
Americans Love Ordering Pizza on Facebook - mcone
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-15/facebook-amazon-become-weapons-in-restaurant-ordering-arms-race
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throwaway2016a
Sorry for the tangent but...

About a year ago I started making my own pizza instead of ordering it in. Not
only do a save a lot of money but it is a higher quality product.

It takes about a half hour of prep so I only do it on weekends. I found a
quick crust recipe that doesn't require waiting for hours for the dough to
rise [1]. The ingredients are just bread flour, yeast, water, salt, olive oil,
and sugar.

The toppings and sauce are the most expensive parts. Though I'm sure if I made
the sauce from scratch I could shave a dollar but probably not worth the
effort.

Tip: buying a jar of yeast is MUCH cheaper than the pre-measured packets that
only make one pizza. Those are a rip off. A jar is almost the same price and
makes 15 pizzas instead of 1.

[1] [http://allrecipes.com/recipe/20171/quick-and-easy-pizza-
crus...](http://allrecipes.com/recipe/20171/quick-and-easy-pizza-crust/)

~~~
mbesto
> It takes about a half hour of prep so I only do it on weekends.

> Not only do a save a lot of money

So, it's not cheaper.

~~~
twothamendment
Outside of work there aren't many things I do that are "worth the money". Is
it worth the money to bake pizza? Not if you compare the cost of a chain pizza
vs what I make on average when I'm working.

I do so many things at home that are not "worth my time", but if I could trade
doing them for more hours sitting at my desk would I do it? No! I spend enough
time working. Some people enjoy cooking, gardening, yard work, etc. There are
days that pulling weeds is a nice break from sitting at a desk. I'd never want
to work every waking hour at my job so someone can cook, clean and take care
of my house for me. Some things I do - are they worth the money? Not a chance.
Worth my time? That all depends on how you'd rather spend your time.

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twothamendment
"The company began accepting orders on Facebook in June, and the feature was
an instant hit: Hundreds of orders flowed in during the first few hours. In
all forms, digital orders now make up over 60 percent of Papa John’s sales."

So what percent are from facebook? Online orders are 60%, but what percent are
from FB? I doubt there are that many.

My closest pizza place wasn't Papa John's, but I ordered online 100% of the
time - but I'd never do it through FB.

~~~
losteverything
Is it a national chain? Or does your local independent pizza joint have online

~~~
twothamendment
I've since moved, so I don't have any chains near me, but it was Domino's. I
never had a mistake and except for one time, it was always ready on time. I'd
go pick it up based on when they told me it would be done - just walk in and
walk out with pizza.

My local pizza place in the same area (better, pizza, but twice the price)
could lookup my last order by phone number - that saved time and mistakes. It
was nice, but would have been better if it tied into caller ID. Some employees
acted like it was a burden to have me tell them a phone # and hit the reorder
button - but it was so much faster and error free.

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tyingq
I'm somewhat surprised that national pizza chains in the US haven't done more
with their existing driver networks and delivery tech.

Edit: A little more detail...

For their current use of the networks, the apps aren't at all competitive with
Uber Eats, Doordash, etc. See [http://blog.pizzahut.com/featured/track-your-
pizza-with-our-...](http://blog.pizzahut.com/featured/track-your-pizza-with-
our-delivery-tracker/) , for example. It tracks only 3 states. The UI also
doesn't do a good job of highlighting state changes...the current state is
just a slightly larger circle, of the same color, and no "ping" when it
changes.

Then, it seems like they could leverage their networks to do something beyond
just delivering their own products. I get that there are potential issues with
that, but it's surprising that we've not seen at least some local trial run of
that.

~~~
Alupis
> For their current use of the networks, the apps aren't at all competitive
> with Uber Eats, Doordash, etc, for example. It tracks only 3 states. The UI
> also doesn't do a good job of highlighting state changes...the current state
> is just a slightly larger circle, of the same color, and no "ping" when it
> changes.

I guess I'm getting old or something, because I don't understand why you would
need anything more detailed than "order received", "order on it's way", and
maybe "order delivered" (although you should assumably be aware of this event
without an app or website informing you).

If you have the time to watch second-by-second updates of where your food
delivery is, why didn't you just go save the $5 delivery fee + tip and pick it
up yourself? When I order delivery, it's because I'm doing something that
needs my attention and I don't have time to cook or pickup...

~~~
tyingq
I did mention more beyond the 3 states. The missing ping is an issue, for
example..say you're in the backyard. And the subtle visual treatment of
"current state".

Also, the additional info has been occasionally useful to me. Like when a
driver gets obviously lost. Or _" Oh, the food is cold because this place is
just too far away from me for reasonable delivery"_

~~~
tluyben2
> Or "Oh, the food is cold because this place is just too far away from me for
> reasonable delivery"

I live in the mountains but GPS knows where I am; drivers (parcels/food/etc)
can choose upfront if 'this place is just too far away', not after they did
the drive.

~~~
tyingq
Uber eats has this problem. Many restaurants are too far away, but they will
deliver anyway. The food quality suffers.

With the map, I know why. So, for example, I don't short tip the driver.
Unfortunately, with Uber Eats, I don't see the problem until after I pay.

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losteverything
When looking into the decline of automats (Amazon's recent announcement is
automat like), one was the fact that vending machines did not have a bill
acceptors. Inflation meant more coins was a hassle...

Now, paying by human exchange is being trumped by the finger only

