21–30 of 34 posts
Honestly if there is a bubble and if it does burst, I'm putting my money on Postmates as the first company that will go out of business.
For example I used it to get diet food deliveries from a local 'fitness food' cafe 30m away. It saved me an hour of time. And this place didn't do deliveries.
My startup is bootstrapped and does deliveries. In fact we actually hired people that hated the old/current Postmates model. But basically, it's not an easy business model and it's not one that makes financial sense, no matter what the funding, city, tipping situation is. Deliveries = Time Time = Money If you want someone to have time to make deliveries, you have to pay them enough money to have that time. Until VERY…
I have a feeling that we'll solve self-driving cars to your driveway a long time before we solve getting the package from there to a person/porch/mailbox. I reckon for some time we'll see people sitting in self-driving cars just to take care of the final hand over. Actually, just struck me that what might work is an Amazon Locker on wheels plus an Uber-style app. You track the package drawing near via app (plus alert…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a feeling that we'll solve self-driving cars to your driveway a long time before we solve getting the package from there to a person/porch/mailbox. I reckon for some time we'll see people sitting in self-driving cars just to take care of the final hand over. Actually, just struck me that what might work is an Amazon Locker on wheels plus an Uber-style app. You track the package drawing near via app (plus alert…
TBH, I think drone deliveries are possible today technologically, unlike self driving cars, and those can deliver to most porches.
Honestly if there is a bubble and if it does burst, I'm putting my money on Postmates as the first company that will go out of business.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could you shed some more light on this? Instacart claims to offer in store prices for my local store. Although I have caught a few issues where they charged double for an avocado or something like that but it seems like more of a data entry error based on the current price of "2 for 1"
Oh, they don't have that feature in my area (yet?) - if I browse Instacart for Trader Joe's, I see "15%+ higher than in-store pricing" and it is generally on the plus side more than the 15% side. (The average markup seems closer to 25%, it is a really really poor deal.) I've never seen the in store pricing option here.
Honestly if there is a bubble and if it does burst, I'm putting my money on Postmates as the first company that will go out of business.
Why? I find the service useful. It's basically generalized delivery service. Restaurants who don't want to manage delivery drivers can outsource it to postmates. For example I used it to get diet food deliveries from a local 'fitness food' cafe 30m away. It saved me an hour of time. And this place didn't do deliveries.
I don't see that as a viable option for most restaurants, unless postmastes can absolutely guarantee that a courier will be out delivering their orders within 10 minutes of them being completed by the kitchen and delivered within 30 minutes after pickup.
And at that point, if you're basically paying postmates to constantly have a courier on call for your restaurant, why wouldn't you just hire a driver? They mostly make minimum wage and live off of tips, and they pay for their own car, insurance, gas, etc.
I knew a delivery driver once, and he was not a happy man.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Postmates charges exactly what the retailer charged you plus 9% (it's a transparent markup, not an opaque one like Instacart.)
Could you shed some more light on this? Instacart claims to offer in store prices for my local store. Although I have caught a few issues where they charged double for an avocado or something like that but it seems like more of a data entry error based on the current price of "2 for 1"
My startup is bootstrapped and does deliveries. In fact we actually hired people that hated the old/current Postmates model. But basically, it's not an easy business model and it's not one that makes financial sense, no matter what the funding, city, tipping situation is. Deliveries = Time Time = Money If you want someone to have time to make deliveries, you have to pay them enough money to have that time. Until VERY…
I have a feeling that we'll solve self-driving cars to your driveway a long time before we solve getting the package from there to a person/porch/mailbox. I reckon for some time we'll see people sitting in self-driving cars just to take care of the final hand over. Actually, just struck me that what might work is an Amazon Locker on wheels plus an Uber-style app. You track the package drawing near via app (plus alert…
Covering the last 50 meters with a quadrotor has potential. With very short flights and frequent recharges, the carrying capacity could be quite high. You could also deliver to apartment building balconies or trays mounted outside windows.
But interestingly, I see this as a huge win for people that may be home-bound due to age or injury. Specialty services that cater to this demographic are expensive and not nearly as responsive.
I can't understand how Postmates is so big. I've tried them twice. Both times the food took over 1.5 hours to be delivered and was cold. Just order pizza or Chinese.
This is a feature, not a bug.
> Just order pizza or Chinese.
That's so 1999. The hip, ultra-efficient city-dwellers of 2015 have Soylent on tap.