Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive? • Hacker News Board

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#41

Post by JCharante » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:02 PM UTC

The industry in the US is ridiculous. In a different country my friends run a newish (7 months?) cafe where they aren't on any apps. Instead you can send them a facebook message or call, and they will dispatch a shipper to you. They will then send one of their baristas who aren't busy, or if necessary they've built up a list of delivery drivers who like to hangout near their restaurant, they "sell" the food to the shipper, and then the shipper is in charge for collecting payment to compensate themselves.

The restaurant loses some money because they have to pay for take out containers instead of being able to use a reusable plate, but they're not having 30% taken from them. I guess it helps that their customer base is those who probably aren't going to try to pull a fast one on the restaurant (one that caters to foreigners) but I don't think screwing over delivery people is very ingrained in the culture eitherway.

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#42

Post by sturza » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:02 PM UTC

This is one of the reasons why marketplaces that took the place in customer interaction make most of the money and the supplier(restaurant) is poorly paid. Getting in between the customer and the supplier can put you on the top of the food chain.

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#43

Post by kingkawn » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:02 PM UTC

remote_phone wrote: post #35

People appear to be forgetting how horrible food delivery was pre-UberEats/DoorDash et al. It was horrible and the food was always cold. Once they started doing food delivery it was a game changer. My food arrived hot enough that I had to wait sometimes but almost always pleasantly warm. To me, it’s worth paying the fees, especially since I don’t have to spend time going out, waiting, driving back. When I go for In’n…

I never had a problem with delivery before the VCs started trying to make bank off it

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#44

Post by truculent » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:03 PM UTC

remote_phone wrote: post #17

saadalem wrote: post #9

Food delivery is a complex, three-sided marketplace problem area. Balancing the needs of all stakeholders, especially during a time of consistent innovation is challenging.

Found the UberEats employee. I’ve only ever heard UberEats employees call it a 3P/2P marketplace (I have good friends that work at Uber as well).

I’ve heard deliveroo employees in the U.K. say the same

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#45

Post by haltingproblem » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:03 PM UTC

newacct583 wrote: post #27

haltingproblem wrote: post #6

They thrive because people are lazy - both restaurant and their customers. Restaurants can make a concerted effort to ask regular clients to order from their own websites/apps but rarely do even when they can make an extra 10-15% after giving the customers 10% off. Customers are lazy because inspite of all the talk of supporting local, they are too hooked on click-click-click and ordered. The delivery apps have hundr…

I think that's about the size of it. This seems like a "bad deal" to restaurants because they aren't really thinking of the problem correctly. Restaurants view having to sell a meal via GrubHub as selling a discounted meal, because the customer pays menu price but the delivery service charges a fee. So the restaurant makes less cash than they would to serve the same food to a table. And the reason they think this is…

Good analysis on the economics of takeout vs. eat-in. Hence the rise of ghost kitchens which are losing the storefront and all the overhead that goes with it - cutlery, tables, servers etc.

Grubless et.al are really a discovery platform. Once the customer acquisition happens - restaurants need to move to own the customer relationship. There is so much low-haning fruit there - repeat sales, meal subscriptions, boxed lunches.....

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#46

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:03 PM UTC

tcbawo wrote: post #31

haltingproblem wrote: post #6

They thrive because people are lazy - both restaurant and their customers. Restaurants can make a concerted effort to ask regular clients to order from their own websites/apps but rarely do even when they can make an extra 10-15% after giving the customers 10% off. Customers are lazy because inspite of all the talk of supporting local, they are too hooked on click-click-click and ordered. The delivery apps have hundr…

I'm amazed that Chipotle hasn't packaged it's online ordering app and licensed it to other restaurants. I've never used such a streamlined, polished, and convenient way to make an order for pickup or delivery.

[deleted]

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#47

Post by haswell » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:04 PM UTC

enitihas wrote: post #14

ericzawo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Restaurants are a lot of things. But lazy is not one of them. Have you ever worked at a restaurant?

Restaurants might not be lazy in their core business functions, but that doesn't make them non lazy on other matters.

You need to find a different word that isn't "lazy".

Perhaps a better way to say this is: restaurants are good at being restaurants, but aren't always good at establishing an online presence. A big part of why these delivery services succeed is that they provide a function that restaurants aren't well suited to provide on their own.

This isn't about being lazy, it's about an industry needing to adapt to the new expectations of the app economy, and often not having the expertise to do so.

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#48

Post by ackbar03 » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:04 PM UTC

Does anyone think these food delivery companies are ever going to go away? I mean the restaurants don't seem to like them, the delivery people are pissed, vcs are burning money, and through all this these huge companies are still having a trouble turning a profit. This doesn't seem to be working for anybody except maybe the consumer who is just currently subsidized directly and indirectly through all the above parties. It doesn't make too much sense to me

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#49

Post by MattGaiser » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:04 PM UTC

jqcoffey wrote: post #29

The question I keep asking myself is, if Domino’s can be their own delivery system and now most restaurants are 100% delivery why can’t they do the same thing? I was, a long time ago, a delivery driver for Little Caesar’s and it seemed to work out for everyone without any technology to speak of. EDIT: I am aware of the three party optimization problem for food delivery services. In housing seems to simplify that prob…

1. Location. Dominos has been within 10 minutes of everywhere I have ever lived or vacationed. My last order of Chinese food came from the other side of the city.

2. Tips. Most people do not tip the app drivers. I suspect more people tip the pizza driver as he sees that you stiffed him. Customers are no longer paying for the delivery.

Re: Our restaurants are failing. Why should food delivery apps thrive?

#50

Post by haltingproblem » Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:04 PM UTC

JCharante wrote: post #41

The industry in the US is ridiculous. In a different country my friends run a newish (7 months?) cafe where they aren't on any apps. Instead you can send them a facebook message or call, and they will dispatch a shipper to you. They will then send one of their baristas who aren't busy, or if necessary they've built up a list of delivery drivers who like to hangout near their restaurant, they "sell" the food to the sh…

Grubless 30% does not include delivery. That is the just the ordering and payment processing.