we get into an unfortunate situation of either going hungry until the game ends or cooking and miss the game. Delivery solves this issue. Take out is definitely faster, but that usually means missing part of whatever game is on. My case obviously…

Or get a DVR and pause the TV whilst you get some food.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#134

Post by intrasight » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:08 PM UTC

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…

As many as you hear, they are still anecdotes. And anecdotes are of the political realm not the business realm. Resolving such disputes is also therefore done in the political realm (assuming there is no breach of business contract)

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#135

Post by gist » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:10 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #128

So far, Amazon is just delivering for others. But perhaps they'll get into preparing food as well. Unlike Google, Facebook, GrubHub, Postmates, and Doordash, Amazon is willing to build physical infrastructure and hire people. Amazon could set up a large scale centralized catering operation like LSG Sky Chefs, which makes airline meals. For high-density metro areas, this could work quite well. Amazon could probably be…

Good points. Just like they do with Amazon basics they cherry pick items that they have already determined there is built in basic demand for.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#136

Post by mulmen » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:11 PM UTC

CodeSheikh wrote: post #126

Amazon is moving forward with a GREAT momentum to dominate consumer market and extends its monopoly. It is not Amazon vs small businesses anymore. Amazon is in a ferocious battle right now with big players in various domains (Google, Walmart, Apple etc). So far it is turning out to be beneficial for an average middle-class consumer who conveniently gets to purchase cheap products and services. The way Amazon has exte…

They're way ahead of you: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/amazon...

At its core Amazon has always been a logistics company. They already put warehouses close to airports so it's not much of a stretch to take over the air freight. Last mile is another issue, UPS, USPS, FedEx and the rest will continue doing that for a long time.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#137

Post by losteric » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:13 PM UTC

CodeSheikh wrote: post #126

Amazon is moving forward with a GREAT momentum to dominate consumer market and extends its monopoly. It is not Amazon vs small businesses anymore. Amazon is in a ferocious battle right now with big players in various domains (Google, Walmart, Apple etc). So far it is turning out to be beneficial for an average middle-class consumer who conveniently gets to purchase cheap products and services. The way Amazon has exte…

> Is it becoming more possible fore Amazon to ... create its own shipping company?

It's not just possible, it's already in the works.

Back in March Amazon announced plans to lease 20 Boeing 767s. Their first plane flew at an airfair in Seattle a few months ago. Recently they've been showing off their long-haul Prime semitrucks around Seattle.

Factor in Amazon Logistics (last-mile Fedex/ups/usps alternative) and Amazon Fresh (last-mile food delivery)... it's happening. I think we can expect big plays in 2017.

* they also have their drone thing... I think that's just a moonshot hype project.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#138

Post by Finnucane » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:13 PM UTC

Dan_Nguyen wrote: post #118

Finnucane wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean your food delivery depends on the package delivery schedule? "Sorry your pizza is cold but we had to deliver a TV first." For myself, I usually prefer to just go and pick up myself; that's almost always the fastest option.

In my house, we make good use of delivery for one major reason: sports. Sometimes theres no dinner ready and in the hecticness of life, we forget to cook the night before so we get into an unfortunate situation of either going hungry until the game ends or cooking and miss the game. Delivery solves this issue. Take out is definitely faster, but that usually means missing part of whatever game is on. My case obviously…

I care about food more than sports. Which is easy, since I don't care about sports.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#139

Post by BHSPitMonkey » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:14 PM UTC

Question for the HN mods (and community): At what point is a post like this not simply an advertisement? This isn't a link to a press release, an article, a blog post, etc. that discusses the project, and this isn't even new (I've been getting snail mail ads for this for a month or two).

Should big companies just start linking directly to things they want us to buy on HN, with no context? Is that encouraged here?

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#140

Post by herghost » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 11:18 PM UTC

BHSPitMonkey wrote: post #139

Question for the HN mods (and community): At what point is a post like this not simply an advertisement? This isn't a link to a press release, an article, a blog post, etc. that discusses the project, and this isn't even new (I've been getting snail mail ads for this for a month or two). Should big companies just start linking directly to things they want us to buy on HN, with no context? Is that encouraged here?

I think to an extent, yes they should.

Amazon does interesting things with tech and logistics. This is their latest foray and is interesting to this audience/niche. I understand your concern, but if this was just mindless advertising, I would think it would receive short shrift from the down voters and would disappear fairly quickly. As it happens this is pretty interesting zeitgeist news.