61 ms·

Amazon Restaurants

336 points by chrisan 10y ago

rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
A few years ago when I began to use Grubhub more exclusively to order food, I realized that I was effectively being shut out from other establishments that weren't on Grubhub, simply because I hadn't checked to look at what was nearby, and because the options on Grubhub were usually good enough on their own. It was "post-Google," in a way. I imagine this effect would be even more pronounced with "the everything store" encompassing an ever-larger portion of total commerce.
- tootie 10y ago
  I usually go to menupages if I'm hunting. Since they merged with seamless it's one-click to do an online order, or I'll just call. I'm a pretty dedicated Amazon user, but I'm not sure what this service actually offers beyond that or even to match it.
- gdulli 10y ago
  I used to believe Foodler was the category killer. Then I found a restaurant I like a lot has lower prices on a more obscure site, MixMenu. Definitely shop around.
- burntwater 10y ago
  I intentionally shut out a restaurant that didn't have online ordering. I like their food, one sandwich in particular was a favorite, but they had a nearby competitor I liked just as much that DID have online ordering. I'm hard-of-hearing, so online ordering is a godsend compared to the old days of calling up a fast speaking, often accented person with terrible background noise. So if the choice is between calling one restaurant, or ordering online from a different restaurant, I will always pick the online ordering. The restaurant without online ordering eventually closed, despite the fact the neighborhood has really boomed, and I'm sure no small part of it is because of their refusal to do online ordering.
SallySwanSmith 10y ago
Amazon restaurants is hardly new. My first order was over a year ago. Is there something else new that I'm missing?
- chrisan 10y ago
  Sorry, I had never heard of it before. From the news[1] I saw it was new in a city dear to me. Mods can delete the post, my bad! [1]: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2016/12/15/amazon-starts-free-restaurant-food-delivery-for-prime-members-in-central-ohio.html http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2016/12/15/...
  - jsheard 10y ago
    Your post is currently #2 on the front page... apparently a lot of people had no idea this existed. Amazons marketing people have some explaining to do :)
    - dawnerd 10y ago
      They REALLY do a bad job pushing prime now. People in my building had no idea they could have amazon products delivered in an hour and at no extra charge besides an (optional) tip. They use the same drivers to deliver some packages from the site as well.
    - JorgeGT 10y ago
      I guess many people outside the US, like me, are discovering this. Which is understandable, given they have no reason to market this to me.
    - chrisdbaldwin 10y ago
      Their marketing people are doing fine. This service isn't available everywhere, and when it was made available in my city, my local network quickly learned about it and started using it.
  - throw7 10y ago
    I had heard of prime now awhile ago, but didn't realize they delivered for restaurants. I'm in a non-metro area though, so this service will probably never be available for me.
kldavenport 10y ago
So far it looks to have a better web and mobile interface than postmates and grubhub.
- dawnerd 10y ago
  They also don't charge a ton in "service fees" and have inflated menu prices. Nothing but good experiences with Amazon delivering food (except this one time where the driver had never seen an apartment building before...)
untog 10y ago
Interesting - it appears that Amazon handles the delivery part, theoretically freeing restaurants up from having to worry about that side of the business. Makes sense, though I wonder what % of costs delivery drivers really are (and, of course, what % Amazon is charging) Either way, Seamless/Grubhub have turned to utter garbage since their merger. I'm happily using Delivery, but much like Uber/Lyft, these are commodity businesses that I can switch between at zero cost to myself. So I'll give Amazon a try too.
- thoughtpalette 10y ago
  Cavier and DoorDash have been way superior to Grubhub in Chicago lately. Better selections, faster delivery (anecdotal). I've also had Amazon deliver when they were beta testing with $10 off, definitely worth it. There's also Sprig, Fooda and some other food delivery services I've left out.
- deleted 10y ago
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kt9 10y ago
When I first saw amazon restaurants (almost a year ago) I thought... meh! Why would I use this... order via phone and then wait an hour. I could order by phone call and go pick it up faster. Turns out now we use it so much and I've found that the value is that I can order by phone when I leave work and by the time I get home the food will be arriving at my door. The real value to me is that I can order dinner! They've had a few hiccups in the early days but now its pretty solid!
- koolba 10y ago
  > Turns out now we use it so much and I've found that the value is that I can order by phone when I leave work and by the time I get home the food will be arriving at my door. Does "order by phone" mean mobile app or calling in an order? I would guess app but with Alexa and the other speech recognition tech they have, voice orders doesn't sound that far off either.
  - kt9 10y ago
    Order by phone with amazon restaurants means using the amazon prime now app or the amazon app.
dajohnson89 10y ago
Why does Northern Virginia get coverage, but not D.C.? I don't really understand the logic there.
- blakes 10y ago
  I assume it isn't a logic issue, more likely a logistical issue.
  - dajohnson89 10y ago
    Clever turn of phrase. My question stands -- what are the logistical reasons for serving a suburban area but not its urban counterpart? All of the other areas being served by AR are urban cores. Mind you, northern VA is not the only suburb of DC. I should add that Amazon did this with Amazon locker as well. Northern VA got coverage well before DC. My suspicion is some kind of incentive that VA is providing to Amazon, the same one that attracted Amazon to build its huge us-east data center in VA. I was going to suggest that No VA is more affluent than DC, but in that case they shouldn't be in Baltimore.
ryaneager 10y ago
I received a free $20 to Amazon Restaurants for buying something on cyber Wednesday, didn't know that was a thing until I received the email. I used it to order pizza from a local joint, because who doesn't like free pizza. Ordering was interesting, they didn't have the pizza I wanted listed under the pre-made options, so I had to make my own, but there was no option to do half and half and adding additional topping had a confusing interface. The menus do not seem to be optimized for each restaurant the way Doordash is, and you must click on an item to see the price. Also the food wasn't kept in a thermal bag, like pizza delivery does, so it wasn't piping hot when I received it and the delivery members don't have distinct shirts. I probably won't use it ever again since I prefer Doordash, and one of my friends brother in laws is a cofounder/CTO so I feel a false tie to it.
- roflchoppa 10y ago
  Ya, but at the same time, you have somewhat of an obligation to help the homies
- analogmemory 10y ago
  Good tip on the pizza. I'll just stick to things that deliver well, Indian, Thai and Sandwiches.
- khazhou 10y ago
  None of my friends' brother-in-laws are cofounders at Doordash, so I'm less attached :-) But this is a great example of the lack of customer lock-in. Even the slightest improvement over Doordash, and I'd easily switch to Amazon or just bounce between the two. There's a thai restaurant just a bit out of Doordash range -- that would do it. Pictures on the menus -- that would do it. A "re-order" button -- that would do it. I like DD, but all I think of it is: "I order food and it gets here."
  - dvdhsu 10y ago
    Right -- I think this is a problem for many recent startups like Doordash, Postmates, and even Uber. Their pitch to investors that this was a land grab -- whoever conquers the two-sided marketplace first dominates it and extracts profits later on. And so they need mountains of money to build up both sides of the marketplace. But it turns out that there's no switching cost on either side of the marketplace: you or I happily switch between both depending on which drivers are closer, and an Uber driver can just open their Lyft app if Uber is slowing down. You'd happily switch from Doordash if Caviar had better photos, and a restaurant can delivery via both Doordash and Caviar. I think Uber might be able to get out of this by saying "growth / users -> investment -> self driving cars", but I'm not sure what Doordash or Postmates plans to do about it.
oldbuzzard 10y ago
Meh. I have prime and keep getting $10 off coupons but here in Minneapolis I don't see anywhere I want to order from. Bitesquad has places that I order from every now and then. If Amazon had a decent network they might entice me in to becoming a restaurants customer... but as it is, it is like the crappy prime video selection.
tomc1985 10y ago
Oh look, Amazon chases another venture like a dog that smells food. So stupid how everyone's always trying to take over the world...
- boardmad 10y ago
  You guys have no clue...pizzas turning up piping hot, food within 10mins. Here in the UK we have Justeat and bloody Uber psycho moped riders. I regularly visit and order in my local indian restaurant and hear online bookings coming in on the phone with between an hour and 90mins delivery time. Talk about #firstworldproblems
koolba 10y ago
So how much longer till they combine this with drone delivery? The thrill of having a pizza arrive by drone could justify a hefty premium for a kids birthday party.
- ne0n 10y ago
