7 ms·

> such as having food from a restaurant across the country sent to me via chilled overnight air mail for a friend's birthday as a big flashy surprise Maybe I'm

by Archio 11y ago

> such as having food from a restaurant across the country sent to me via chilled overnight air mail for a friend's birthday as a big flashy surprise Maybe I'm missing something here, but this is making me seriously think about what Magic's target market is. What kind of income would a person need to fathom affording something like that? I know people who I would consider "wealthy" on a first-world scale but this seems like a service suited for millionaires only (not that there is anything wrong with that, of course).

patio11 11y ago
What kind of income would a person need to fathom affording something like that? What kind of income do you need to spend $200 on a Valentine's dinner? Probably not $1k a month. It's a stretch at $2k but not impossible. It does not feel "absurdly not socially normative" at $3k -- I did it when I was a young twenty-something. To the extent that there is a real class-based difference here, it may be "degree of comfort with the notion that 'there is probably a way to spend money to achieve this without needing to do anything else.'" It's like, I don't know, a bureaucratic process which requires someone to go down to City Hall and stand in line for half a day. The middle class is capable of buying their way around that but it doesn't generally occur to them to try; the upper class don't even hear that that was a requirement because the very expensive person they use to handle legal issues already subcontracted it out.
- Archio 11y ago
  Yeah, but wouldn't it be a lot more than $200? We're talking Magic's $100, however much the meal cost, plus the cost chilled overnight mail would be insane.
  - mbrameld 11y ago
    They don't chill the whole logistics chain, they just put the food in an insulated box with some dry ice and send it with the rest of the overnight packages.
    - patio11 11y ago
      Yep -- see http://orderboxesnow.com/ http://orderboxesnow.com/ for FedEx's first-party options, which are the upper bound on expense (for the chilling, not the overnight delivery).
      - jcrites 11y ago
        Yes, this was the solution Magic used. This is what I appreciate about Magic, by the way. I simply asked for food from the restaurant, specifying that leftovers were fine. Chilled overnight didn't even occur to me; I did not have any idea at the time how they might accomplish it, and I was prepared to be told it was impossible (or insanely expensive). They figured out that chilled overnight delivery was possible, and got a local service to handle the logistics of picking it up from the restaurant, packing it into the box, and shipping it. It turned out rather nicely, and not nearly as expensive as I expected. It's not even really that much work and effort, when all is said and done.
- ceejayoz 11y ago
  > What kind of income do you need to spend $200 on a Valentine's dinner? Ordering dinner from across the country overnight isn't spending $200 on a Valentine's dinner, though, it's spending $200 on leftovers.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    It doesn't matter if the food is properly stored, and you aren't irrationally obsessed with freshness.
aidenn0 11y ago
I do somewhat extravagant things like this for my wife every anniversary divisible by 5 years; I've not used magic to do it, but most nice restaurants can make something like this happen if you call and ask. It ends up being something a few times more expensive as a night out at the restaurant, so it's not cheap, and you don't get the ambiance, but my wife is very attached to memories, so the touch of "somewhere we visited on a romantic trip" is quite nice, and more appreciated than e.g. jewelry that might be as or more expensive.
- foobarian 11y ago
  Can you share some specifics of what you did as inspiration to the rest of us would-be romantics? :-)
mbrameld 11y ago
You wouldn't need an extravagant income to do something like that. I just did a quick check and it costs less than $150 to overnight an 8lb package from NY to SF with 8am delivery. So the markup over just buying the meal at the restaurant is going to be less than $300 once you add refrigerated packaging and pay somebody to order it, pick it up, package it, and ship it. That's pricey if you're doing it every week, but for a special occasion that's not unimaginable for somebody even at the low end of middle class.
- njharman 11y ago
  I think most middle class people would think $300+ for a meal is wildly extravagant. And would think a $300 gift for "a friend" is on high end of gifts.
  - joslin01 11y ago
    As a middle class person struggling to get day by day -- yes, yes it is.
    - themartorana 11y ago
      Semantics, but if you're struggling, you're not middle class. At least not in the classical sense. It's a shame the downward pressures that have made "struggling to get by" the middle class norm. The whole point of the thriving middle class (in the US at least) was that, with a willingness to work, you could live comfortably, with a house and two cars and 2 kids. This isn't meant to be insulting or directed at you - it's just a new definition of middle class, that the struggle builds character or your struggling is an indicator of your value or lack of hard work, that I find almost infuriating. End rant, I suppose.
      - joslin01 11y ago
        Well we all have our struggles I suppose. I hear what you're saying though. I think money has lost a lot of its value.
    - 11y ago
JoshTriplett 11y ago
> What kind of income would a person need to fathom affording something like that? Depends heavily on how often they did it. A quick estimate suggests that a request like that would cost a few hundred dollars at most: the cost of the food itself, packing it in an insulated box with cold packs (some restaurants can do that themselves, and if not, a shipping service could most likely do that quite cheaply), and about $100 to ship a package weighing a few pounds overnight. Absolutely in the "luxury" category, but a few hundred dollars doesn't seem wildly outlandish for someone making an average tech salary to choose to spend on a meaningful birthday gift for a close friend. (I say "meaningful" because I'd tend to assume that the reason for the restaurant across the country would involve some kind of shared memory with the place, rather than just a wild whim.)
- ACow_Adonis 11y ago
  I have no idea what sort of food you're ordering from across the continent or what sort of business its coming from, but unless its "generic slop/carton-packed stir fry", I would know anything I pack into an overnight express delivery thing is going to arrive the next day looking like generic slop/carton-packed stir fry regardless of whatever it originally was. Hell, we were asked to take some pastries from our city roughly 700 kms home for family on Christmas, and although we carefully packed them, stored them with freezer-blocks in an insulated container, and carried them completely supervised on our lap in an aircraft cabin the entire way, they arrived worse for wear...but still kinda presentable and edible. If I hired this out to an overnight courier for $100, + $100 for magic, + $100 for food, i wouldn't be half surprised to find it had been forcefully jammed into my letter box or met with handling/turbulence during transportation...
- FireBeyond 11y ago
  "A few hundred at most"? What? UPS rate calculator for overnight cross country shipping of a 7lb package is $285, not "about $100". All this rounding down is the difference between "a few hundred" and likely "just shy of a thousand dollars". A few hundred in shipping, a couple of hundred for a meal that's not "cornershop Chinese", the time for the service. Etc.
tptacek 11y ago
Ordinary people do this all the time. People have Chicago pizzas shipped to LA, and Lockhart barbecue shipped to Boston. When you go to touristy "destination" dining spots, they almost invariably have signs saying they ship food. This being the case, all Magic is really doing here is helping you find out which restaurants will ship, and perhaps making some phone calls to arrange shipments that aren't advertised.

