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Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

forbes.com

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Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#161

Post by DrScump »

RandomInteger4 wrote: post #35

Huh, interesting. I never considered pizza to be one of those markets that could be threatened by a franchise corporation. I mean, I know there's Little Caesars that has their super cheap medium pizzas, but they're super cheap for a reason and pizza seems like one of those things people are willing to pay a little more for, because quality can vary quite significantly.

I think part of it is that people often buy pizza out of their neighborhood, so they want a name they know with menu items they can just recite... hence not only national chains but regional chains (e.g. Round Table in CA).

I would never have a chain food app on my phone just from a privacy-suck standpoint. For example, here are the permissions the Dominos app wants on Android:

This app has access to:

Location

- precise location (GPS and network-based)

Phone

- directly call phone numbers

- read phone status and identity

Photos/Media/Files

- read the contents of your USB storage

- modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Storage

- read the contents of your USB storage

- modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Camera

- take pictures and videos

Microphone

- record audio

Device ID & call information

- phone status and identity

Other

- receive data from Internet

- view network connections

- pair with Bluetooth devices

- access Bluetooth settings

- full network access

- control vibration

- prevent device from sleeping

Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#162

Post by DrScump »

FYI, here are the permissions the Slice app requires on Android:

"This app has access to:

Identity: find accounts on the device, add or remove accounts

Contacts: (are you kidding me?!?!)

Location: precise location (GPS and network-based)

Photos/Media/Files: read the contents of your USB storage, modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Storage: read the contents of your USB storage, modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Camera: take pictures and videos

Wi-Fi connection information: view Wi-Fi connections

Other:

- receive data from Internet

- view network connections

- create accounts and set passwords

- full network access

- use accounts on the device

- control vibration

- prevent device from sleeping"

So, what they don't make on taking a slice of providers, they can make on selling marketing/demographic data.

Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#163

Post by et-al »

ardit33 wrote: post #4

Fun fact, some of the best "italian" pizzeria's in NYC are actually owned and/or run by Albanians. There is a whole generation of Albanians that moved in Italy (after the 90s), learned the trade there and eventually moved in NYC and opened their places. Fun fact number 2: A lot of greek places in NYC are actually operated by albanians. (for the same reasons as above). The main reason is marketing: People in the US kn…

The exact same thing happened with Indian restaurants in New York:

> "We give our restaurants Indian names," the Bangladeshi manager of another Indian restaurant said, "because people in America know about India, and maybe they wouldn't come if we said we were from Bangladesh."

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/07/nyregion/the-star-of-bang...

Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#164

Post by newman8r »

jedberg wrote: post #36

Back about six years ago now, we had a new guy come on board my team at Netflix as an SRE. He had come from Dominoes. He told us stories about how Dominos saw the writing on the wall and reinvented itself as a tech company, how every step in the pizza making process had an API. He showed us command line tools that you could use to order and track your pizza, so you could set it up in cron and then have it tell you wh…

https://github.com/RIAEvangelist/node-dominos-pizza-api looks like it could be entertaining

Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#165

Post by et-al »

mrbombastic wrote: post #103
avree wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of tremendous pizza in San Francisco. Hell, we even have Zante's, which makes quite unique Indian Pizza. The stuff at DNA Lounge is frankly crap compared to some of what you can get from the lesser known places. With that said, we're still nowhere on the level of NYC.

Please share some, i have had a few decent slices but they are few and far between. Arinell in mission is closest I’ve gotten to an NY slice.

Yeah, if you're looking for New York style, you're pretty much limited to Arinell.

For Neopolitan, you've got Tony's (actual restaurant, not the takeout shop), Il Casaro, and Carmel Pizza Co. in the North Beach area. Elsewhere, you have A16.

Golden Boy is good pizza, but it's in its own category of American pizza.

Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#166

Post by stordoff »

JackCh wrote: post #63

Maybe I'm just out of touch, but the appeal of online pizza ordering is something I can't wrap my mind around. Calling and placing an order using the traditional telephone method seems far easier to me. I do it often, more often than I should. Furthermore it seems better for the business since presumably the phone company takes a much smaller cut of the sale than whatever web platform they may be using. Is it because…

For me, it's usually because if I'm ordering something it's for a group of people (family or group of friends), so it's easier to put the order together online (you can go round the room and ask them what they want, then get them to double check the order at the end).