  Realistically, pizzas are a pretty poorly shaped thing for a drone to carry since it would block all of the propellers and it would definitely be way more effort to keep warm. Self driving cars are probably perfect for this, though. In California, self driving cars are classified as neighborhood vehicles which can't go over 25 which is probably fine for restaurant delivery.
  - koolba 10y ago
    Land vehicles do have a size advantage that can be used for en route baking: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-24/inside-silicon-valley-s-robot-pizzeria https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-24/inside-si... I would really like to see the air delivery though. Maybe a calzone or stromboli would be more viable.
    - Pfhreak 10y ago
      I believe the concept has been tested with burritos: http://www.darwinaerospace.com/burritobomber http://www.darwinaerospace.com/burritobomber
      - koolba 10y ago
        What a wonderful future we live in!
  - buzzybee 10y ago
    "Cooler" scale ground drones seem like the thing being done for pizza now. See starship.xyz and Domino's DRU for examples that are already entering service. Potentially very effective stuff that can beat the flying and car-sized stuff just by being simpler to engineer and faster to market, with minimal regulatory issue.
lux 10y ago
Interesting that I'm seeing this for the first time on the same day that local food delivery company SkipTheDishes was sold to Just Eat for $110M (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/skip-the-dishes-sold-1.3897958 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/skip-the-dishes-sold...). Skip is very popular here in Winnipeg since this is where they're headquartered, but always seemed like the underdog in the overall market. Wondering what will become of Skip, and how Just Eat and the others will keep duking it out from here now that Amazon is in the ring too.
- chaosmachine 10y ago
  Skip was so much better than Just Eat, too. Skip has Uber-style live GPS tracking, Just Eat seemed to be stuck in the dark ages.
  - GordonS 10y ago
    Do you mean GPS tracking of your takeaway delivery? I've never understood why someone would want to be glued to their phone/tablet watching every move their pizza makes. Seriously, just why would you possibly care what street it's currently on?
    - nitrogen 10y ago
      It seems like a violation of the privacy of other customers, too. Everywhere your food stops you can surmise there was another delivery.
      - LiquidFlux 10y ago
        DPD in the UK offer this functionality, it offers an ETA and the GPS location of the driver. This is particularly useful for me as I then know when to listen out for the door, and I've confidence in the ETA knowing they're just a street away from me.
      - dx034 10y ago
        At least Uber Eats only seems to show it when you're up next. The driver often starts appearing not at the restaurant but somewhere else. In cities this shouldn't be easy to track anyway. And then you could also jsut follow the Uber bike. Don't think that the fact that someone ordered food is private (what they ordered might be).
giacomolaw 10y ago
This is awesome! Interesting to see Amazon is really branching out with drones and all that.
gthtjtkt 10y ago
This is kind of terrifying after hearing so many life-ruining stories about the rash decisions Amazon makes when dealing with 3rd party sellers ([1] from last week, for example). Everyone always says "Don't stake your livelihood on platforms you don't control" (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but what happens when one of those platforms suddenly forces its way into your business? How can a restaurant owner turn them down when all the short-sighted owners nearby are happily signing up? I'm imagining a day in the future where a restaurant goes broke because Amazon had become a significant portion of their orders, but they suddenly got kicked off the service after X number of complaints (happens to FBA sellers all the time). By the time other restaurant owners realize how easily Amazon can destroy their livelihood, they might be too dependent to voluntarily leave. And then all the smug commenters from the last thread will be grateful for another opportunity to say "Well the restaurants should've known better than to sign up in the first place!" [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/amazon/comments/5gvgdl/using_a_amazon_kindle_fire_destroyed_my/ https://www.reddit.com/r/amazon/comments/5gvgdl/using_a_amaz...
- hkmurakami 10y ago
  This reminds me of the predicament that young'ish hardware component supplier companies get into. They win a huge contract with a prominent customer, but then that one customer represents 60%+ of their revenues (ex: winning a Cisco, Nintendo, or Apple contract). I've worked at a few such companies, and they all work extra hard trying to diversify their revenue sources, for both customers and industry. If it's a startup, then such revenue dependence can mean the difference between being able to go IPO or not. For the situation you describe for restaurants, they'd have to be vigilant about catering to multiple platform providers, and not neglecting their in-person customers (I've definitely seen a restaurant cater more to delivery rather than sit down, and slowly deteriorating in reputation among customers as order times became longer). It's just like managing an AAPL supplier contract. Some will thrive, and others will suffer, like the sapphire supplier in Arizona.
  - danudey 10y ago
    The sapphire supplier is GTAT, and they were actually a sapphire glass manufacturing equipment manufacturer that Apple contracted to manufacture sapphire displays (a completely new business for them), then un-contracted afterwards, dropping their market cap from $1.5bn to $175m and shuttering three plants (whose workers Apple pledged to find new jobs for). http://www.businessinsider.com/gt-advanced-files-for-bankruptcy-oct-6-2014-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/gt-advanced-files-for-bankrup...
cavisne 10y ago
One differentiation with amazon restaurants is at least in my market they don't mark up food prices (like door dash and kindof postmates) and they don't charge for delivery. Uber eats is the best of these I've found, but it's a pain meeting at the curb. Amazon restaurants has by far the worst drivers though, I think compounded by tipping before they deliver, and no ratings system
- TulliusCicero 10y ago
  > One differentiation with amazon restaurants is at least in my market they don't mark up food prices (like door dash and kindof postmates) and they don't charge for delivery. That can't possibly be sustainable over the long run.
  - zdean 10y ago
    I'm sure they still get a cut of the price from the restaurant. No delivery and no markup just means the restaurant keeps less of the revenue to themselves.
- deleted 10y ago
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- alphast0rm 10y ago
  > Uber eats is the best of these I've found, but it's a pain meeting at the curb. This is an option, you should be able to select whether you want to meet your courier at the curb for faster food or wait for them to find parking and come to your door.
- cgriswald 10y ago
  > Amazon restaurants has by far the worst drivers though, I think compounded by tipping before they deliver, and no ratings system A friend of mine is a Dasher. You do tip before they arrive, and they have no idea how they've been tipped--they just get whatever the total of all the tips of their shift are... I've never been so disincentivized to tip. The rating system also sucks because the app will force you to rate your last experience if you haven't the next time you try to order. Lots of five stars from me because, when I'm trying to get my dinner to my house ASAP, I can't be bothered to give an accurate and fair rating.
celticninja 10y ago
This must be worrying for JustEat who just purchased HungryHouse. Amazon getting in on your business is never great.
- wwalser 10y ago
  Interesting when companies have different names in different countries. It's called Delivery Hero in Australia. I suspect it's a UK based company which eventually got large enough to buy a similar AU based company and just kept the name in order to maintain an already established brand. Unilever has like 8 different ice cream brands in different countries all sharing the same logo and mostly selling the same products.
  - celticninja 10y ago
    I think Just Eat came first in the UK and was actually pitched on Dragons Den and they have subsequently bought other similar ventures, retained the brand identity of their acquisitions and I assume centralised everything else, I didn't know thet had branched out internationally.
- deleted 10y ago
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- deleted 10y ago
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wwalser 10y ago
I like DoorDash and I hoped that they would end up winning in this space but it seems unlikely when their two competitors have other things that the supply side (delivery people) can do if food deliveries aren't needed. Amazon is likely re-using prime instant delivery and Uber is transparently using their drivers to deliver food. It's kind of like competing with Amazon or Google for cloud infrastructure. Very few companies need all of those machines or that tech, they have no use for it other than renting to people. Amazon and Google on the other hand already needed that tech. They are essentially renting their own excess.
rajathagasthya 10y ago
They advertise Bay Area as one of the regions they deliver, yet it's not available in the South Bay. I wonder what's the logistics overhead to make it available elsewhere in the Bay Area where you already have a Prime Now delivery network.
- Diederich 10y ago
  Seems to be available in Mountain View.
  - rajathagasthya 10y ago
    Not available in San Jose or Santa Clara area though.
