Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage • Hacker News Board

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#531

Post by eru » Fri, May 22, 2020, 2:32 PM UTC

1over137 wrote: post #508

huffmsa wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've only really known oil for 3 generations, so yes. And they're also desperate. The future where the world doesn't need their oil (or they've run out) isn't a distant future anymore. It's coming, and coming faster and faster. They need to diversify anyway they can if they want to avoid going back to just being a desert. And so they're jumping at pretty much any deal they see

>The future where the world doesn't need their oil We'll need oil for plastics even if we stop using it for transportation, and Saudi oil is just about the easiest/cheapest to extract, so we'll be using their oil for a long time, but it won't be as grotesquely profitable for them as in the past.

Yes. Though we don't really "need" oil for that. You can make plastics out of any source of carbon and hydrogen.

Oil is just convenient, because you need less energy to make the plastic than if you start with eg water and CO2.

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#532

Post by JoeAltmaier » Fri, May 22, 2020, 2:35 PM UTC

eru wrote: post #531

1over137 wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The future where the world doesn't need their oil We'll need oil for plastics even if we stop using it for transportation, and Saudi oil is just about the easiest/cheapest to extract, so we'll be using their oil for a long time, but it won't be as grotesquely profitable for them as in the past.

Yes. Though we don't really "need" oil for that. You can make plastics out of any source of carbon and hydrogen. Oil is just convenient, because you need less energy to make the plastic than if you start with eg water and CO2.

That the whole shooting match right there. "just convenient" is meaningless - we don't make anything unless the cost/benefit works out. If we didn't have oil, it'd be safe to say we'd never have adopted ubiquitous plastic at all.

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#533

Post by chinesempire » Sun, May 24, 2020, 3:40 PM UTC

ryanianian wrote: post #372

asjw wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much do you pay for pasta? 5,000$ of pasta would last me and my family until the end of my days. At ~1-1.2 euros for half a kilo it's around 90 years worth of pasta (based on an average of 28 kilos per person per year in Italy)

Shrimp scampi at the deli by me is like $16. Ordering for a family of 4 with just 2-3 meals a week would easily cost $5k+

shrimps are way more costly than pasta

And even eating shrimps 3 times a week, with 5,000$ of shrimps a family of 4 could eat shrimps for a year.

Re: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage

#534

Post by rhizome » Wed, May 27, 2020, 4:17 PM UTC

astura wrote: post #433

swiley wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$10 for a pizza actually sounds pretty cheap.

Depends. A small basic pizza is $8-$10 here. Domino's always has a deal where you can get 2 medium pizzas for $6/each. (used to be $5). But if you're buying larger, specialty pizzas without coupons/promotions then you're going to be paying more like $20/pizza. My pizzas are usually small and plain, so I'm closer to the $10 mark.

In the SF Bay Area a 14" pizza from Round Table or better is $20+. Trash pizza is still $5 each or whatever, yes, but where do those savings come from? How do they maintain the price when flour is in such short supply?