by Archio 11y ago

patio11 11y ago

What kind of income would a person need to fathom affording something like that? What kind of income do you need to spend $200 on a Valentine's dinner? Probably not $1k a month. It's a stretch at $2k but not impossible. It does not feel "absurdly not socially normative" at $3k -- I did it when I was a young twenty-something. To the extent that there is a real class-based difference here, it may be "degree of comfort with the notion that 'there is probably a way to spend money to achieve this without needing to do anything else.'" It's like, I don't know, a bureaucratic process which requires someone to go down to City Hall and stand in line for half a day. The middle class is capable of buying their way around that but it doesn't generally occur to them to try; the upper class don't even hear that that was a requirement because the very expensive person they use to handle legal issues already subcontracted it out.

Archio 11y ago
Yeah, but wouldn't it be a lot more than $200? We're talking Magic's $100, however much the meal cost, plus the cost chilled overnight mail would be insane.
- mbrameld 11y ago
  They don't chill the whole logistics chain, they just put the food in an insulated box with some dry ice and send it with the rest of the overnight packages.
  - patio11 11y ago
    Yep -- see http://orderboxesnow.com/ http://orderboxesnow.com/ for FedEx's first-party options, which are the upper bound on expense (for the chilling, not the overnight delivery).
    - jcrites 11y ago
      Yes, this was the solution Magic used. This is what I appreciate about Magic, by the way. I simply asked for food from the restaurant, specifying that leftovers were fine. Chilled overnight didn't even occur to me; I did not have any idea at the time how they might accomplish it, and I was prepared to be told it was impossible (or insanely expensive). They figured out that chilled overnight delivery was possible, and got a local service to handle the logistics of picking it up from the restaurant, packing it into the box, and shipping it. It turned out rather nicely, and not nearly as expensive as I expected. It's not even really that much work and effort, when all is said and done.
ceejayoz 11y ago
> What kind of income do you need to spend $200 on a Valentine's dinner? Ordering dinner from across the country overnight isn't spending $200 on a Valentine's dinner, though, it's spending $200 on leftovers.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  It doesn't matter if the food is properly stored, and you aren't irrationally obsessed with freshness.