- cgriswald 10y ago
  They don't deliver to me and I'm in the middle of the peninsula. Amazon Fresh and Prime Now don't deliver here either.
- bradleyjg 10y ago
  I was happy to see the listing says "Manhattan and Brooklyn" rather than NYC. I hate when a site says NYC and it isn't.
mournit 10y ago
So Amazon now has 5 services to order food from: Prime Now, Prime Pantry, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Restaurants, and regular Amazon. Did I miss anything? I can't say I'm having an easy time keeping track of which service to use for what.
- Pfhreak 10y ago
  From the url and header images, this looks like a feature of PrimeNow to me...
- codecamper 10y ago
  My general rule of thumb is to use Prime Now for jelly bellys, Amazon Fresh for salads, Restaurants for vindaloo, or regular Amazon for bizzare chinese candies shipped direct. Also I'm enjoying Amazon dark web for crack.
- burger_moon 10y ago
  Amazon Go (still in beta) for those who want to get the food personally.
- user5994461 10y ago
  Then we can assume that there were 5 independent projects run internally, with little coordination between them.
- dominotw 10y ago
  I think I have like 2 or 3 amazon apps on my phone. Some have a tiny 'prime' or some other logo to differentiate them, but I can never tell instant which app to do what.
guelo 10y ago
This is obviously part of Amazon's effort to build out their own delivery network in order to muscle out fedex, ups, usps, etc. If their drivers aren't delivering packages they can be delivering food. That makes their whole delivery network stronger because it allows them to have more drivers employed driving around town all the time. It's the same reason Uber got into food delivery.
- Finnucane 10y ago
  Does that mean your food delivery depends on the package delivery schedule? "Sorry your pizza is cold but we had to deliver a TV first." For myself, I usually prefer to just go and pick up myself; that's almost always the fastest option.
  - brianpan 10y ago
    This is under the PrimeNow banner- everything is delivered under an hour.
    - dx034 10y ago
      Depends on the area. At least in London, PrimeNow delivers under one hour for only parts of the city, the rest is in under 2 hours.
  - MichaelBurge 10y ago
    They should probably prioritize the food, and fill off-time with package deliveries.
  - dmurray 10y ago
    I think Amazon will figure out that hot food needs to be delivered fast and will generally get prioritised over delivering a TV. > For myself, I usually prefer to just go and pick up myself; that's almost always the fastest option. Most people don't care about getting the absolute fastest option, or if they do, they will still compromise for convenience.
harigov 10y ago
This is a great opportunity for some restaurants to outsource cooking. Just provide a place for people to sit, eat and chat with some alcohol options. One can order food an hour before arriving and eat at the restaurant. The advantage is that folks can order from any number of cuisines. This can still be cost effective in the long run when kitchens can be bigger and in the outskirts and the premium place in the city is reserved only to sit customers.
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  Good luck telling table 12 they've got to wait because there's a traffic jam on the freeway, or that the drones are having a hard time with this northerly wind system.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
    Not to mention the "this steak isn't medium rare!" problem...
- dave5104 10y ago
  That doesn't sound like a great idea. When I order take out, I have certain expectations, like the food may not be totally hot, or it'll be a little soggy after sitting in a bag and traveling for awhile. But that's the price I pay for getting to sit on my couch. If I'm going to a sit down restaurant, I'm making the effort to leave my couch, so I want the food to be a higher quality. Trucking in potentially cheaper lukewarm soggy food doesn't feel like it can be made up for with just ambiance of the new place I'm sitting.
  - harigov 10y ago
    Depends. It has its own pros and there are definite cons. I don't know how much time me and my friends spend picking a restaurant/cuisine. Everyone wants something different. It is hard to pick a place when you have more than a certain number of folks. I can totally see people who are going there for socializing, rather than just for eating, having fun at this place. Also, keep in mind that this would be a full size bar as well.
chinathrow 10y ago
Once you realize that you can't buy shit anymore without some simple platforms get a huge cut/fee in the middle: rental cars, hotel bookings, flights, meals, everything else... oh I forgot: taxi rides!
mfonda 10y ago
Amazon Restaurants is a great service which has been around for some time now, at least here in Seattle. I use it pretty much exclusively now instead of other similar services I've used in the past. The minimum order is much lower ($20 instead of $30 or $40 a lot of other services add), there's no delivery fees, and your driver is tracked via GPS with guaranteed delivery windows, so you have a much better idea of when you're order will actually arrive. There's also a better selection of restaurants than other services. That said, the UI isn't quite as user friendly. It feels bolted on top of Prime Now, so you don't really have a typical menu, a regular shopping cart is used and shared with Prime Now which just feels a bit off. I think it would feel much nicer if they built a website specific to food ordering instead of trying to shoehorn it into Prime Now.
- sumoboy 10y ago
  Hybrid car + amazon + uber + lyft + no education other than reading a gps map = lifetime job for drivers. Just like broadband, just need to figure out that last mile for these services.
  - ZenoArrow 10y ago
    > "lifetime job for drivers" Until driverless cars become popular.
  - kmonsen 10y ago
    Lifetime might be a bit strong. Quite likely these jobs will not exist in 10 years due to automation.
ramon 10y ago
I can imagine the day I will need an Amazon account in order to enter my house :)
pk0020 10y ago
As much as I love Uber...I don't feel bullish that they will beat out amazon and their network of vendors/merchants. Uber might go the way of replicating the last mile as a service model that amazon is exploring with their prime now networks, but I'm not sure how Uber will scale this late game since it's not a real core competency.
airesQ 10y ago
So Deliveroo for the US?
wineisfine 10y ago
As a consumer I couldn't be more then delighted by the Amazon (customer) service. However, when I read how they threat their employees: it sounds horrible. Let's hope they never get to the tipping point that they can threat Restaurants, like their employees. That said: I like it that they try out new things and don't care about failing.
- ChadMoran 10y ago
  As a Software Engineer with Amazon I have only great things to say. EDIT: I've been at Amazon over 5 years.
  - untog 10y ago
    Of course, you're valuable. A company is much more interesting to assess according to how they treat less valued workers, like warehouse staff. Amazon does not rate highly in that regard.
    - ChadMoran 10y ago
      Lots of my friends work in CS and they love their jobs.
      - qntty 10y ago
        He's referring to warehouse staff.
  - enraged_camel 10y ago
    I don't think we can use that as a benchmark, since software engineers are treated much better on average across the industry. IMO, the best indication of a company's general sense of ethics is the way they treat their lowest-paid employees. Amazon doesn't instill confidence in that regard.
    - deanCommie 10y ago
bg0 10y ago
So this link is just sending me to the amazon restaurants page which has been around for about a year where I live. Can someone explain the point of this post?
- usaphp 10y ago
  Probably a lot of people did not know about this service, hence they upvoted it.
deleted 10y ago
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mundo 10y ago
So, how does this make money? Other than the Prime membership, I don't see any reference to fees on either the customer or restaurant side. Is this a freebie land grab?
- petra 10y ago
  They charge fees from the restaurants.
partycoder 10y ago
This has been around for a while. I wish there was a better integration with the Amazon Echo. The benefit is that the delivery fee is included into your Amazon Prime plan. Now, in my opinion, Sprig is a much more affordable everyday meal option when you get the membership. There's also Doordash, GrubHub, EAT24, UberEATS, Postmates... etc. You'll find some restaurants are not available in some apps.
sytelus 10y ago
Assume that on average, * delivery time = 30 minutes * minimum wage + minor benefits = $10/hr * cost of vehicle, gas and other logistics = $5/hr ...then they must charge $10 per delivery. If you squeeze and wiggle may be you can bring this down to $7 or so likely not considering downtimes in between peak hours. I thought this was the reason why most door-to-door delivery services eventually failed or switched to catering. What is the new business innovation here?
- morsch 10y ago
  The places I order from (in urban Europe) have been around for years. Delivery is usually free. 30 minutes delivery time per order seems way too high, I'd expect 10 minutes or less per order. They don't deliver just one order at a time. That said I'm sure margins are razor thin and the drivers get paid like shit.
- linkregister 10y ago
  They probably charge the restaurant a fee, as Seamless does.
kin 10y ago
