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Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

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Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#121

Post by chrisseaton »

hbosch wrote: post #120
chrisseaton wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so the agent didn't have to show us any houses or help us along in any way. She just submitted our offer and that was that. Why didn’t you submit it yourself and save all that money?

The buyer doesn't pay the agent, both agents' commission comes from the seller. Also, the agent we ended up with was a direct recommendation from the selling agent, and we figured this would give us a little extra "boost" with her by using her friend.

> the agent we ended up with was a direct recommendation from the selling agent, and we figured this would give us a little extra "boost" with her by using her friend

Huh what? So what incentive does your agent have to negotiate a good deal on your behalf if she’s earning a price commission, and she’s friends with the selling agent?

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#122

Post by thatoneuser »

dagw wrote: post #94
Qwertystop wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ikea is a chain of furniture stores which (among other things) have food courts in them.

Yes I'm fully aware. I just don't see what the racket is.

Sometimes HN... Racket meant just as an operational endeavor. Not the kind where you nefariously earn money.

Racket: a person's line of business or way of life.

Edit: oh yeah kids are out of school. I thought things felt dumber around here lately

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#123

Post by Animats »

uremog wrote: post #119
Animats wrote: post #16

Amazon had a restaurant business? The funny thing is, Amazon probably could do a good delivery restaurant business. There are already many "delivery only restaurants"[1] Uber Eats encourages others to start them. But Amazon, unlike Uber, is capable of building physical infrastructure. The future of this is "food fulfillment centers", large warehouse spaces which house various specialty kitchens. Common functions, suc…

So the goal is to be like a food court, but cheaper and/or better because, due to delivery-only, the location can be cheaper, and the space can be more efficiently used (no customer seating)?

Right. The location can be cheaper, and better laid out for a volume business. Like having a loading dock. If you can handle big trucks, you get to cut out a layer of restaurant service middlemen.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#124

Post by civility »

hbosch wrote: post #120
chrisseaton wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so the agent didn't have to show us any houses or help us along in any way. She just submitted our offer and that was that. Why didn’t you submit it yourself and save all that money?

The buyer doesn't pay the agent, both agents' commission comes from the seller. Also, the agent we ended up with was a direct recommendation from the selling agent, and we figured this would give us a little extra "boost" with her by using her friend.

The buyer pays everyone - no one else brings any money to the transaction.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#125

Post by civility »

ralph84 wrote: post #118
civility wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just found their quote: > Flyhomes makes money through the commission paid by the home’s seller. This is the same lie all realtors love to throw out. "You don't pay - the seller does!". Never mind the buyer is the only person who brings money to the transaction. Unless that commission is much smaller than a traditional realtor, I hope they fail.

There are more ways to innovate than just offer the same thing for less money. You can offer more things for the same money, which is what FlyHomes is doing. That is actually the more common and more financially viable form of innovation.

You're right, of course. However in this case, I'd like to see someone fix the problem instead of just making it more palatable. To me FlyHomes looks like just another realtor who screws you for too much money, but they give you flowers before they start and candy when they're done.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#126

Post by randomdata »

ghaff wrote: post #114
randomdata wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That a portion of the cost of operating a kitchen at home is a sunk cost is the only thing that keeps cooking at home cost-competitive with eating out at restaurants. The price of eating at a restaurant that is well above the cost of materials is already operating at an efficiency that is above what one can achieve eating at home, all things considered. If the hypothetical prepared meal service could deliver food for…

Outside of a dormitory situation (and sometimes even then), how many people are seriously willing to dispense with even the most minimal kitchen (say, refrigerator, burner, toaster oven, kitchen sink, maybe microwave)? To a first approximation, no one wants to order out for an egg and a couple slides of toast in the morning. So most probably can't/don't want to eliminate the kitchen entirely and that minimal kitchen…

> no one wants to order out for an egg and a couple slides of toast in the morning.

