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Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

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Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#101

Post by tormeh »

Chevalier wrote: post #91
walterbell wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you experienced customer service in countries where there is no tipping? It is often entertaining and involves unpredictable "extra work". Perhaps digital reputation systems will provide a stick to replace the carrot of tipping, unless labor laws evolve to impose Fair Reporting on mobile logistics data.

Stereotypes of French waiters aside, service is just fine in Europe. (Speaking as a former resident with very fond memories.) Tipping is just a way for American employers to rip off their most vulnerable workers. Tipping is a truly toxic practice, and it's a burden on customers as well. Why would anyone want to be assigned extra work to evaluate how unhappy they are in order to calculate how much extra they should pa…

It also contributes to sexual harassment. It's a bit evil, basically.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#102

Post by jordanthoms »

Pyxl101 wrote: post #96
Chevalier wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stereotypes of French waiters aside, service is just fine in Europe. (Speaking as a former resident with very fond memories.) Tipping is just a way for American employers to rip off their most vulnerable workers. Tipping is a truly toxic practice, and it's a burden on customers as well. Why would anyone want to be assigned extra work to evaluate how unhappy they are in order to calculate how much extra they should pa…

> Tipping is just a way for American employers to rip off their most vulnerable workers. Could you please elaborate? I don't see how tipping can be involved in ripping off workers in the United States. Employers are always required to pay their workers minimum wage - the federal minimum wage in the worst case, and sometimes the state minimum wage when it applies and is higher. See: http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/fl…

For jobs where tipping is expected, in most states the expected tips can be taken away from the minimum wage - so a server could be paid $2 per hour + tips.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#103

Post by protomyth »

snotrockets wrote: post #97
nezza-_- wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the Pizzeria paying the driver ensures that the driver gets paid.

That's the problem is: most Pizzerias don't. Or don't pay a living wage.

"Or don't pay a living wage."

Why does every job have to pay a "living wage"? Almost all the pizza delivery folks I knew were doing it part-time for extra cash. Pizza delivery is not a long term career. This notion that every job is a career job is just silly and is detrimental to our youth trying to pick up extra cash and some experience.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#104

Post by protomyth »

philwelch wrote: post #41
dkrich wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does the local store win on? I think in the long-run, it'll be price. Sure, in the short-term, Amazon can do what they do and undercut on price, but in the modern age, Wal-Mart has pretty much figured out the optimal model of inventory storage/distribution and the model of keeping inventory on-hand and having customers come to them enables them to do this at an incredibly large scale and at razor-thin margins. Y…

Wal-Mart has the downside that you have to go to Wal-Mart though. I don't just mean that in the dismissive sense that their stores are unpleasant (which they are), but there's a fundamental mismatch between an urbanizing population and a big box store in the suburbs that everyone has to drive to and lose their car in a massive parking lot. In fact, Sam Walton knew this. His mission wasn't to dominate the world of ret…

> I don't just mean that in the dismissive sense that their stores are unpleasant (which they are)

They once were, but I've noticed a marked improvement lately. The newly opened Walmart locally is very nice, clean, and well lit. The local grocery is a dump in comparison[1].

1) no, I don't have this home town sympathy for the local grocery store since it did some bad things in the past that makes Walmart look like a saint in comparison.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#105

Post by npizzolato »

Pyxl101 wrote: post #96
Chevalier wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stereotypes of French waiters aside, service is just fine in Europe. (Speaking as a former resident with very fond memories.) Tipping is just a way for American employers to rip off their most vulnerable workers. Tipping is a truly toxic practice, and it's a burden on customers as well. Why would anyone want to be assigned extra work to evaluate how unhappy they are in order to calculate how much extra they should pa…

> Tipping is just a way for American employers to rip off their most vulnerable workers. Could you please elaborate? I don't see how tipping can be involved in ripping off workers in the United States. Employers are always required to pay their workers minimum wage - the federal minimum wage in the worst case, and sometimes the state minimum wage when it applies and is higher. See: http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/fl…

While that may be technically true, I imagine any waiter not able to pull in tips to exceed the minimum wage would soon find themselves out of a job, especially in at-will states. In practice tipping just transfers the cost from the employer to the consumer.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#106

Post by brianbreslin »

ssharp wrote: post #62
stronglikedan wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a pizza chain that does this for online orders, and it drives me crazy. I don't tip until after service is rendered, because tipping ahead of time insures nothing. There's no place to put a custom note on the order either, so I have to order by phone. It's good for them that they have great pizza, because I'm sure this turns off a lot of potential customers, but not me.

I don't like the automatic tips for another reason: I'm always skeptical the delivery person actually gets the tip.

I was told by an eat24 delivery guy once that he didn't get the tips from his restaurant when they were included in electronic payment. he could have been fucking with me though.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#107

Post by npizzolato »

NegativeK wrote: post #98
walterbell wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you experienced customer service in countries where there is no tipping? It is often entertaining and involves unpredictable "extra work". Perhaps digital reputation systems will provide a stick to replace the carrot of tipping, unless labor laws evolve to impose Fair Reporting on mobile logistics data.

There's quite a few service industry jobs in the US that don't do tipping. I haven't found things to be better or worse. What irks me the most is that tipped industry veterans will declare, very forcefully, that 20% is the minimum in all circumstances -- which is somewhat fair, as I do believe in fair wages. However, if a minimum exists, why are we even tipping?

Because businesses are cheap and found a way to not pay their employees by creating a culture of tipping.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#108

Post by mynameishere »

guelo wrote: post #86

What I don't understand about the big retailers is why they haven't been doing something similar all along to compete with Amazon. Amazon has been building warehouses all across the country near cities to reduce shipping times. But the retailers already have what amounts to hundreds of warehouses at every population center, plus the inventory management systems. Why haven't they put their inventories online and offer…

No kidding. The pizza delivery model would seem a no-brainer. You simply have a few employees who know where everything in the store is (and can probably fetch anything 10 times faster than a normal customer) and then batch them out to drivers. It seems like Walmart could service 100 million people this way (with their entire inventory) just like Domino's et al have been for decades.

It's so obvious that I'm guessing they've done the math and it doesn't work.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#110

Post by eru »

dkrich wrote: post #35
mooreds wrote: post #24

It's hard for me to see how this doesn't hurt local vendors badly. Of course, it depends on what the the 25,000 items are, but that was one of the key differentiators between Amazon and local stores--if you needed something and you needed it now, the local store was the only option (things like cabling for a new TV, gifts for a party that night, etc). Now, for prime members in NYC at least, Amazon is a viable option.…

What does the local store win on? I think in the long-run, it'll be price. Sure, in the short-term, Amazon can do what they do and undercut on price, but in the modern age, Wal-Mart has pretty much figured out the optimal model of inventory storage/distribution and the model of keeping inventory on-hand and having customers come to them enables them to do this at an incredibly large scale and at razor-thin margins. Y…

> Sure, in the short-term, Amazon can do what they do and undercut on price, but in the modern age, Wal-Mart has pretty much figured out the optimal model of inventory storage/distribution and the model of keeping inventory on-hand and having customers come to them enables them to do this at an incredibly large scale and at razor-thin margins. Yet they are still margins.

That only works because people don't value their time it takes to get to Wal-Mart and shop there.

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