While my first order was close to a year ago, what I have to say about this and all the other food delivery services (Postmates, UberEats, Grubhub) is that I typically have a hard time meeting delivery minimums or straight up find the delivery fee too expensive to justify an order. So far, I've only ever used Amazon when I have a coupon. It would be cool if I could accumulate Amazon restaurant credit as an option when I choose No Rush Shipping or have some form of loyalty/rewards system. Else, I'm just going to choose whatever is cheapest, even if slightly less convenient. And that's just me. Other users' loyalty could be even more elusive I'm sure.
rglover 10y ago
Cool, but soon enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU
nerfhammer 10y ago
"Amazon is eating the world" gets a new meaning today
CodeSheikh 10y ago
Amazon is moving forward with a GREAT momentum to dominate consumer market and extends its monopoly. It is not Amazon vs small businesses anymore. Amazon is in a ferocious battle right now with big players in various domains (Google, Walmart, Apple etc). So far it is turning out to be beneficial for an average middle-class consumer who conveniently gets to purchase cheap products and services. The way Amazon has extended its tentacles deep into TV content (Netflix vs Prime Video), produce (FreshDirect vs Amazon Fresh), Amazon Basics and Amazon elements, Alexa in home automation, e-readers, Spotify vs Amazon Prime Music, Rackspace vs AWS cloud, (failed) cellphones venture, and now Seamless vs Amazon Restaurants. Is it becoming more possible for Amazon to either acquire FedEx/UPS or create its own shipping company? I mean why not? This seems like a missing piece of puzzle.
- mulmen 10y ago
  They're way ahead of you: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/amazon-to-lease-20-boeing-767s-for-its-own-air-cargo-network/ http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/amazon... At its core Amazon has always been a logistics company. They already put warehouses close to airports so it's not much of a stretch to take over the air freight. Last mile is another issue, UPS, USPS, FedEx and the rest will continue doing that for a long time.
- losteric 10y ago
  > Is it becoming more possible fore Amazon to ... create its own shipping company? It's not just possible, it's already in the works. Back in March Amazon announced plans to lease 20 Boeing 767s. Their first plane flew at an airfair in Seattle a few months ago. Recently they've been showing off their long-haul Prime semitrucks around Seattle. Factor in Amazon Logistics (last-mile Fedex/ups/usps alternative) and Amazon Fresh (last-mile food delivery)... it's happening. I think we can expect big plays in 2017. * they also have their drone thing... I think that's just a moonshot hype project.
Animats 10y ago
So far, Amazon is just delivering for others. But perhaps they'll get into preparing food as well. Unlike Google, Facebook, GrubHub, Postmates, and Doordash, Amazon is willing to build physical infrastructure and hire people. Amazon could set up a large scale centralized catering operation like LSG Sky Chefs, which makes airline meals. For high-density metro areas, this could work quite well. Amazon could probably beat out the low-end guys simply by using vehicles and containers capable of keeping the hot stuff hot and the cold stuff cold.
- gist 10y ago
  Good points. Just like they do with Amazon basics they cherry pick items that they have already determined there is built in basic demand for.
- petra 10y ago
  I actually think the end goal for Amazon isn't making the food themselves(in a centralized operation), but creating a platform , across the US , where such businesses can operate and compete strongly , while owning the very cheap delivery network to corporate offices(and the network effects that come with it), and the customer relationship. And the next step, is using that network to deliver chilled meals employees will take home(in an isolated container). At low enough price point, and high quality(which munchery seem to do) this could replace many dinners,a very big business , while also offering a disruptive attack on Walmart, and restaurants in general.
Balgair 10y ago
So, Amazon is having some issues with retailers trying to sell you some gadget that really isn't what you thought you were going to get. Like a USB stick that says it's 256GB, but is actual 2 Mb. The 'reviews' of these shadier products are shilled out or just 'bots and amazon is trying to get these types of things off their market. So, what happens when this happens to these restaurants? Like, say I 'open' up a restaurant inside of my apartment. Maybe I list the address as some other place, or I just risk the local health inspector showing up unannounced. But I only sell via Amazon, and I get some friends and family to write reviews of my kitchen, or maybe I just pay some 'bots to do it too. Amazon has problems already with that fly-by-night operation, how are they going to combat it? For reference, this was an issue with GrubHub last year: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Seamless-Restaurant-Grubhub-Fake-Eatery-Unregulated-Kitchen-Investigation-I-Team-New-York-City-344708652.html http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Seamless-Restaurant-Gru... http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/11/grubhub-seamless-ghost-restaurant-investigation.html http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/11/grubhub-seamless-ghost-res...
- mahyarm 10y ago
  They streetview your business and check if you have a previous presence elsewhere? During your first transaction from a schlub the delivery driver will drive to your fake address, see that there is nothing there and you wont even get money since there would be nothing to pick up.
  - Balgair 10y ago
    Well, it wasn't a problem for the GrubHub drivers, so one can assume that at least some of the Amazon ones won't have an issue either.
BHSPitMonkey 10y ago
Question for the HN mods (and community): At what point is a post like this not simply an advertisement? This isn't a link to a press release, an article, a blog post, etc. that discusses the project, and this isn't even new (I've been getting snail mail ads for this for a month or two). Should big companies just start linking directly to things they want us to buy on HN, with no context? Is that encouraged here?
- herghost 10y ago
  I think to an extent, yes they should. Amazon does interesting things with tech and logistics. This is their latest foray and is interesting to this audience/niche. I understand your concern, but if this was just mindless advertising, I would think it would receive short shrift from the down voters and would disappear fairly quickly. As it happens this is pretty interesting zeitgeist news.
- rgawdzik 10y ago
  I think it's a gray area where voting should decide. Articles/blog posts/etc can be pure advertisements as well.
- euphoria83 10y ago
  Since this is a community that cares equally about new ventures and technology, a direct pointer to a new venture makes sense. The community is getting introduced to the venture directly and is free to click around to understand more.
- pkinsky 10y ago
  I'd prefer links to stories about new ventures, their strategic impact, etc, but given that anything worth discussing usually produces multiple stories it's better that all the discussion occur on a single thread with a link to the announcement.
Androider 10y ago
Amazon Prime Now has a $10 minimum, free delivery, and no markup allowed on the restaurant menus in New York. For me, that makes it the best service available hands down, and actually starts to change my behavior as a customer. If it doesn't cost any more than what I'd pay in person schlepping to the restaurant, the psychological barrier to ordering on a whim is virtually eliminated. It also has that Uber-esque impersonality to it: the delivery guy doesn't wait around after dropping of your food in your typical managed NY apartment building (literally racing down when I get the call, I've never been able to spot them), since they're tipped up front. In fact, the last service I can remember that was such a no-brainer improvement when introduced, was Uber X. That's not sustainable you might say. But members do pay $99/year for Prime, which isn't a whole lot since it does so much, but is increasingly a larger part where Amazon makes their margin from.
- voltagex_ 10y ago
  >But members do pay $99/year for Prime, which isn't a whole lot since it does so much What do you get out of Prime? I don't have it in Australia (although there's rumblings that Amazon might be starting here) and I thought it was just faster delivery and video.
tigershark 10y ago
I am really missing something here. If I click the link it brings me to my Amazon application and I don't see anything new. My first order with Amazon restaurant was at the beginning of September. So I guess that I am missing something? Amazon restaurant is three months old and the useless link that just brings me to their app doesn't really help me to shed any light.
nodamage 10y ago
They seem to be pushing this hard here in Seattle. This past week they've sent me two coupons for $20 off my entire order.
kozikow 10y ago
I wanted to order food just for myself. I didn't due to minimal 20.00 USD price. If I am with a group of people we can go to restaurant anyway. On the other hand, eating out alone is awkward, so ordering online becomes more attractive.
kriro 10y ago
Interesting. This probably makes a couple of food delivery companies rather nervous. Are they delivering 24/7 or at least in the evening? A killer feature for normal amazon would be delivery at a time where people are home from work instead of during working hours...not sure why this isn't a thing yet.
kriro 10y ago
I'm curious...are there restaurants (or I guess kitchens) that are delivery only? If the infrastructure works well you could have strongly automated kitchen in a warehouse type of setups and deliver via Amazon. Guess the branding/word of mouth could be a problem but that might be solvable with money (free stuff, hope people like and recommend it)
heisnotanalien 10y ago
Will there just be one company in the future called Amazon?

