Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage • Hacker News Board

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#211

Post by lumberingjack » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:03 AM UTC

beart wrote: post #177

joshvm wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The automated system should say "weight, that can't be right". Works fairly reliably in supermarkets, especially if you allow a bigger margin of uncertainty on sku weight. Or verify the volume/shape - or both, like volumetric weight that shipping companies use. I'm guessing amazon has some system to automatically assign boxes based on the dimensions of stuff that's being picked.

Not all distribution centers validate weight, don't recall if Amazon does but I would be surprised if they don't. High speed scales are expensive.

A few people got a box of rocks instead of a $4k camera awhile back, one guy got two boxes of rocks after returning the first.

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#212

Post by hnick » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:04 AM UTC

masonic wrote: post #115

chrisseaton wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it just the benefit of being able to browse in one app/website everything available for be delivered to you? Yes I think that’s a big part of it. That’s a big part of Uber as well - I can fly into a city not knowing anything about how they do taxi and get an Uber.

I can fly into a city not knowing anything about how they do taxi What airports are you flying into where you could avoid signage/references to local taxis/buses/transit if you wanted to ? Heck, most have taxi stands right outside baggage claim, if not all exits.

It's the how that matters. Some countries have "interesting" taxi ecosystems.

I had a friend whose taxi would drop her off to a certain part of the city she was in in Malaysia. She liked him and wanted him to bring her back home later because she felt safe. He couldn't. Apparently there were taxi gangs controlling territory and he could only drop off and GTFO.

Or there's what I saw in Peru where a guy was selling TAXI signs at a traffic light. That's all it takes in some countries, whack that on top and you're good to go. Nice to get a tourist halfway down the freeway then "renegotiate".

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#213

Post by MattGaiser » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:04 AM UTC

valuearb wrote: post #171

MattGaiser wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Restaurants have been running successful delivery operations independently for ages. Crappy phone call driven ones with few checks for information accuracy. > Is it just the benefit of being able to browse in one app/website everything available for be delivered to you? Yes, that is a large part of it. I can be hungry and just pick up the DoorDash app and browse for food. I also have a single point of complaint for…

And still your order is wrong half the time.

Yeah, but now I click a button and in 30 seconds get a refund no questions asked.

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#214

Post by ramraj07 » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:05 AM UTC

kabacha wrote: post #198

bb611 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't fully explain why they priced a $24 pizza at $16. I wouldn't be surprised if they're subsidizing purchases, but just skipping fees doesn't explain that.

Web-scraping is hard man, especially with mom-and-pop restaurant websites that are often exported straight from microsoft word or some ancient "platform" that got reconfigured 20 times over. As article pointed out it picked up full-toppings pizza as plain cheese.

But they still paid full price to the restaurant! Someone in doordash knew the real price at some point then!

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#215

Post by shiftpgdn » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:10 AM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #214

kabacha wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web-scraping is hard man, especially with mom-and-pop restaurant websites that are often exported straight from microsoft word or some ancient "platform" that got reconfigured 20 times over. As article pointed out it picked up full-toppings pizza as plain cheese.

But they still paid full price to the restaurant! Someone in doordash knew the real price at some point then!

The full price was paid because a door dash card was used to pay for the order on pickup.

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#216

Post by ramraj07 » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:11 AM UTC

dylz wrote: post #150

thomk wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How has your experience been with privacy.com?

Usually gets your Uber account terminated or not able to sign up in the first place with a prepaid.

Hopefully not a problem with small businesses?

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#217

Post by abrookewood » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:14 AM UTC

There's an episode of Silicon Valley where Pied Piper bankrupt an unrelated start-up using this method so that they can hire their developers.

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#218

Post by nicbou » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:17 AM UTC

cletus wrote: post #166

Wow, that was great. And honestly good on them for profit-taking on this arbitrage. The author likes to pin this on zero-interest rates ("ZIRP") and that certainly explains why the system is awash with cash but I'd say he's missing a key point here. When I moved to NYC (~10 years ago) I didn't order delivery at all. Honestly it's a huge pain. To call someone up and try and communicate an order to someone who probably…

Yes. I used Yandex Taxi in Kazakhstan. I don't speak Kazakh nor Russian, but was able to get around in Almaty that way.

I have done the same with Uber in Poland, and with countless services in Germany before I learned German.

I really appreciate consuming a service at my pace, especially when there is a language barrier, a large order or alcohol involved.

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#219

Post by joshvm » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:19 AM UTC

beart wrote: post #177

joshvm wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The automated system should say "weight, that can't be right". Works fairly reliably in supermarkets, especially if you allow a bigger margin of uncertainty on sku weight. Or verify the volume/shape - or both, like volumetric weight that shipping companies use. I'm guessing amazon has some system to automatically assign boxes based on the dimensions of stuff that's being picked.

Not all distribution centers validate weight, don't recall if Amazon does but I would be surprised if they don't. High speed scales are expensive.

Thinking about this more, I'm surprised this couldn't be caught when the items got delivered to Amazon. I find it extremely unlikely that a picking robot accidentally found an item with the same barcode if they weren't already in the wrong place.

Seems like when the items arrived at the fulfilment centre, they got mis-scanned and ended up comingled. Presumably that's the stage where you can check weight and volume - eg does this item fit with the known dimensions.

This check must be made somewhere otherwise people wouldn't bother returning high value electronics with rocks inside (presumably someone does a cursory check of weight before the inventory gets comingled again).

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#220

Post by JumpCrisscross » Mon, May 18, 2020, 6:21 AM UTC

I cut this deal with my neighborhood Italian restaurant!

I texted the owner about being miffed they hadn’t told me they were on DoorDash. He replied. They aren’t. We compared pricing, and found the prices advertised are way off from what the restaurant charges.

So I placed a $5,000 order to the neighbourhood homeless shelter. DoorDash paid him over $20,000, and I get free pasta for the rest of the year. (My neighbours have also partaken.)

Glad to know it’s scaling. SoftBank has assembled a unique concentration of stupidity for itself.