
Show HN: Nonprofit Open-Source Food Delivery and Local Shopping Platform - sumeetk
https://nearbyshops.org
======
Carpetsmoker
So it's just an Android app and not a website?

One of my great frustrations with current platforms is that they're just apps.
The UX is terrible: I'm stuck on a tiny screen, I can't search (control+f) and
have to scroll through endless lists, I can't copy text (e.g. Google
translate), etc.

Even though delivery is ridiculously cheap where I currently live (Indonesia),
I find I use it a lot less than back home in Europe where Deliveroo etc. have
a website. Often times just picking it up myself is faster than dealing with
the crummy apps.

~~~
Jommi
You're really in a minority here. Those webapps are barely used.

It's quite largely just an opinion: to me the if is perfect and super easy to
use.

~~~
Carpetsmoker
It's hard to find good numbers on this, but one study[1] fond that well over a
third uses the website (website + mobile website) and only about 20% used an
app. Surprisingly, phone was still the most popular way to order. Granted,
this is from 2016 and looks at _all_ food orders, but it shows there's a lot
more going on outside the tech bubble.

I don't know how many people are using the web app, but you're going to have
to do a hell of a lot better to casually dismiss my user experience report.
Even just 15% or 20% increase would probably be a good ROI, as a basic webapp
is not very time-consuming to write and maintain if you already have an API
for the native apps (it's fine to rely on the mobile app for account
management etc.)

As for the UX, if you just use the "offers for you" then it's okay, but once
you want something specific (that is, you're actually shopping for something)
things tend to get harder. I don't think it's controversial to say that a 22"
screen works a lot better here than a tiny 5" screen.

One paper found that desktop has 111% more sales than mobile[2]. That's a
whopping difference! Two explanations for this:

1\. Desktop UX is better, so customers find what they need and buy it, whereas
they can't find it on mobile.

2\. Mobile devices tend to be used quite a lot as "time killers": something
you do when you're waiting for something else. So at least _some_ of that "40%
mobile traffic" is just time-killing browsing.

Either way, reports of the desktop's death have been greatly exaggerated.

[1]: [https://www.businessofapps.com/data/deliveroo-
statistics/](https://www.businessofapps.com/data/deliveroo-statistics/)

[2]: [https://www.nngroup.com/articles/m-commerce-terrible-
ux/](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/m-commerce-terrible-ux/)

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badrabbit
Love the idea,but how do you handle support,customer-shopper
arbitration(either side claiming the delivery did or did not happen for
example),really bad customers/shoppers (basically quality) without central
management?

Another solution would be to have a separate pickup location where shoppers
drop it off at that location and customers would pick it up at a different
date. This helps people that want the convenience but also it helps eliminate
"food deserts". If say whole foods is 10miles away,the grocery is delivered 5
milea away, that means people that consider 10 miles too far can now pick it
up at a closer location. I think this whole idea has potential at a larger
scale, I would love to order stuff from amazon or ebay and have it delivered
at someone else's house where I can pick it up later -- one more layer of
privacy if I use gift cards and the like to shop they will never need to know
my name,phone and address directly. Storage providers can charge by the
hour/minute.

~~~
sumeetk
We are considering forming cooperative's of local vendors who will do all the
management.

There will be multiple local market instance each managed by a separate
cooperative.

There is no central management ... its a distributed platform !

~~~
badrabbit
What is the best way to contact your team? I know local people that were doing
"instacart" before it was a thing at a small local scale who might be
interested.

~~~
sumeetk
Sure ! ... we will be glad to hear from you ... You can contact us at our
forum [https://forum.nearbyshops.org/](https://forum.nearbyshops.org/)

Create a new thread we will reply to you !

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ClumsyPilot
Hello, looks like a cool project.

I had a quick read and here is what I picked out:

* I can stand up my own server ( Java REST API + PostgreSQL)

* I then need to update each app to my server URL

* Application source is released under MIT [https://github.com/NearbyShops/Nearby-Shops-End-User-Android...](https://github.com/NearbyShops/Nearby-Shops-End-User-Android-app)

* I require a license to modify them [https://nearbyshops.co/pricing.html](https://nearbyshops.co/pricing.html) * I don't think that's compatible with MIT license?

I think this will result in like 20 different apps.. Maybe a better approach
would be something along the lines:

* You host a 'cerntal' api, and my instance must register with it. You can handle billing / fees you want to charge me there.

* It will inform the mobile app to connect to my backend when in the area served.

~~~
e12e
Eh, yeah that's... Odd:

> What will happen if i dont pay license fee ?