336 points by chrisan 10y ago

A few years ago when I began to use Grubhub more exclusively to order food, I realized that I was effectively being shut out from other establishments that weren't on Grubhub, simply because I hadn't checked to look at what was nearby, and because the options on Grubhub were usually good enough on their own. It was "post-Google," in a way. I imagine this effect would be even more pronounced with "the everything store" encompassing an ever-larger portion of total commerce.

tootie 10y ago
I usually go to menupages if I'm hunting. Since they merged with seamless it's one-click to do an online order, or I'll just call. I'm a pretty dedicated Amazon user, but I'm not sure what this service actually offers beyond that or even to match it.
gdulli 10y ago
I used to believe Foodler was the category killer. Then I found a restaurant I like a lot has lower prices on a more obscure site, MixMenu. Definitely shop around.
burntwater 10y ago
I intentionally shut out a restaurant that didn't have online ordering. I like their food, one sandwich in particular was a favorite, but they had a nearby competitor I liked just as much that DID have online ordering. I'm hard-of-hearing, so online ordering is a godsend compared to the old days of calling up a fast speaking, often accented person with terrible background noise. So if the choice is between calling one restaurant, or ordering online from a different restaurant, I will always pick the online ordering. The restaurant without online ordering eventually closed, despite the fact the neighborhood has really boomed, and I'm sure no small part of it is because of their refusal to do online ordering.

SallySwanSmith 10y ago

Amazon restaurants is hardly new. My first order was over a year ago. Is there something else new that I'm missing?

chrisan 10y ago
Sorry, I had never heard of it before. From the news[1] I saw it was new in a city dear to me. Mods can delete the post, my bad! [1]: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2016/12/15/amazon-starts-free-restaurant-food-delivery-for-prime-members-in-central-ohio.html http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2016/12/15/...
- jsheard 10y ago
  Your post is currently #2 on the front page... apparently a lot of people had no idea this existed. Amazons marketing people have some explaining to do :)
  - dawnerd 10y ago
    They REALLY do a bad job pushing prime now. People in my building had no idea they could have amazon products delivered in an hour and at no extra charge besides an (optional) tip. They use the same drivers to deliver some packages from the site as well.
  - JorgeGT 10y ago
    I guess many people outside the US, like me, are discovering this. Which is understandable, given they have no reason to market this to me.
  - chrisdbaldwin 10y ago
    Their marketing people are doing fine. This service isn't available everywhere, and when it was made available in my city, my local network quickly learned about it and started using it.
- throw7 10y ago
  I had heard of prime now awhile ago, but didn't realize they delivered for restaurants. I'm in a non-metro area though, so this service will probably never be available for me.

kldavenport 10y ago

So far it looks to have a better web and mobile interface than postmates and grubhub.

dawnerd 10y ago
They also don't charge a ton in "service fees" and have inflated menu prices. Nothing but good experiences with Amazon delivering food (except this one time where the driver had never seen an apartment building before...)

