> The economics are that when you insert a multinational between a local restaurant and a local hungry person, revenue to the restaurant drops, prices paid by the customer rise, and service gets worse.
Exactly, when the Softbank or VC money runs out for Doordash and the like it will be total mutiny, I doubt most if any drivers, outside of the Top dasher that accepts any orders, will continue to do so when the pay rates are reflecting the true costs of all externatalities are included in the total calculus. Several drivers see their 0% acceptance rate as a badge of honor, as its their only real avenue for opposition against the low delivery pay orders.
I was interested in the logistic sides of food delivery systems, especially during the shutdown, so I started to spend an hour a day of research on DD on their subreddits, and over time that led to even doing a few dashes myself during this period... and suffice it to say, everything from their app, to customer/dasher support, to the pay model are not sustainable so long as Humans are involved in the equation.
I've spoken to local restaurant owners and cooks during the shutdown in person, having experience in the Industry, and most were reluctantly using it as crutch in difficult times but it was cutting into their over all margins, which already suck.
Now with things starting to re-open in many states I hope they start to de-couple it to be less than the 10% of their total sales for their sake.
I wonder what would happen if I signed up for Doordash as a driver, picked up as many orders as I could in one evening, and just donated the food to the poor and needy? How long until I'm booted and banned as a driver?
Disclaimer: I'm not advocating this and I'm in no way condoning such behaviour with the following.
From what I saw when they did updates, usually on Friday evenings during the dinner rush no less, the system would crash and result in any and all current orders being essentially undeliverable as the app crashed and often you couldn't log in or out of the system nation-wide for 30 mins to hours later.
Furthermore, as I was monitoring this alongside the mass unemployment numbers rising due to the pandemic I saw the influx of new users that followed: so, I noticed that many hapless, and panicked users would be unable to fulfill an order because of random situations. I started to feel really bad for them, too as most were just trying to be as honest possible.
So, while I don't suggest doing that, see disclaimer above; I think if you signed up you would eventually have an order eventually 'slip through the cracks' through not fault of your own. Customer support was based overseas, and were limited and then inundated with requests so realistically nothing was done to prevent anyone giving the order away.
What you have to also keep in mind is that these partnerships are often with franchisees' or privately owned restaurants who ultimately take the hit when food is not delivered and a refund is issued. Which is why you see vigilante like behaviour be lauded by Doordashers when they see pizza being arbitraged, and them saying 'F-Doordash.'
So, in short, if you did it long enough you wouldn't need to steal anything and your opportunity would happen anyway through not fault of your own.
I highly suggest people read the r/doordash sub-reddit, its anecdotal but also direct feedback from a wide breadth of drivers, some positive, some neutral and a lot negative ones about the absurd algorithm based compensation model: the recurring $3 for +15 mile delivery kind of deal.
So, as person who spent a lot of time in the Culinary Industry, just do the right thing and buy any food you want to donate. Playing Robinhood within this context just nets a situation in which almost nobody ever wins.
There was a user here on HN who was trying to launch his own food delivery app; I wish he'd update and see if he had any updates on his progress and if he took significant Market Share from these big players.
I'm highly sceptical about his prospects, mostly because of the upfront cost of being moral.(you'd have to pay $15/hr to a driver in NYC)
Unless he decided to go immoral and shaft the delivery people.(Having seen how much abuse undocumented waiters and delivery people suffer from the restaurants)
Exactly, when the Softbank or VC money runs out for Doordash and the like it will be total mutiny, I doubt most if any drivers, outside of the Top dasher that accepts any orders, will continue to do so when the pay rates are reflecting the true costs of all externatalities are included in the total calculus. Several drivers see their 0% acceptance rate as a badge of honor, as its their only real avenue for opposition against the low delivery pay orders.
I was interested in the logistic sides of food delivery systems, especially during the shutdown, so I started to spend an hour a day of research on DD on their subreddits, and over time that led to even doing a few dashes myself during this period... and suffice it to say, everything from their app, to customer/dasher support, to the pay model are not sustainable so long as Humans are involved in the equation.
I've spoken to local restaurant owners and cooks during the shutdown in person, having experience in the Industry, and most were reluctantly using it as crutch in difficult times but it was cutting into their over all margins, which already suck.
Now with things starting to re-open in many states I hope they start to de-couple it to be less than the 10% of their total sales for their sake.