
I Staked Out My Local Domino’s to See Just How Accurate Its Pizza Tracker Is - aaronbrethorst
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/i-staked-out-my-local-dominos-to-see-just-how-accurate-its-pizza-tracker-is
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sfgweilr4f
None of the other comments on this article point out that he said he ran a red
light. He risked a _side impact collision_ event to _verify the status of a
pizza order_.

"7:25 p.m. — The Chase Continues

With his first order delivered, Salim 3 pulls out of the driveway and heads
left, so I pull out just behind him. He once again zips along, and I manage to
lose sight of him again — for almost 10 seconds this time. I finally catch up
with him at a stop light, and to catch back up, I’m forced to run a red light
and cut off oncoming traffic."

The world is a strange place.

~~~
thomasqm
it was clearly worth it

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pstuart
I get the part about managing expectations, but to go to the detail that they
do for each step of progress but not actually do _any_ of it feels rather
fraudulent and pathetic.

Just give a ping when it's en route and call it a day.

~~~
mikestew
Yeah? Catch the part about what inspired him? It’s one of the reasons I don’t
use TurboTax anymore. That doesn’t make it right, but it does lessen my shock
at finding Domino’s to be equally dishonest. And there’s just no reason to be
dishonest. Heard about this internet thing, Domino’s? _Someone_ is going to
test this and post about it. Let’s assume that pizza tracker gives sales a
bump (I know, big ask). How much good will is lost if, say, the WSJ gives a
column inch or two about that new feature is just window dressing?

~~~
Eikon
> How much good will is lost if, say, the WSJ gives a column inch or two about
> that new feature is just window dressing?

Nothing, that’s free advertising. Domino’s would likely receive order spikes
or at least see an increase in brand recognition.

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rahimnathwani
So the pizza tracker doesn't show actual progress, but moves along according
to expected progress. Sounds just like USPS:

[https://immortalephemera.com/8970/usps-delivery-
confirmation...](https://immortalephemera.com/8970/usps-delivery-confirmation-
and-missing-packages/)

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satori99
Domino's in Australia has recently rolled out an in-store camera based
monitoring system for pizza quality.

It doesn't make the images available to customers as of yet, but they claim it
will in the near future.

[https://dompizzachecker.dominos.com.au/](https://dompizzachecker.dominos.com.au/)

~~~
aaron695
> It doesn't make the images available to customers as of yet

You can see your pizza. Just use the normal web site.

It also uses "AI" to check the toppings are as they should be, with a software
update coming to the stores soon I think that also checks the base is correct.

The pizza looked great on the photo, but was shit when it arrived. Nothing was
faked or changed, just photos don't represent reality well.

But an updateable system that tracks every single pizza coming out of every
store.... Could do some interesting things..... No reason you couldn't pop the
camera higher up and watch the store either, humans cant be much different to
pizza toppings to 'AI'

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toyg
The author forgot one possibility: that the tracker does track, but is
triggered by someone at the back of the shop.

Imagine a situation where you have a device telling you that an order has been
placed and you have X minutes to complete the next step; you know it will only
take a minute to make that pizza, and you’d rather chill for most of the time,
no need to rush. So you wait until X minutes are almost over, then click
“sure, I’m totally preparing it” - and keep chilling. Next step threshold
comes up “yep, it’s all good boss”, and keep chilling. Then you actually make
it, but will keep pushing buttons only when the thresholds are close, as to
maximise your downtime without raising red flags (even if Delivery is reached
too early, it’s the most flexible step so Corporate won’t mind it too much in
reports).

~~~
cosmie
This. The pizza tracker came up a few months ago, and I added some details on
the triggers[1][2].

The feature is derived from pre-existing data within the system. And as
imperfect as it is, it's the state of the order as the internal POS views it.
The system is using the exact same data internally to do stuff like track
ideal labor needs and tell you when it's time to cut staff for the night,
recommend weekly schedules, etc. Which, depending on the franchisee, managers
have to justify every time they deviate from the system recommendations. So
the system having a flawed perception of the overall system state of orders is
as much a hassle internally as externally.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21251266](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21251266)

[2] The recent "text me when my driver is x minutes away" feature was not part
of the initial rollout, and I can't say if that's another passive feature
derived from existing data or involves some new form of active tracking.