There's also the fact that at a couple of the local places, the staff don't speak English as a first language, which combined with the noise of the shop often leads to you repeating yourself or there being occasional mixups.

Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#167

Post by inferiorhuman »

ardit33 wrote: post #119
inferiorhuman wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think that pizza is probably a blind spot for many SF/SV startup people. Not surprised this startup is based in NYC. Really? I found New York pizza to be pretty mediocre in general (Joe's on Bleecker is pretty good if you're okay with burnt dough). DNA Lounge's pizza is not known to be great though. Out here, Patxi's does a good deep dish vegan pie, and there are plenty of places to get a good New York style slic…

wut? I lived 7 years in SF, and 5 in NYC, and there is no comparison. SF has good deep dish (Little Cesar and Paxtis), and maybe one good true Italian/wood/brick pizza in Northern Beach but that's it. In NYC you have good pizza every other block (as well as crappy $1, or $2/slice type of places ). Once you try few places, you find which ones are good/legit, and stick with them, and avoid the crappy ones. For pizza an…

Bagels are a whole different ballgame, you can't find a decent bagel in the Bay Area.

But pizza? Your typical place in New York isn't a whole lot different from what you'd find at New York style places (e.g. Escape From New York, Serranos, Arinell's). The 99 cent chain isn't as bad as folks make it out to be IMO.

Out here you've got plenty of wood fired places 'authentic' and not (e.g. Zuni, Tony's, Una Pizza Napoletana, Pizzaiolo); Indian (Zante, Brother's); California (Zuni again, Goat Hill, Arizmendi / Cheese Board -- their sour dough puts puts anything I had in New York to shame); deep dish (Little Star, Patxi's, Zachary's); and, of course, Delfina.

The typical New York pizza isn't significantly different in overall quality than the stuff you find in the Bay Area. If you go looking for it you can find excellent pizza in New York I'm sure (but the same is true in the Bay Area).

Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#168

Post by nathanaldensr »

DrScump wrote: post #161
RandomInteger4 wrote: post #35

Huh, interesting. I never considered pizza to be one of those markets that could be threatened by a franchise corporation. I mean, I know there's Little Caesars that has their super cheap medium pizzas, but they're super cheap for a reason and pizza seems like one of those things people are willing to pay a little more for, because quality can vary quite significantly.

I think part of it is that people often buy pizza out of their neighborhood, so they want a name they know with menu items they can just recite... hence not only national chains but regional chains (e.g. Round Table in CA). I would never have a chain food app on my phone just from a privacy-suck standpoint. For example, here are the permissions the Dominos app wants on Android: This app has access to: Location - prec…

That's incredible. I feel sorry for anyone installing apps like that. They get what they deserve, IMO.

Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#169

Post by Regardsyjc »

analogmemory wrote: post #77
adamqureshi wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spoke to the my local pizza shop in NYC. He said between grubhub, uberRush, yelp and now slice, they are eating his pizza profit margins. He said he has to deal with 3-4 software / hardware POS products for EACH service. They are sucking him dry. He can't make money BUT needs them to bring the business. Slice takes a 20% "slice" per order / of his business. Flour costs going up, he makes his own mozzerella. UberRus…

> He said he has to deal with 3-4 software / hardware POS products for EACH service I see this in some small shops. Their order counter is crammed with an iPads for each delivery service usually (4-6). Just to run ONE APP. It's ridiculous with what they have to put up with.

Is there no service that provides one platform to manage all of them?

Re: Tech Startup Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get Online

#170

Post by kalleboo »

DrScump wrote: post #161
RandomInteger4 wrote: post #35

Huh, interesting. I never considered pizza to be one of those markets that could be threatened by a franchise corporation. I mean, I know there's Little Caesars that has their super cheap medium pizzas, but they're super cheap for a reason and pizza seems like one of those things people are willing to pay a little more for, because quality can vary quite significantly.

I think part of it is that people often buy pizza out of their neighborhood, so they want a name they know with menu items they can just recite... hence not only national chains but regional chains (e.g. Round Table in CA). I would never have a chain food app on my phone just from a privacy-suck standpoint. For example, here are the permissions the Dominos app wants on Android: This app has access to: Location - prec…

I thought Android let you deny permissions now?
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