untog 10y ago

Interesting - it appears that Amazon handles the delivery part, theoretically freeing restaurants up from having to worry about that side of the business. Makes sense, though I wonder what % of costs delivery drivers really are (and, of course, what % Amazon is charging) Either way, Seamless/Grubhub have turned to utter garbage since their merger. I'm happily using Delivery, but much like Uber/Lyft, these are commodity businesses that I can switch between at zero cost to myself. So I'll give Amazon a try too.

thoughtpalette 10y ago
Cavier and DoorDash have been way superior to Grubhub in Chicago lately. Better selections, faster delivery (anecdotal). I've also had Amazon deliver when they were beta testing with $10 off, definitely worth it. There's also Sprig, Fooda and some other food delivery services I've left out.
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kt9 10y ago

When I first saw amazon restaurants (almost a year ago) I thought... meh! Why would I use this... order via phone and then wait an hour. I could order by phone call and go pick it up faster. Turns out now we use it so much and I've found that the value is that I can order by phone when I leave work and by the time I get home the food will be arriving at my door. The real value to me is that I can order dinner! They've had a few hiccups in the early days but now its pretty solid!

koolba 10y ago
> Turns out now we use it so much and I've found that the value is that I can order by phone when I leave work and by the time I get home the food will be arriving at my door. Does "order by phone" mean mobile app or calling in an order? I would guess app but with Alexa and the other speech recognition tech they have, voice orders doesn't sound that far off either.
- kt9 10y ago
  Order by phone with amazon restaurants means using the amazon prime now app or the amazon app.

dajohnson89 10y ago

Why does Northern Virginia get coverage, but not D.C.? I don't really understand the logic there.

blakes 10y ago
I assume it isn't a logic issue, more likely a logistical issue.
- dajohnson89 10y ago
  Clever turn of phrase. My question stands -- what are the logistical reasons for serving a suburban area but not its urban counterpart? All of the other areas being served by AR are urban cores. Mind you, northern VA is not the only suburb of DC. I should add that Amazon did this with Amazon locker as well. Northern VA got coverage well before DC. My suspicion is some kind of incentive that VA is providing to Amazon, the same one that attracted Amazon to build its huge us-east data center in VA. I was going to suggest that No VA is more affluent than DC, but in that case they shouldn't be in Baltimore.

ryaneager 10y ago

I received a free $20 to Amazon Restaurants for buying something on cyber Wednesday, didn't know that was a thing until I received the email. I used it to order pizza from a local joint, because who doesn't like free pizza. Ordering was interesting, they didn't have the pizza I wanted listed under the pre-made options, so I had to make my own, but there was no option to do half and half and adding additional topping had a confusing interface. The menus do not seem to be optimized for each restaurant the way Doordash is, and you must click on an item to see the price. Also the food wasn't kept in a thermal bag, like pizza delivery does, so it wasn't piping hot when I received it and the delivery members don't have distinct shirts. I probably won't use it ever again since I prefer Doordash, and one of my friends brother in laws is a cofounder/CTO so I feel a false tie to it.

roflchoppa 10y ago
Ya, but at the same time, you have somewhat of an obligation to help the homies
analogmemory 10y ago
Good tip on the pizza. I'll just stick to things that deliver well, Indian, Thai and Sandwiches.
khazhou 10y ago
None of my friends' brother-in-laws are cofounders at Doordash, so I'm less attached :-) But this is a great example of the lack of customer lock-in. Even the slightest improvement over Doordash, and I'd easily switch to Amazon or just bounce between the two. There's a thai restaurant just a bit out of Doordash range -- that would do it. Pictures on the menus -- that would do it. A "re-order" button -- that would do it. I like DD, but all I think of it is: "I order food and it gets here."
- dvdhsu 10y ago
  Right -- I think this is a problem for many recent startups like Doordash, Postmates, and even Uber. Their pitch to investors that this was a land grab -- whoever conquers the two-sided marketplace first dominates it and extracts profits later on. And so they need mountains of money to build up both sides of the marketplace. But it turns out that there's no switching cost on either side of the marketplace: you or I happily switch between both depending on which drivers are closer, and an Uber driver can just open their Lyft app if Uber is slowing down. You'd happily switch from Doordash if Caviar had better photos, and a restaurant can delivery via both Doordash and Caviar. I think Uber might be able to get out of this by saying "growth / users -> investment -> self driving cars", but I'm not sure what Doordash or Postmates plans to do about it.

oldbuzzard 10y ago

Meh. I have prime and keep getting $10 off coupons but here in Minneapolis I don't see anywhere I want to order from. Bitesquad has places that I order from every now and then. If Amazon had a decent network they might entice me in to becoming a restaurants customer... but as it is, it is like the crappy prime video selection.

tomc1985 10y ago

Oh look, Amazon chases another venture like a dog that smells food. So stupid how everyone's always trying to take over the world...

boardmad 10y ago
You guys have no clue...pizzas turning up piping hot, food within 10mins. Here in the UK we have Justeat and bloody Uber psycho moped riders. I regularly visit and order in my local indian restaurant and hear online bookings coming in on the phone with between an hour and 90mins delivery time. Talk about #firstworldproblems

koolba 10y ago

So how much longer till they combine this with drone delivery? The thrill of having a pizza arrive by drone could justify a hefty premium for a kids birthday party.

ne0n 10y ago
Realistically, pizzas are a pretty poorly shaped thing for a drone to carry since it would block all of the propellers and it would definitely be way more effort to keep warm. Self driving cars are probably perfect for this, though. In California, self driving cars are classified as neighborhood vehicles which can't go over 25 which is probably fine for restaurant delivery.
- koolba 10y ago
  Land vehicles do have a size advantage that can be used for en route baking: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-24/inside-silicon-valley-s-robot-pizzeria https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-24/inside-si... I would really like to see the air delivery though. Maybe a calzone or stromboli would be more viable.
  - Pfhreak 10y ago
    I believe the concept has been tested with burritos: http://www.darwinaerospace.com/burritobomber http://www.darwinaerospace.com/burritobomber
    - koolba 10y ago
      What a wonderful future we live in!
- buzzybee 10y ago
  "Cooler" scale ground drones seem like the thing being done for pizza now. See starship.xyz and Domino's DRU for examples that are already entering service. Potentially very effective stuff that can beat the flying and car-sized stuff just by being simpler to engineer and faster to market, with minimal regulatory issue.

lux 10y ago

Interesting that I'm seeing this for the first time on the same day that local food delivery company SkipTheDishes was sold to Just Eat for $110M (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/skip-the-dishes-sold-1.3897958 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/skip-the-dishes-sold...). Skip is very popular here in Winnipeg since this is where they're headquartered, but always seemed like the underdog in the overall market. Wondering what will become of Skip, and how Just Eat and the others will keep duking it out from here now that Amazon is in the ring too.

