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DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

ir.doordash.com

111–120 of 166 posts

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#111

I understand the convenience of delivered food esp. during the lockdowns, but people should not be glorifying these companies that are instituting a modern big-tech-powered serfdom by scraping the bottom of the barrel of gig work. We need a better model for this , not human-robots that carry food to the well-off.

The one I'm using was recently forced to employ their workers full time. It means no more flexibility, losing about a 100 drivers instantly, and increasing delivery times by about 30-40 min in the short run, and I'm perfectly fine with that.

I don't know if Glovo as their only real competitor is held onto the same standard, I refuse to use them because they approached the market by throwing money at it, buying competitors and every ad they could in whichever media they could (TV, radio, newspapers, billboards, for months it was the only ad you'd get on YouTube, etc).

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#112
post #79

Wolt fed me through the pandemic in Hungary. And it's easily one of the best food delivery apps I've used. The app itself is 4/5 stars. Reliable, but the search filters don't give enough control to users. But what really stood out about Wolt was their customer service. They have incredible response times, and always do everything in their power to resolve any issues. That's rare these days, and I hope it doesn't go a…

Good customer service huh? Well, prepare for that to go away now that an American startup now owns them!

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>they are literally just some guy cooking in his basement under a fake restaurant name, Texan here. You just described every good TexMex place I've been to.

Right, but here in EU this sort of thing is illegal, and if you tried to cook shit in your basement and sell it for real money you'd get shut down instantly. Same with hiring illegals and making them work with no insurance. Same with providing no training. Same with taking no responsibility in case of accidents. Etc etc. These companies keep getting away with outright ignoring the laws where they operate - and how ca…

I assure you it's generally illegal in the US as well.

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#114

This is one reason why US tech will always win. Any tech company in EU or Asia that becomes big enough will be acquired by the heavily capitalized US companies or their employees will be hired away.

Can you explain "this"? What mechanism is at play here?

The second sentence by the OP explains the mechanism. "Heavily capitalized". Finland especially is very capital poor.

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#115

I understand the convenience of delivered food esp. during the lockdowns, but people should not be glorifying these companies that are instituting a modern big-tech-powered serfdom by scraping the bottom of the barrel of gig work. We need a better model for this , not human-robots that carry food to the well-off.

It isn't these companies' fault that couriers don't have better options. If anything, without this kind of service existing, a lot of them would be simply out of work completely.

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#116
post #65
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Def not in Finland. The question whether the freelance status is legal or whether the couriers should be classified as employees is still open. There was a preliminary decision that they are employees but the court process is still ongoing.

Correct. The labor board has issued its opinion that they should be considered employees but it hasn't yet been enforced by the courts. Instead, all Wolt couriers in Finland have been "independent contractors" and had to have their own business name or do other paperwork, that because of how Finnish law works for small business owners, means they get cut off from any public health insurance, unemployment insurance, e…

> because of how Finnish law works for small business owners, means they get cut off from any public health insurance

This is not true. Finnish public health insurance is residency based: Every resident has it [1]. What you are probably thinking of, is the extra occupational private health insurance, that most Finnish employers provide for their employees (so that during work days, the employees don't need to wait in line in the public health services, but can get back to work sooner after seeing a private doctor).

[1] https://www.kela.fi/ulkomailta-suomeen-sairaanhoito-suomessa

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#117
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the downside of free trade: foreigners can fly in and buy up all your companies. Which is exactly why China protects their tech industry like a wolf her cubs. Capitalism favours the strong.

You can be happy when your companies are bought and you can invest in a new round of (local) startups.

I believe in Finland you mostly invest in walls and then whats left is for few angel rounds.

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#118

As almost-daily user of Wolt, I'm interested to see how this will impact me. Maybe I finally won't have to pay 3 euros for McDonalds to get delivered for a 10minute walking distance.

wait-- you are saying the unit of work is minimal ("a 10 minute walk") so you don't want to pay it, but you also aren't willing to do it yourself ('almost-daily user').

so by your actions you basically agree that in your case it is worth it, otherwise you'd just take the 10 minute walk.

Did I miss something?

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#119

As a non-user I only have negative feelings towards Wolt myself. They have their fleet of underpaid cyclists with gigantic boxes darting around the town at full speed without regard for traffic or anything else. The system where they get paid more the faster they go doesn't seem super healthy and one of them's gonna get killed by a car sooner or later.

Sounds like the city you’re in needs to fix its bike lanes rather than continue blaming cyclists

If the payment model is every delivery = comission, then they'll go as fast as possible, even with good bike lanes.

Red light, but the cross street is empty? They'll probably blow through it. And they'll be making these kinds of stupid risk assessments every few seconds, and statistics would say the chances of 100% success are against them...

Re: DoorDash Joins Forces with Wolt

#120

That's why we can't have nice things in Europe. I second other comments - Wolt customer service is top notch, I'd even say too proactive ;) What can we do so there is less incentive for entrepreneurs to sell themselves to the US companies? Is the sustainable enterprise model dead today?

It’s not dead, but it doesn’t apply to companies like Wolt that take huge amounts of VC cash to lose tons of money competing in a crowded sector. This is the ideal exit for Wolt.
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