Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

geekwire.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 132 posts

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

#71

Post by civility »

ralph84 wrote: post #31
cherioo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What rate do they charge? It looks like they provide a cash offer and then find financing so you can buy it from them. I didn't see anything about how this eliminates middle-men and egregious fees.

I'm not sure though, because I got a "Oops, something went wrong" popup when I tried to use their site.

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

#72

Post by civility »

civility wrote: post #71
ralph84 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What rate do they charge? It looks like they provide a cash offer and then find financing so you can buy it from them. I didn't see anything about how this eliminates middle-men and egregious fees. I'm not sure though, because I got a "Oops, something went wrong" popup when I tried to use their site.

I just found their quote:

> Flyhomes makes money through the commission paid by the home’s seller.

This is the same lie all realtors love to throw out. "You don't pay - the seller does!". Never mind the buyer is the only person who brings money to the transaction.

Unless that commission is much smaller than a traditional realtor, I hope they fail.

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

#73

Post by krapht »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #61
alaskamiller wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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: Restaura…

That misses a major purpose people go to sit down restaurants is for the atmosphere. Whether it be for casual dining, or celebration, or a date, or business meeting. The point is not the food, it’s to facilitate a social interaction under the common setting of needing to eat. You’ve always been able to get good food without a front of house.

Have you? Until fast-casual restaurants became popular in the 2000s there wasn't much for "good food without a front of house". I remember when most grocery stores were mostly groceries and not very much pre-made meals.

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

#74

Post by jacques_chester »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #59
solidasparagus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm doubtful. No service, low-cost restaurant setups are not a new thing (quick service/counter-based) and full-service restaurants are still everywhere. I don't know if that's because profit isn't overwhelmingly the most important driver when running a restaurant or because restaurants make most profit off of aspects that don't translate to counter-service/delivery, such as drinks. But I would expect these type of v…

Yes where I live in the UK this has been a thing for years one of the oldest Indian's in my town has had a delivery only kitchen for over a decade.

Generally, when we in the tech industry turn our gaze to something we know nothing about, we assume that the first thought we have about it is revolutionary.

Which is actually a good way to raise money, because most VCs don't know much about other industries either.

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

#75

Post by devit »

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…

That sounds overdue.

Restaurant food is massively overpriced compared to raw materials (despite basic dishes like pasta and sous vide steak taking basically no time and effort to prepare), and mass producing it along with mass delivery using vans might fix that.

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

#76

Post by pxtail »

I'm amazed and amused reading some replies - it looks like some people would love to live in a world where single corporation fulfills all their basic needs:

* restaurants from amazon

* home real estate market[0]

* shopping from amazon

* entertainment from amazon

* alexa from amazon, listening all the time

* education (already some basic form of it exists - alexa is used to answer kids questions)

Although many important key services are still missing: healthcare, insurances, banking.. etc.

edit: banking-related product already out [1]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20152956

[1] Banking - Amazon.com Credit Builder - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20149304

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

#77

Post by bethling »

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…

Take a look at what Deliveroo is doing with their "Editions" brand. They get some space, set up small takeout only kitchens and enable a restaurant to expand their delivery range (different neighborhoods or even cities).

https://foodscene.deliveroo.co.uk/promotions/deliveroo-editi...

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

#78

Post by tnolet »

devit wrote: post #75
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…

That sounds overdue. Restaurant food is massively overpriced compared to raw materials (despite basic dishes like pasta and sous vide steak taking basically no time and effort to prepare), and mass producing it along with mass delivery using vans might fix that.

A price of an item is rarely if ever based on its raw material cost. With restaurant food even more. You pay for location, rent, heating, staffing etc etc etc

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

#79

Post by astura »

chrisseaton wrote: post #50
hbosch wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought about this a lot during our home buying process. Our agent, too, wasn't asked to do much... because we found the house we wanted online, and had our financing, so the agent didn't have to show us any houses or help us along in any way. She just submitted our offer and that was that. I have heard that realtors, like for instance car dealers, simply have a vested interest in middleman-ing the inventory by way…

> so the agent didn't have to show us any houses or help us along in any way. She just submitted our offer and that was that. Why didn’t you submit it yourself and save all that money?

If the seller had a real estate agent then the seller already signed a contract to pay a fixed commission to the buyer's agent when the house is listed. Depending on the contract the seller signed, if there's no buyer's agent, usually the seller's agent's gets both the buyers agent's commission and the seller's agent's commission.

So you don't usually save money by not having a buyer's agent.

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

#80

Post by draw_down »

tnolet wrote: post #78
devit wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds overdue. Restaurant food is massively overpriced compared to raw materials (despite basic dishes like pasta and sous vide steak taking basically no time and effort to prepare), and mass producing it along with mass delivery using vans might fix that.

A price of an item is rarely if ever based on its raw material cost. With restaurant food even more. You pay for location, rent, heating, staffing etc etc etc

Not really rebutting GP’s point.
Post reply on HN