chaosmachine 10y ago
Skip was so much better than Just Eat, too. Skip has Uber-style live GPS tracking, Just Eat seemed to be stuck in the dark ages.
- GordonS 10y ago
  Do you mean GPS tracking of your takeaway delivery? I've never understood why someone would want to be glued to their phone/tablet watching every move their pizza makes. Seriously, just why would you possibly care what street it's currently on?
  - nitrogen 10y ago
    It seems like a violation of the privacy of other customers, too. Everywhere your food stops you can surmise there was another delivery.
    - LiquidFlux 10y ago
      DPD in the UK offer this functionality, it offers an ETA and the GPS location of the driver. This is particularly useful for me as I then know when to listen out for the door, and I've confidence in the ETA knowing they're just a street away from me.
    - dx034 10y ago
      At least Uber Eats only seems to show it when you're up next. The driver often starts appearing not at the restaurant but somewhere else. In cities this shouldn't be easy to track anyway. And then you could also jsut follow the Uber bike. Don't think that the fact that someone ordered food is private (what they ordered might be).

giacomolaw 10y ago

This is awesome! Interesting to see Amazon is really branching out with drones and all that.

gthtjtkt 10y ago

This is kind of terrifying after hearing so many life-ruining stories about the rash decisions Amazon makes when dealing with 3rd party sellers ([1] from last week, for example). Everyone always says "Don't stake your livelihood on platforms you don't control" (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but what happens when one of those platforms suddenly forces its way into your business? How can a restaurant owner turn them down when all the short-sighted owners nearby are happily signing up? I'm imagining a day in the future where a restaurant goes broke because Amazon had become a significant portion of their orders, but they suddenly got kicked off the service after X number of complaints (happens to FBA sellers all the time). By the time other restaurant owners realize how easily Amazon can destroy their livelihood, they might be too dependent to voluntarily leave. And then all the smug commenters from the last thread will be grateful for another opportunity to say "Well the restaurants should've known better than to sign up in the first place!" [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/amazon/comments/5gvgdl/using_a_amazon_kindle_fire_destroyed_my/ https://www.reddit.com/r/amazon/comments/5gvgdl/using_a_amaz...

hkmurakami 10y ago
This reminds me of the predicament that young'ish hardware component supplier companies get into. They win a huge contract with a prominent customer, but then that one customer represents 60%+ of their revenues (ex: winning a Cisco, Nintendo, or Apple contract). I've worked at a few such companies, and they all work extra hard trying to diversify their revenue sources, for both customers and industry. If it's a startup, then such revenue dependence can mean the difference between being able to go IPO or not. For the situation you describe for restaurants, they'd have to be vigilant about catering to multiple platform providers, and not neglecting their in-person customers (I've definitely seen a restaurant cater more to delivery rather than sit down, and slowly deteriorating in reputation among customers as order times became longer). It's just like managing an AAPL supplier contract. Some will thrive, and others will suffer, like the sapphire supplier in Arizona.
- danudey 10y ago
  The sapphire supplier is GTAT, and they were actually a sapphire glass manufacturing equipment manufacturer that Apple contracted to manufacture sapphire displays (a completely new business for them), then un-contracted afterwards, dropping their market cap from $1.5bn to $175m and shuttering three plants (whose workers Apple pledged to find new jobs for). http://www.businessinsider.com/gt-advanced-files-for-bankruptcy-oct-6-2014-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/gt-advanced-files-for-bankrup...

cavisne 10y ago

One differentiation with amazon restaurants is at least in my market they don't mark up food prices (like door dash and kindof postmates) and they don't charge for delivery. Uber eats is the best of these I've found, but it's a pain meeting at the curb. Amazon restaurants has by far the worst drivers though, I think compounded by tipping before they deliver, and no ratings system

TulliusCicero 10y ago
> One differentiation with amazon restaurants is at least in my market they don't mark up food prices (like door dash and kindof postmates) and they don't charge for delivery. That can't possibly be sustainable over the long run.
- zdean 10y ago
  I'm sure they still get a cut of the price from the restaurant. No delivery and no markup just means the restaurant keeps less of the revenue to themselves.
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alphast0rm 10y ago
> Uber eats is the best of these I've found, but it's a pain meeting at the curb. This is an option, you should be able to select whether you want to meet your courier at the curb for faster food or wait for them to find parking and come to your door.
cgriswald 10y ago
> Amazon restaurants has by far the worst drivers though, I think compounded by tipping before they deliver, and no ratings system A friend of mine is a Dasher. You do tip before they arrive, and they have no idea how they've been tipped--they just get whatever the total of all the tips of their shift are... I've never been so disincentivized to tip. The rating system also sucks because the app will force you to rate your last experience if you haven't the next time you try to order. Lots of five stars from me because, when I'm trying to get my dinner to my house ASAP, I can't be bothered to give an accurate and fair rating.

celticninja 10y ago

This must be worrying for JustEat who just purchased HungryHouse. Amazon getting in on your business is never great.

wwalser 10y ago
Interesting when companies have different names in different countries. It's called Delivery Hero in Australia. I suspect it's a UK based company which eventually got large enough to buy a similar AU based company and just kept the name in order to maintain an already established brand. Unilever has like 8 different ice cream brands in different countries all sharing the same logo and mostly selling the same products.
- celticninja 10y ago
  I think Just Eat came first in the UK and was actually pitched on Dragons Den and they have subsequently bought other similar ventures, retained the brand identity of their acquisitions and I assume centralised everything else, I didn't know thet had branched out internationally.
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wwalser 10y ago

I like DoorDash and I hoped that they would end up winning in this space but it seems unlikely when their two competitors have other things that the supply side (delivery people) can do if food deliveries aren't needed. Amazon is likely re-using prime instant delivery and Uber is transparently using their drivers to deliver food. It's kind of like competing with Amazon or Google for cloud infrastructure. Very few companies need all of those machines or that tech, they have no use for it other than renting to people. Amazon and Google on the other hand already needed that tech. They are essentially renting their own excess.

rajathagasthya 10y ago

They advertise Bay Area as one of the regions they deliver, yet it's not available in the South Bay. I wonder what's the logistics overhead to make it available elsewhere in the Bay Area where you already have a Prime Now delivery network.

Diederich 10y ago
Seems to be available in Mountain View.
- rajathagasthya 10y ago
  Not available in San Jose or Santa Clara area though.
cgriswald 10y ago
They don't deliver to me and I'm in the middle of the peninsula. Amazon Fresh and Prime Now don't deliver here either.
bradleyjg 10y ago
I was happy to see the listing says "Manhattan and Brooklyn" rather than NYC. I hate when a site says NYC and it isn't.

mournit 10y ago

So Amazon now has 5 services to order food from: Prime Now, Prime Pantry, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Restaurants, and regular Amazon. Did I miss anything? I can't say I'm having an easy time keeping track of which service to use for what.

Pfhreak 10y ago
From the url and header images, this looks like a feature of PrimeNow to me...
codecamper 10y ago
My general rule of thumb is to use Prime Now for jelly bellys, Amazon Fresh for salads, Restaurants for vindaloo, or regular Amazon for bizzare chinese candies shipped direct. Also I'm enjoying Amazon dark web for crack.
burger_moon 10y ago
Amazon Go (still in beta) for those who want to get the food personally.
user5994461 10y ago
Then we can assume that there were 5 independent projects run internally, with little coordination between them.
dominotw 10y ago
I think I have like 2 or 3 amazon apps on my phone. Some have a tiny 'prime' or some other logo to differentiate them, but I can never tell instant which app to do what.

guelo 10y ago

This is obviously part of Amazon's effort to build out their own delivery network in order to muscle out fedex, ups, usps, etc. If their drivers aren't delivering packages they can be delivering food. That makes their whole delivery network stronger because it allows them to have more drivers employed driving around town all the time. It's the same reason Uber got into food delivery.

