
Postmates Raises $80M in Push Toward $1 Deliveries - bavidar
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/06/25/postmates-raises-80-million-in-push-toward-1-deliveries/
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pbreit
The $1 is a bit misleading as it is apparently relying on tipping to make up
the difference. Which strikes me as kinda weak.

Getting something now is definitely better than getting it later which is
definitely better than getting it tomorrow and on and on. But there are not a
lot of things that I really need now or today. And I suspect most will be
unwilling to pay for speed very much.

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erdle
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 EXPENSIVE robots and cars replace
people, deliveries will always be expensive, and relatively dependent on the
speed of traffic + production. And even once we have robots, we'll need to
charge enough to cover the robots, the guy that repairs the robots and money
to invest in the next robot. That probably will be more than an dollar...
especially when you factor in energy for the robots.

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prawn
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
alerts) then go outside to grab it from an opening on the van before the
vehicle recognises a completed transaction and drives off. You could take a
delivery at a park, home, work, anywhere with a road nearby.

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mahyarm
TBH, I think drone deliveries are possible today technologically, unlike self
driving cars, and those can deliver to most porches.

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prawn
Drones will have trouble with overhead obstacles and packages above a certain
weight for a while, I think.

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nathancahill
Ha, just finished reading this about delivery startups:
[https://medium.com/@alexschiff/dear-food-delivery-startup-
dc...](https://medium.com/@alexschiff/dear-food-delivery-startup-dcb2f582e295)

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serve_yay
Hmm, I paid $5 for delivery. They had some $2 burrito special but they picked
the worst burrito place in my neighborhood and after the delivery charge and a
decent tip, it didn't seem like a particularly good deal. They did do a good
job of getting lots of napkins and sauces and utensils though.

I am not sure about this style of food delivery, it's weird and off putting to
me though I can't exactly say why.

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swozey
I use it (eat24 mostly) all the time. I love it. I usually eat dinner alone
and it's nice to just be able to order whatever I want while watching Netflix.
It's perfect for anxious people like myself.

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jbuzbee
One commenter on the article claims that prices are jacked up to hide the true
delivery cost. Wonder if that's the case?

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gergles
Postmates charges exactly what the retailer charged you plus 9% (it's a
transparent markup, not an opaque one like Instacart.)

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erdle
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"

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gergles
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.

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frankdenbow
In SF some of the stores (Whole Foods, BiRite, Smart & Final) all are listed
with "Prices are same as in store"

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nodesocket
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.

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7Figures2Commas
> Both times the food took over 1.5 hours to be delivered and was cold.

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.

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mw67
please elaborate on how being so late is a feature please? i don't get it

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telotortium
/s

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codezero
On mobile this is giving me an internal server error, is it just me? :(

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kentt
Same for me.

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rblatz
I've used Postmates a couple of times at work when I've been too busy to
actually go out to lunch. I can also see using them in a few other situations.
I've been very happy with the service, but I'm not sure the market is as big
as people are hoping.

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.

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jchicity
Kozmo.com anybody.....

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testingonprod
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.

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dang
This kind of dismissal makes for a bad HN comment. There's nothing substantive
here—just peevishness, and an implied desire to see others fail.

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testingonprod
You're absolutely right, I kinda just posted the first thing that popped in my
head.

I actually question their business model because I think something like Sprig
will be far more specialized to cut costs sustainably than something like a
Postmates will ever be able to.

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dang
We know that it's super easy to do and that there's usually no ill intent
behind it. The trouble is that it compounds, and then you get a dismissive
culture.

For future reference, the specific thought in your second sentence is the kind
of thing that makes for a substantive critique instead of a generic dismissal,
and if you added a bit more detail about why you think this—something for
people to consider and respond to—then you'd have a fine comment. We're
certainly not trying to eliminate critique.

