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Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

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Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#31

Post by ralph84 »

cherioo wrote: post #9
civility wrote: post #4

I wonder if Amazon would ever dive into the home real estate market. With modern day search, realtors provide very little value above doing the paper work, and that seems very automatable. There's just no reason to pay 6% of every house sale to middle men, but that's the way it currently works. A large company like Amazon or Google could make a ton of money at a much lower rate. I think this makes a lot more sense th…

Redfin is already in that market and it doesn't seem to be doing very well. I'm actually fairly surprised how slow redfin is able to grow and expand their market. Their website felt second to none in terms of usability.

FlyHomes is doing something interesting by actually buying and selling houses, not just facilitating transactions. It takes a lot of the risk and uncertainty out of the process. I hope they can succeed at scale.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#32

Post by ralph84 »

prostoalex wrote: post #30
civility wrote: post #4

I wonder if Amazon would ever dive into the home real estate market. With modern day search, realtors provide very little value above doing the paper work, and that seems very automatable. There's just no reason to pay 6% of every house sale to middle men, but that's the way it currently works. A large company like Amazon or Google could make a ton of money at a much lower rate. I think this makes a lot more sense th…

It's expensive to have boots on the ground in every zip code. RedFin hires their own agents full time. OpenListings and Zillow refer online buyers to their affiliated agents who cut them a deal on commission in exchange for leads. You can always list a place with photos and all on Zillow or CraigsList and mention that seller will not pay an agent's commission. End of the day there's a "For Sale by Owner" sign for tho…

Theoretically agents could do these things, but most don't. They want deals to close. Giving you reasons not to buy doesn't close deals. If it turns out you don't like the house they'll be happy to sell it for you later.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#33

Post by Sendotsh »

Animats wrote: post #16

Amazon had a restaurant business? The funny thing is, Amazon probably could do a good delivery restaurant business. There are already many "delivery only restaurants"[1] Uber Eats encourages others to start them. But Amazon, unlike Uber, is capable of building physical infrastructure. The future of this is "food fulfillment centers", large warehouse spaces which house various specialty kitchens. Common functions, suc…

> large warehouse spaces which house various specialty kitchens. Common functions, such as shipping, cleaning, equipment maintenance, and order handling are shared.

Deliveroo in Australia does something like that.

https://foodscene.deliveroo.com.au/restaurant-profiles/secon...

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/restaurants-bars/deli...

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#34

Post by prostoalex »

ralph84 wrote: post #32
prostoalex wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's expensive to have boots on the ground in every zip code. RedFin hires their own agents full time. OpenListings and Zillow refer online buyers to their affiliated agents who cut them a deal on commission in exchange for leads. You can always list a place with photos and all on Zillow or CraigsList and mention that seller will not pay an agent's commission. End of the day there's a "For Sale by Owner" sign for tho…

Theoretically agents could do these things, but most don't. They want deals to close. Giving you reasons not to buy doesn't close deals. If it turns out you don't like the house they'll be happy to sell it for you later.

It probably varies by the agent, but I have had good experience with a real estate agent being on the buying side. His reasoning was that the seller's agent was on the clock to close the deal on that one property he got assigned, whereas the buyer's agent would make roughly same amount of money on any property I would end up purchasing, so he had no reason to pressure me into closing.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#35

Post by solidasparagus »

Sendotsh wrote: post #33
Animats wrote: post #16

Amazon had a restaurant business? The funny thing is, Amazon probably could do a good delivery restaurant business. There are already many "delivery only restaurants"[1] Uber Eats encourages others to start them. But Amazon, unlike Uber, is capable of building physical infrastructure. The future of this is "food fulfillment centers", large warehouse spaces which house various specialty kitchens. Common functions, suc…

> large warehouse spaces which house various specialty kitchens. Common functions, such as shipping, cleaning, equipment maintenance, and order handling are shared. Deliveroo in Australia does something like that. https://foodscene.deliveroo.com.au/restaurant-profiles/secon... https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/restaurants-bars/deli...

Who announced a $575M funding round led by Amazon three weeks ago.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#36

Post by csallen »

sametmax wrote: post #24
dewitt wrote: post #15

I'm not surprised. Amazon's entire MO is a relentless focus on the customer. They do that by methodically optimizing and controlling every aspect of the supply chain right up to the moment the product is handed off to the customer. And they get better at it every day. Restaurant delivery breaks that model. There is too much variability. Too much can go wrong outside their control, and they don't have enough leverage…

Mac donald's seems to do exactly that.

McDonald's delivers?

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#38

Post by bobthepanda »

hbosch wrote: post #19
Animats wrote: post #16

Amazon had a restaurant business? The funny thing is, Amazon probably could do a good delivery restaurant business. There are already many "delivery only restaurants"[1] Uber Eats encourages others to start them. But Amazon, unlike Uber, is capable of building physical infrastructure. The future of this is "food fulfillment centers", large warehouse spaces which house various specialty kitchens. Common functions, suc…

I think you might be partially on to something here; generally the idea being that food delivery is essentially commoditized and Amazon is uniquely suited to thrive in commoditized industries with their vast infrastructural advantages. They do have Whole Foods and Amazon Go, which both supply ready-to-eat foods along with meal kits. It would be a minor logistical challenge to simply start preparing their own meal kit…

The main problem is that kitchens operate with dirt cheap labor costs. In a market like New York, all those cheap hole in the walls are paying their workers cash under the table and running with razor thin margins.

It’s one thing to target a cushy market like bookstores, but restaurants are cutthroat, and on top of that meal kit customers are fickle.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#39

Post by alaskamiller »

Animats wrote: post #16

Amazon had a restaurant business? The funny thing is, Amazon probably could do a good delivery restaurant business. There are already many "delivery only restaurants"[1] Uber Eats encourages others to start them. But Amazon, unlike Uber, is capable of building physical infrastructure. The future of this is "food fulfillment centers", large warehouse spaces which house various specialty kitchens. Common functions, suc…

Yeah it did, and restaurants actually put up stickers for it on their doors!

What you're describing is what Travis Kalanick bought and have been building in LA and San Jose since last year. There are other commissary kitchens that's now doubling as virtual kitchens with half a dozen brands sharing utility, equipment and even staff.

I'll do you even one better, here's the real future in less than three years:

Restaurants will shed front of house as most low end full service will be liability, instead restaurants will consolidate, rely on DSPs (especially GrubHub because unlike the other two chooses to break apart their commission structure), and merge with digital agencies in order to brand, market, create content, and manage communities.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#40

Post by alaskamiller »

csallen wrote: post #36
sametmax wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mac donald's seems to do exactly that.

McDonald's delivers?

McDonalds been delivering in Asia for years. They deliver in USA with UberEats. Taco Bell partnered with GrubHub and Wendy's partnered with DoorDash. The future's already here.
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