> In such case your use of software for commercial purpose is both unethical
> and illegal. You wont be receiving any official support in such case. We
> wont be helping you.

No support is fine - but the source is distributed as MIT... I'm guessing the
_intent_ here might be that you're free to change and distribute if you host
your own back-end service for the api?

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mantlepro
Would there be a desktop or browser version of the software in the works? It'd
be nice to see first-class support for free/libre operating systems so admins,
shop owners, and customers alike wouldn't be forced to use walled-garden smart
phone ecosystems.

~~~
sumeetk
That a good point ... we will surely be providing a web app in future ...

We just are waiting for raising some funds !

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sandGorgon
This is a great initiative.

My suggestion is not have an app at all. Make it a PWA/TWA. It will work on
both android/iOS, notifications will work properly and your development effort
will significantly go down.

You can cut this even further by using one of the templates from here -
[https://themeforest.net/tags/pwa](https://themeforest.net/tags/pwa)

~~~
nsomaru
iOS does not support web push notifications

~~~
sandGorgon
fair enough (and my mistake). but i dont think that this project has an ios
app at all

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keerthiko
This is really great, and I hope it gains traction -- it's nice to see things
that can supplant the funded-walled-garden-startup incumbents for these such
cases with services that embody the original vision of the WWW

~~~
sumeetk
yes that was the original intent ... we want the platform to be open and
welcoming to everyone !

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kovek
This is awesome!! I recognize the importance of this being decentralized. I
used to think this would be done on the blockchain, but maybe this will do...
even better!

~~~
kovek
If people could mod the instance, you'd soon see people create their own "taxi
service" instance. They'd have the server running on their smartphone and
local users could find them and ask for a quote/estimate (calculated
automatically or by the parked driver) to go to a certain destination.

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wenc
Great concept -- open-source decentralized marketplace.

I believe the founders are from India, and buying vegetables/fruits from
independent local vendors/farmers (vs a big box grocery store like in many
western countries) on a daily basis is a norm, so this seems to be a natural
extension.

Would be really interested to see how this goes -- if this problem can be
tackled, even in narrow cases, it would serve as an interesting model for many
other marketplace ideas.

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sumeetk
Hello Friends,

If you like this Project Please share this project on Twitter, Facebook and
Reddit !

Please Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Lets discuss and work
together ! Links are given on website !

We are Looking for Volunteers who can help this project ... Please Join Us and
Help this project !

Best Regards ! Sumeet Moray Founder - Nearby Shops Project

~~~
santa_boy
Will do ... Great work Sumeet!

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sumeetk
Hello Everyone,

Thanks for showing such a great support ! Let us address some of your
questions here !

You dont need to have any coding knowledge to use the platform. Anyone can
install Local Market Instance and Setup their market. Its similar to Mastodon
Project
[https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon)

All the local markets are accessible from your end-user app. So you dont need
to publish any separate app.

We are anticipating that Vendor Cooperatives will help us manage the local
markets.

When the project gains traction. We will be releasing the PWA and IOS app
also. So dont worry about that at all !

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bruceb
Looks like your team put in a lot of effort so I applaud that. So to be a tad
negative now.. I don't know who this is aimed at or what the specific value
is. The first thing that shown is it is decentralized, which is nice, but that
isn't the core value.

The core value is this will help a shop owner and shoppers. What it actually
does and why its worth investing time to set up should be the FIRST thing you
see. Even reading more I don't exactly know how it works.

------
frequentnapper
it doesn't tell us in about us who the people behind it are.

~~~
geektips
A quick googling resulted in this:
[https://www.zaubacorp.com/company/BLUETREE-SOFTWARE-
LLP/AAL-...](https://www.zaubacorp.com/company/BLUETREE-SOFTWARE-LLP/AAL-5477)

------
yosefzeev
The concept of this looks neat, although I am not sure I understand all the
use cases yet.

~~~
sumeetk
It is a nonprofit version of regular food delivery or grocery delivery ... app
!

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cvburgess
I've been planning on building something like this for a while. I hope it
succeeds and they document the journey.

~~~
sumeetk
Thank you ... We need volunteers ... You can help us through the Journey !

[https://forum.nearbyshops.org/](https://forum.nearbyshops.org/)

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zerop
How will local vendor update inventory and item details on platform?

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samdung
How does the "decentralization" part actually work?

~~~
sumeetk
Nice Question ! ... Anyone can self-host their Local Market Instance ... and
create a local market ... a local market is a collection of many shops ...

A customer can access all the local markets in his area from a single mobile
app.

He can buy from any market ... and login using just one account !