aidenn0 11y ago

I do somewhat extravagant things like this for my wife every anniversary divisible by 5 years; I've not used magic to do it, but most nice restaurants can make something like this happen if you call and ask. It ends up being something a few times more expensive as a night out at the restaurant, so it's not cheap, and you don't get the ambiance, but my wife is very attached to memories, so the touch of "somewhere we visited on a romantic trip" is quite nice, and more appreciated than e.g. jewelry that might be as or more expensive.

foobarian 11y ago
Can you share some specifics of what you did as inspiration to the rest of us would-be romantics? :-)

mbrameld 11y ago

You wouldn't need an extravagant income to do something like that. I just did a quick check and it costs less than $150 to overnight an 8lb package from NY to SF with 8am delivery. So the markup over just buying the meal at the restaurant is going to be less than $300 once you add refrigerated packaging and pay somebody to order it, pick it up, package it, and ship it. That's pricey if you're doing it every week, but for a special occasion that's not unimaginable for somebody even at the low end of middle class.

njharman 11y ago
I think most middle class people would think $300+ for a meal is wildly extravagant. And would think a $300 gift for "a friend" is on high end of gifts.
- joslin01 11y ago
  As a middle class person struggling to get day by day -- yes, yes it is.
  - themartorana 11y ago
    Semantics, but if you're struggling, you're not middle class. At least not in the classical sense. It's a shame the downward pressures that have made "struggling to get by" the middle class norm. The whole point of the thriving middle class (in the US at least) was that, with a willingness to work, you could live comfortably, with a house and two cars and 2 kids. This isn't meant to be insulting or directed at you - it's just a new definition of middle class, that the struggle builds character or your struggling is an indicator of your value or lack of hard work, that I find almost infuriating. End rant, I suppose.
    - joslin01 11y ago
      Well we all have our struggles I suppose. I hear what you're saying though. I think money has lost a lot of its value.
  - 11y ago

JoshTriplett 11y ago

> What kind of income would a person need to fathom affording something like that? Depends heavily on how often they did it. A quick estimate suggests that a request like that would cost a few hundred dollars at most: the cost of the food itself, packing it in an insulated box with cold packs (some restaurants can do that themselves, and if not, a shipping service could most likely do that quite cheaply), and about $100 to ship a package weighing a few pounds overnight. Absolutely in the "luxury" category, but a few hundred dollars doesn't seem wildly outlandish for someone making an average tech salary to choose to spend on a meaningful birthday gift for a close friend. (I say "meaningful" because I'd tend to assume that the reason for the restaurant across the country would involve some kind of shared memory with the place, rather than just a wild whim.)

ACow_Adonis 11y ago
I have no idea what sort of food you're ordering from across the continent or what sort of business its coming from, but unless its "generic slop/carton-packed stir fry", I would know anything I pack into an overnight express delivery thing is going to arrive the next day looking like generic slop/carton-packed stir fry regardless of whatever it originally was. Hell, we were asked to take some pastries from our city roughly 700 kms home for family on Christmas, and although we carefully packed them, stored them with freezer-blocks in an insulated container, and carried them completely supervised on our lap in an aircraft cabin the entire way, they arrived worse for wear...but still kinda presentable and edible. If I hired this out to an overnight courier for $100, + $100 for magic, + $100 for food, i wouldn't be half surprised to find it had been forcefully jammed into my letter box or met with handling/turbulence during transportation...
FireBeyond 11y ago
"A few hundred at most"? What? UPS rate calculator for overnight cross country shipping of a 7lb package is $285, not "about $100". All this rounding down is the difference between "a few hundred" and likely "just shy of a thousand dollars". A few hundred in shipping, a couple of hundred for a meal that's not "cornershop Chinese", the time for the service. Etc.

tptacek 11y ago

Ordinary people do this all the time. People have Chicago pizzas shipped to LA, and Lockhart barbecue shipped to Boston. When you go to touristy "destination" dining spots, they almost invariably have signs saying they ship food. This being the case, all Magic is really doing here is helping you find out which restaurants will ship, and perhaps making some phone calls to arrange shipments that aren't advertised.