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Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

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Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#231

Post by ethbro »

kenhwang wrote: post #143
ethbro wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the argument goes: if anyone can approach that optimality, it's a company with a large fleet of repurposable drivers. Being able to dispatch to a driver in motion depends on having a suitable driver available. I'm still doubtful it can ever work, for the reasons people mentioned above. But the realistic game is that Uber becomes the new Yelp and strongarms restaurants for a share of their profit, in return…

Other way I see it working out is Uber gets so optimized that they can have a driver double dip with a delivery and passengers going on the same route.

That's the idea, but it seems like Uber's going to have to swing some pretty big stick / carrots to blunt restaurants' worst tendencies.

What will passengers think about having their ride delayed? Lump it into Pool and partially rebate them?

What will keep restaurants from #&@$ing around with their notifications (e.g. ready) for a partner who they don't really like working with?

(Personally, I switched to Lyft and don't use Uber products anymore)

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#232

Post by scarface74 »

underwater wrote: post #180
mardifoufs wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, most content producers have the same problem but few have to maintain the pace Netflix needs to keep users subscribed to a unlimited platform. Disney has a very strong and very culturally defining position. They are also more diversified and generate cashflow from multiple sources. Disney+ is also mostly content that has already been "paid for" by either box office sales or licensed merchandise.For example, sell…

Traditional film production companies seem much more like the model you're accusing Netflix of. Gotta keep churning out films and hoping you make money in box office. Then the value of the goods approaches zero very quickly.

Disney is still making money from people buying cartoons from the first ones they made.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#233

Post by Talanes »

londons_explore wrote: post #229
Talanes wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>send info to a restaurant to keep your food hot I'm not sure what exactly you think restaurants can do with that request. A small subset of places will have a heat lamp, but that still doesn't really preserve quality, just heat.

"This food will be ready to collect at 17:35 and 45 seconds, and if it isn't, we wont be paying you". Restaurants would soon figure out how to use a couple of timers to get every order done on time. There could also be a deeper integration to ensure that, for example, there are no more than 3 orders worth of fries being cooked at once, or no more than 2 pickups per minute scheduled, to avoid overloading that part of…

Have you ever worked in a restaurant? What you're describing would be a massive undertaking to manage with just a single corporate partner, much less with a collection of independent and small chain restaurants.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#234

Post by habosa »

mardifoufs wrote: post #8

What's Postmates moat? Having never used it, I don't necessarily see the 2.6b$ value in a smaller delivery app that is only really used in some areas of the US. Though I'm sure there is something I'm missing and 2.6b$ is probably less expensive than the cost of pricing Postmates out of the market especially considering it's an all stocks deal. It's just that delivery seems to be easily scalable and easy to just dump…

Back when I was on the platform Postmates was the only one that would deliver anything from anywhere. Like you could order a MacBook or a burrito.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#236

Post by emiliobumachar »

missedthecue wrote: post #120
jhallenworld wrote: post #98

So city dwellers in the ancient Roman world did not have kitchens- possibly they ate out more than we do. So there must have been demand for food delivery... I wonder if they accomplished it with slaves? Well there is some history: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/01/08/food-delivery/ The Indian "dabbawala" maybe is where it has to go: some kind of standardized service where one driver can deliver to many people i…

I mean there wasn't a way to remote order in ancient Rome. You'd have to go yourself or send someone.

Have a pyre at your home's roof, and an arrangement with a restaurant to send a meal when they see it on fire. I'm joking, of course.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#237

Post by Kye »

jemski wrote: post #153
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the recent trend of tearing down public statues probably doesn’t instill confidence that these kinds of corporate investments will be properly protected.

If it takes 155 years or so for people to decide they don't like that investment, I'd probably call that a sound investment. You could even put money into things that tend to be quite nice for people. Schools come to mind. Libraries. I'm spitballing. Unless the plan is to build monuments to current day prison wardens. Depends how bad-faith the argument is, I suppose.

Not that it takes away from your point, but they're mostly not 155 years old. Most of the statues were put up during the Jim Crow era and during the Civil Rights movement of the '60s. You can see a graph on the Wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Confederate_monuments_...

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#238

Post by washicalendar »

maps7 wrote: post #223
squeaky-clean wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mentioned this in a comment above, but I worked at Domino's and this was 100% encouraged. My manager hammered it into my head that a mistake was just an opportunity to gain a more loyal customer. If someone called with a complaint, we would credit you for a whole new pizza. Drink and dessert too if we really F'd up. The reason being people will actually stop ordering Domino's if they're upset at a mistake in an ord…

It makes sense. I would definitely order again and again from a place that gave me assurances that they would handle any mistakes. I got an Indian meal delivered without the rice I ordered. I rang up and they apologized and refunded me straight away... but I still didn't have the rice so the meal I intended on having was ruined. I probably will never order from them again (there's plenty of other Indian food places n…

I ordered a vegetarian meal from a place I wanted to try. They delivered it, the item had a big green VEGGIE sticker on it, but taking a bite my mouth was filled with meat.

The only recourse I had was to use the app’s help feature and mark it as “incorrect dietary restrictions” and select which item in the order was wrong.

Deliveroo instantly gave me credit for it, which isn’t a refund but I’d use the credit sooner or later so not a big deal.

But now the problem is that I have a neat filled burrito that I can’t eat. I’ve once again accidentally ate meat through no error on my part, so my entire meal is ruined because my mood is ruined. There was a desert I could eat, but that’s it. I ended up waiting 30 minutes for a delicious meal only to end up with just a desert and now I have to spend time to cook my own meal.

If the restaurant would have delivered me another meal then I’d probably still consider ordering from them again, but with the way the app is set up, that I got a measly €10 credit for one part of the meal (still had to pay for delivery, the dessert that I didn’t eat, and a tip cause it was raining). This just meant I’ll never give that restaurant another chance.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#240

Post by slfnflctd »

baxtr wrote: post #206
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is mostly limited by requirements to get food there quickly. If we knew what we wanted ahead of time, scheduling delivery ahead of time would make it easy... since you could use a delivery route (to deliver 2-3 items nearby). A single winner may be able to make it work since you can do 1-2 pickups and deliver to two nearby homes.

Huh. Interesting! How about a food truck with a kitchen that drives a pre-defined route to delivers pre-ordered food?

I don't think that could be made to work for impulse, on-demand ordering ("I've just decided I want food as soon as possible, and my stomach/brain seems to think $dish sounds good"), which in my experience is the bulk of it. People don't plan out what they're going to eat when ordering restaurant food as much, they just do it when they're ready.
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