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Amazon Restaurants

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Re: Amazon Restaurants

#151

Post by cyberneticsclub »

hkmurakami wrote: post #31
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 start…

I've seen quite a few restaurants list themselves across multiple platforms lately; Uber Eats, Eat24, GrubHub, etc.

I've often wondered how well a restaurant would do in areas where those platforms are popular if it just dropped its customer-facing storefront entirely and went entirely online delivery.

The drop in operating costs versus the lack of walk-ins ...

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#152

Post by pkinsky »

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'd prefer links to stories about new ventures, their strategic impact, etc, but given that anything worth discussing usually produces multiple stories it's better that all the discussion occur on a single thread with a link to the announcement.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#153

Post by pmoriarty »

Finnucane wrote: post #77
guelo wrote: post #50

This is obviously part of Amazon's effort to build out their own delivery network in order to muscle out fedex, ups, usps, etc. If their drivers aren't delivering packages they can be delivering food. That makes their whole delivery network stronger because it allows them to have more drivers employed driving around town all the time. It's the same reason Uber got into food delivery.

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.

I've been really sick recently. So sick I couldn't go out of the house. Delivery was literally a life saver for me.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#154

Post by monk_e_boy »

byoung2 wrote: post #143
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.

For myself, I usually prefer to just go and pick up myself; that's almost always the fastest option. For people with small kids, driving to pick up food can be a huge production, with car seats, diaper bags, strollers, etc. Curbside pickup helps, but delivery is so much easier, and sometimes just as fast.

Yeah, click for a delivery, bath the kids, read to them, put them to bed. Crack open some beer and wait for the food.

When I cook it usually takes an hour or so. So getting food delivered frees up that hour.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#155

Post by nitrogen »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #133
Dan_Nguyen wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some people might not like this since you'll be several minutes behind "live", but an advantage is you can skip any ads and commentary you don't like and catch up to live to see the final play at the same time as everyone else. I don't know if any PVRs still allow watching "live" at 1.25x or 1.5x speed, but if they do (like MythTV did/does) you can also condense a show into the time you have available and still watch the ending live.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#156

Post by Androider »

Amazon Prime Now has a $10 minimum, free delivery, and no markup allowed on the restaurant menus in New York. For me, that makes it the best service available hands down, and actually starts to change my behavior as a customer.

If it doesn't cost any more than what I'd pay in person schlepping to the restaurant, the psychological barrier to ordering on a whim is virtually eliminated. It also has that Uber-esque impersonality to it: the delivery guy doesn't wait around after dropping of your food in your typical managed NY apartment building (literally racing down when I get the call, I've never been able to spot them), since they're tipped up front. In fact, the last service I can remember that was such a no-brainer improvement when introduced, was Uber X.

That's not sustainable you might say. But members do pay $99/year for Prime, which isn't a whole lot since it does so much, but is increasingly a larger part where Amazon makes their margin from.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#157

Post by blowski »

byoung2 wrote: post #143
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.

For myself, I usually prefer to just go and pick up myself; that's almost always the fastest option. For people with small kids, driving to pick up food can be a huge production, with car seats, diaper bags, strollers, etc. Curbside pickup helps, but delivery is so much easier, and sometimes just as fast.

Agreed. There's also people who can't just "drive to the takeaway and back" because they don't have a car, are over the alcohol limit, etc.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#158

Post by tigershark »

I am really missing something here. If I click the link it brings me to my Amazon application and I don't see anything new. My first order with Amazon restaurant was at the beginning of September. So I guess that I am missing something? Amazon restaurant is three months old and the useless link that just brings me to their app doesn't really help me to shed any light.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#159

Post by nitrogen »

GordonS wrote: post #130
chaosmachine wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skip was so much better than Just Eat, too. Skip has Uber-style live GPS tracking, Just Eat seemed to be stuck in the dark ages.

Do you mean GPS tracking of your takeaway delivery? I've never understood why someone would want to be glued to their phone/tablet watching every move their pizza makes. Seriously, just why would you possibly care what street it's currently on?

It seems like a violation of the privacy of other customers, too. Everywhere your food stops you can surmise there was another delivery.

Re: Amazon Restaurants

#160

Post by mahyarm »

Balgair wrote: post #132

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 resta…

They streetview your business and check if you have a previous presence elsewhere? During your first transaction from a schlub the delivery driver will drive to your fake address, see that there is nothing there and you wont even get money since there would be nothing to pick up.
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