Why do you think that is? To me, having eggs and toast 'magically' appear in front of me when I get up in the morning sounds wonderful and I am really not sure why everyone wouldn't want that if the infrastructure to provide it was there.

While the actual act of making an egg and some toast is not terribly difficult, everything else that goes along with it, like having to plan the meal ahead of time such that you have the supplies on hand, starts to add up into a big job. A big job that I cannot imagine why someone who doesn't love cooking would want to take on unnecessarily.

I can see how it may be necessary under the status quo as we lack the technology to really deliver on the vision, but our discussion is not about the status quo, but rather a hypothetical future where industry has figured out to produce quality prepared food at scale such that the costs start to approach that of the raw materials.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#127

Post by chrisseaton »

civility wrote: post #124
hbosch wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The buyer doesn't pay the agent, both agents' commission comes from the seller. Also, the agent we ended up with was a direct recommendation from the selling agent, and we figured this would give us a little extra "boost" with her by using her friend.

The buyer pays everyone - no one else brings any money to the transaction.

The person selling to you pays the person who represents your interests? How is this not a conflict of interest?

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#128

Post by civility »

chrisseaton wrote: post #127
civility wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The buyer pays everyone - no one else brings any money to the transaction.

The person selling to you pays the person who represents your interests? How is this not a conflict of interest?

Really, it's just part of the scam. Most people actually believe the seller is paying the realtors. It's how the buyer's agent can say, "Don't worry about my rate, the seller pays it!", as though you're sticking it to the seller. I've already seen three people repeat/believe that lie in this thread.

If what the realtors said was true, there would be a conflict of interest. However, there isn't really a conflict here because the buyer and seller are both splitting the loss. One is paying too much, and the other isn't getting paid enough.

The real conflict comes because both agents want you to compromise your price for an easy sale. If you sell your $500k house for $20k less than it could, they only lose a few hundred dollars. That agent will play various tricks to try and talk you into losing $20k so they can get a quick sale and be done with you. Similarly, they don't care if your loan is a bit larger when you're buying. They're not looking out for your best interests.

If the middlemen/parasites were out of the loop, the buyer could pay 3% less, the seller would get 3% more, and some reasonable agency could get a fixed fee for doing the paperwork. Hell, the title agency could do the work trivially, but I'm guessing they don't want to risk rocking the boat. Maybe the current system was reasonable when all you had was newspaper listings and for sale signs, but it's corrupt now.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#129

Post by bobthepanda »

chrisseaton wrote: post #48
bobthepanda wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem is that kitchens operate with dirt cheap labor costs. In a market like New York, all those cheap hole in the walls are paying their workers cash under the table and running with razor thin margins. It’s one thing to target a cushy market like bookstores, but restaurants are cutthroat, and on top of that meal kit customers are fickle.

> a cushy market like bookstores Haven’t book stores been in a perilous position for decades?

Bookstores used to not be a cushy market, and bookstores generally pay sales taxes and minimum wages, practices that anecdotally are less followed with restaurants.

Re: Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S.

#130

Post by hbosch »

chrisseaton wrote: post #121
hbosch wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The buyer doesn't pay the agent, both agents' commission comes from the seller. Also, the agent we ended up with was a direct recommendation from the selling agent, and we figured this would give us a little extra "boost" with her by using her friend.

> the agent we ended up with was a direct recommendation from the selling agent, and we figured this would give us a little extra "boost" with her by using her friend Huh what? So what incentive does your agent have to negotiate a good deal on your behalf if she’s earning a price commission, and she’s friends with the selling agent?

> So what incentive does your agent have to negotiate a good deal on your behalf if she’s earning a price commission

That's a great question, but it's not unique to my situation... it's standard that agents split the commission. You could say that any agent or salesperson is never incentivized to give any buyer a deal on anything as long as they collect commission.

Secondly, we paid what we thought the house was worth. We're in a competetive market and had a hard budget. The house price came in below budget. As far as I'm concerned, we got a fine deal.

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