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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.

#91

Post by randomdata »

ghaff wrote: post #89
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.

If it takes no time or effort why not just do it at home? The results will be better. It most certainly takes time and effort to have kitchen infrastructure, inventory, cook to order, and delivery.

Cooking at home has many of the same costs beyond raw materials that a restaurant has, like kitchen infrastructure, inventory, and labour costs, driving the cost of cooking at home well beyond the raw material cost. The parent is suggesting that a business producing food at massive scale could bring the cost of preparing food much closer to the raw material cost.

It is not exactly a wild idea. The model has already proven itself to a limited extent. What we have really struggled with is maintaining quality at scale across a variety of foods. To be more specific, the parent is suggesting that there is room in the market for quality prepared food produced at scale.

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

#92

Post by Qwertystop »

dagw wrote: post #47
thatoneuser wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm kind of reminds me of Ikea's food racket. Actually I'm sitting here trying to think of why that wouldn't work but I honestly can't. Cool idea!

What is "Ikea's food racket"?

Ikea is a chain of furniture stores which (among other things) have food courts in them.

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

#93

Post by lukifer »

pxtail wrote: post #76

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 import…

There is perhaps an appeal to megacorps as voluntary nation-state membership; it is not trivial to leave one's tech ecosystem, but it's much easier than leaving one's nation, and there are advantages to all the components of the stack working together. (Blood and souls for my Lord Apple of Cupertino!)

On the other hand, I think Douglas Rushkoff and Bruce Schneier are correct in comparing the FAANG ecosystem to feudalism: https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2012/11/when_it_com...

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

#95

Post by winningcontinue »

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

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mac donald's seems to do exactly that.

McDonald's delivers?

They do it through uber eats now, but they've always done it. At least for some locations depending on the manger and market. Honestly, I preferred it back then before Uber. The food was better packaged and it came faster without having to que my order up from a driver picking it up at an order window.

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

#96

Post by amyjess »

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 tried it twice, back when I had Prime.

Amazon's mapping system puts my house in the wrong location, and to make matters worse, in my experience the drivers are utterly nasty about it.

I have stood in front of my house as I can see the driver go by multiple times. I will jump up and down and wave and try to flag them down, and they just speed by. I call them to give them directions, and they ignore everything I have to say. I was often talking to them on the phone when I see them speed by, and they're not even paying enough attention to see me flagging them down with one hand while I have my phone at my ear. I ask them to open Google Maps because that has my address in the right location, and one guy shouted at me "This is Amazon Prime! We don't use Google!".

Both times, I complained to corporate because my food was an entire _hour_ late, and it was ice cold by the time it got here. The first time, I got credit for my next order, which is the only reason there was a second time. There was never a third time, and I let my Prime subscription lapse without renewing it not too long after that.

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

#97

Post by amyjess »

alaskamiller wrote: post #39
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: Restaura…

Honestly, if we're bringing back no-FOH restaurants, can we get automats again? I've heard stories about them from my parents and seen a re-creation of one in Agent Carter, but I'd really like to actually get to experience one.

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

#98

Post by civility »

october_sky wrote: post #87
bluedino wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not forget the associated scams like 'title search/insurance', 'appraisal', and 'home inspection'.

I'm hesitant to concur with you on the home inspection. The home inspector I've used several times has discovered termites, and other massive problems that would have cost me upwards of $40,000 on one specific house I was interested in buying. I paid a few hundred bucks to save myself from that headache.... The realtor on the other hand did almost zero

In Arizona, every stick-and-stucco house has (or will have) termites. The inspector already knows the answer before he shows up. You pay for "treatment" each time the places changes owners.

When I sold my first house, The buyer's inspector "discovered" termites which would need treatment. However, I had preemptively paid a professional to do treatment just two weeks earlier. When I told the new inspector this, he called the previous inspector. After talking on the phone for 2 minutes, they agreed that I was termite free!

As long as someone got paid for treatment, they were happy. I doubt the buyer knew it went down that way.

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

#99

Post by amyjess »

krapht wrote: post #73
lotsofpulp wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Automats were a thing until the 1970s or so.

And you also had delivery services before the Internet. Delivery services would hand a book full of menus along with a page containing their phone number. You call the number, order off the menus, food gets to your door, and you pay. Works just like ordering a pizza used to.

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

#100

Post by TuringNYC »

whoevercares wrote: post #90
pxtail wrote: post #76

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 import…

> healthcare Forget about Haven already?

Keep in mind feudalism, though far from ideal, had benefits.

Good lord if Haven can fix the broken US healthcare system, I'd happily embrace the feudal estate.

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