101–110 of 258 posts
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I think I remember reading that they often set all of this up prior to speaking with the owner / without getting their approval and then basically go to them after the fact and say "look how much traffic we've been bringing in for you" Edit: Ah, yup - see link to eater.com post elsewhere in the thread
In that case the owner is then getting the full price for the food though.
It's disheartening that there's so much due diligence required just to conduct the most basic transactions right now. I have a narrow list of vetted restaurants, where I understand the costs and to the business, the delivery model, the safety (food handling and Covid precautions), and I only take out from these particular places. I tried a new place recently, only to find out I had been duped by Grub-hub, even though…
>I tried a new place recently, only to find out I had been duped by Grub-hub So you found a new restaurant, the restaurant found a new customer, and grub-hub is cut out of the (future) picture. Didn't grubhub earn that commission in this case? I have no love (or hate) for grub-hub... but it seems like a business hired a salesperson on commission, knowing full well the parameters of the deal, and then gets upset when…
Yelp adds value by putting my competitors above me when people search my exact name. They then offer me the deal Google gets.
GrubHub is spending VC money to win the google auction and then they offer the restaurant the great deal of handing over the profit margin to them. They’ll continue elbowing out paying restaurants after that to keep the money flowing, so the restaurant is paying for the privilege of paying GrubHub.
What a great time for small business.
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There is no proof GH added value here. Allow me to share a related story: In some places in Eastern Europe, for a while, you could see these people stand in front of empty, free parking spots in the street. As soon as they would see a car approaching they would wave their hands and signal you to park there. To be clear, these people were not afiliated with city hall or other public institutions in any way. If you dro…
Food for thought (no pun intended) The value that GH added here was that they were higher up than any of the restaurant's competitors, too. So, absent of GH, that pizza sale, instead of going to GH, might have gone to a competitive pizza place. So the restaurant has to evaluate-- it is better that I get the order through GH, or that I don't possibly get the order at all, and it goes to a competitor?
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The due diligence is because the restaurants offer a terrible experience. Most still do not have an independent online ordering function. They want me to call. Most still haven't set up meaningful profiles on Yelp and other review sites. So I would need to root around to find contact information. That is in addition to needing to give my credit card over the phone, not knowing how long the order will take, and needin…
I think the issue is restaurants need a 3rd party platform. They aren't in the tech industry and they aren't going to hire a developer to build their own system unless its a global franchise. What we really need is for someone to build an open source / one time cost / subscription platform that gives restaurants the ease of using a premade system without the expense of having a per transaction fee.
The killer feature is that it is a single market place. I go on the app, I can search through dozens of local restaurants, all with a consistent interface. I can place an order in a couple of clicks at a brand new restaurant I have never tried, and I dont have to enter any new information.
I can scroll through all my previous orders at all the previous restaurants, and re-order in one click.
This service can ONLY be provided by a unified platform. It doesn't matter how good a restaurants website is, I want ALL the restaurants in one place.
Now, could it be cheaper for restaurants? Does GH take too much of a cut? Maybe, but I don't know.... GH and DD both lose a ton of money, and have spent a ridiculous amount of money to get to where they are. Could anyone provide the service for a lot cheaper? If they could, they sure haven't yet.
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The due diligence is because the restaurants offer a terrible experience. Most still do not have an independent online ordering function. They want me to call. Most still haven't set up meaningful profiles on Yelp and other review sites. So I would need to root around to find contact information. That is in addition to needing to give my credit card over the phone, not knowing how long the order will take, and needin…
I beg to differ. None of the places I've placed orders with (and I've been doing it a lot what with quarantine) have ever asked for CC over-the-phone. Most just want my name, some a phone number. Ordering usually takes less time than it would to fiddle about with a bunch of dropdowns, even if it had my customer information already saved.
I am confused as to how they are getting the money from you.
It's disheartening that there's so much due diligence required just to conduct the most basic transactions right now. I have a narrow list of vetted restaurants, where I understand the costs and to the business, the delivery model, the safety (food handling and Covid precautions), and I only take out from these particular places. I tried a new place recently, only to find out I had been duped by Grub-hub, even though…
The due diligence is because the restaurants offer a terrible experience. Most still do not have an independent online ordering function. They want me to call. Most still haven't set up meaningful profiles on Yelp and other review sites. So I would need to root around to find contact information. That is in addition to needing to give my credit card over the phone, not knowing how long the order will take, and needin…
No stupid app to download. No account to create. No bullshit fees. No marketing emails. I just tell them what I want and then go get it. It's refreshing.
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It's disheartening to me how utterly shitty and amoral silicon valleys startup scene has become.
A lot of people, sooner or later, discover that the margins on morality are shockingly poor. They make their own choices from there.
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Speaking of information already saved, one of my favorite pizza places has my order history keyed to my phone number. Ordering ahead usually comes down to dialing them up, giving my name and phone number and telling them I'd like the same as last time. They read it off to me to confirm, quote me a waiting time, and that's that. Start to finish, the call is probably less than thirty seconds.
Exactly. For most of my usual spots, someone picks up on the first ring, I place my order, they ask my name, and that's it
Also, calling on the phone is not always easy; I often place orders on my phone while simultaneously on a work call, or putting my kid down for a nap, or doing something else where speaking is not easy.
Its astonishing delivery services have the depravity to dupe customers trying to help a hurting industry. If you live in NYC or SF, I built a browser extension that will help you place delivery orders directly with local restaurants. It currently compares the price of your delivery across all delivery services, and within the next week, will link you to local restaurant websites if one is available. For those interes…
It's possible to do this without resorting to the sleazy practices of Grubhub. I used to work for Slice, which provides order-taking (but notably not delivery) for mom-and-pop pizza shops. They don't add people to the platform without their permission. They only charge $1/order. They help restaurants digitize their menus, keep prices up to date, and they take orders digitally and over the phone. They have a large and…
People were previously claiming on Hacker News that Slice was registering websites on behalf of pizza shops, and then claiming the business as theirs on Google Maps [0]. Is this false? One user claimed that the businesses were not aware of this [1]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23349819 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16824992