Finnucane 10y ago
Does that mean your food delivery depends on the package delivery schedule? "Sorry your pizza is cold but we had to deliver a TV first." For myself, I usually prefer to just go and pick up myself; that's almost always the fastest option.
- brianpan 10y ago
  This is under the PrimeNow banner- everything is delivered under an hour.
  - dx034 10y ago
    Depends on the area. At least in London, PrimeNow delivers under one hour for only parts of the city, the rest is in under 2 hours.
- MichaelBurge 10y ago
  They should probably prioritize the food, and fill off-time with package deliveries.
- dmurray 10y ago
  I think Amazon will figure out that hot food needs to be delivered fast and will generally get prioritised over delivering a TV. > For myself, I usually prefer to just go and pick up myself; that's almost always the fastest option. Most people don't care about getting the absolute fastest option, or if they do, they will still compromise for convenience.

harigov 10y ago

This is a great opportunity for some restaurants to outsource cooking. Just provide a place for people to sit, eat and chat with some alcohol options. One can order food an hour before arriving and eat at the restaurant. The advantage is that folks can order from any number of cuisines. This can still be cost effective in the long run when kitchens can be bigger and in the outskirts and the premium place in the city is reserved only to sit customers.

anigbrowl 10y ago
Good luck telling table 12 they've got to wait because there's a traffic jam on the freeway, or that the drones are having a hard time with this northerly wind system.
- HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
  Not to mention the "this steak isn't medium rare!" problem...
dave5104 10y ago
That doesn't sound like a great idea. When I order take out, I have certain expectations, like the food may not be totally hot, or it'll be a little soggy after sitting in a bag and traveling for awhile. But that's the price I pay for getting to sit on my couch. If I'm going to a sit down restaurant, I'm making the effort to leave my couch, so I want the food to be a higher quality. Trucking in potentially cheaper lukewarm soggy food doesn't feel like it can be made up for with just ambiance of the new place I'm sitting.
- harigov 10y ago
  Depends. It has its own pros and there are definite cons. I don't know how much time me and my friends spend picking a restaurant/cuisine. Everyone wants something different. It is hard to pick a place when you have more than a certain number of folks. I can totally see people who are going there for socializing, rather than just for eating, having fun at this place. Also, keep in mind that this would be a full size bar as well.

chinathrow 10y ago

Once you realize that you can't buy shit anymore without some simple platforms get a huge cut/fee in the middle: rental cars, hotel bookings, flights, meals, everything else... oh I forgot: taxi rides!

mfonda 10y ago

Amazon Restaurants is a great service which has been around for some time now, at least here in Seattle. I use it pretty much exclusively now instead of other similar services I've used in the past. The minimum order is much lower ($20 instead of $30 or $40 a lot of other services add), there's no delivery fees, and your driver is tracked via GPS with guaranteed delivery windows, so you have a much better idea of when you're order will actually arrive. There's also a better selection of restaurants than other services. That said, the UI isn't quite as user friendly. It feels bolted on top of Prime Now, so you don't really have a typical menu, a regular shopping cart is used and shared with Prime Now which just feels a bit off. I think it would feel much nicer if they built a website specific to food ordering instead of trying to shoehorn it into Prime Now.

sumoboy 10y ago
Hybrid car + amazon + uber + lyft + no education other than reading a gps map = lifetime job for drivers. Just like broadband, just need to figure out that last mile for these services.
- ZenoArrow 10y ago
  > "lifetime job for drivers" Until driverless cars become popular.
- kmonsen 10y ago
  Lifetime might be a bit strong. Quite likely these jobs will not exist in 10 years due to automation.

ramon 10y ago

I can imagine the day I will need an Amazon account in order to enter my house :)

pk0020 10y ago

As much as I love Uber...I don't feel bullish that they will beat out amazon and their network of vendors/merchants. Uber might go the way of replicating the last mile as a service model that amazon is exploring with their prime now networks, but I'm not sure how Uber will scale this late game since it's not a real core competency.

airesQ 10y ago

So Deliveroo for the US?

wineisfine 10y ago

As a consumer I couldn't be more then delighted by the Amazon (customer) service. However, when I read how they threat their employees: it sounds horrible. Let's hope they never get to the tipping point that they can threat Restaurants, like their employees. That said: I like it that they try out new things and don't care about failing.

ChadMoran 10y ago
As a Software Engineer with Amazon I have only great things to say. EDIT: I've been at Amazon over 5 years.
- untog 10y ago
  Of course, you're valuable. A company is much more interesting to assess according to how they treat less valued workers, like warehouse staff. Amazon does not rate highly in that regard.
  - ChadMoran 10y ago
    Lots of my friends work in CS and they love their jobs.
    - qntty 10y ago
      He's referring to warehouse staff.
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  I don't think we can use that as a benchmark, since software engineers are treated much better on average across the industry. IMO, the best indication of a company's general sense of ethics is the way they treat their lowest-paid employees. Amazon doesn't instill confidence in that regard.
  - deanCommie 10y ago

bg0 10y ago

So this link is just sending me to the amazon restaurants page which has been around for about a year where I live. Can someone explain the point of this post?

usaphp 10y ago
Probably a lot of people did not know about this service, hence they upvoted it.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

mundo 10y ago

So, how does this make money? Other than the Prime membership, I don't see any reference to fees on either the customer or restaurant side. Is this a freebie land grab?

petra 10y ago
They charge fees from the restaurants.

partycoder 10y ago

This has been around for a while. I wish there was a better integration with the Amazon Echo. The benefit is that the delivery fee is included into your Amazon Prime plan. Now, in my opinion, Sprig is a much more affordable everyday meal option when you get the membership. There's also Doordash, GrubHub, EAT24, UberEATS, Postmates... etc. You'll find some restaurants are not available in some apps.

sytelus 10y ago

Assume that on average, * delivery time = 30 minutes * minimum wage + minor benefits = $10/hr * cost of vehicle, gas and other logistics = $5/hr ...then they must charge $10 per delivery. If you squeeze and wiggle may be you can bring this down to $7 or so likely not considering downtimes in between peak hours. I thought this was the reason why most door-to-door delivery services eventually failed or switched to catering. What is the new business innovation here?

morsch 10y ago
The places I order from (in urban Europe) have been around for years. Delivery is usually free. 30 minutes delivery time per order seems way too high, I'd expect 10 minutes or less per order. They don't deliver just one order at a time. That said I'm sure margins are razor thin and the drivers get paid like shit.
linkregister 10y ago
They probably charge the restaurant a fee, as Seamless does.

kin 10y ago

While my first order was close to a year ago, what I have to say about this and all the other food delivery services (Postmates, UberEats, Grubhub) is that I typically have a hard time meeting delivery minimums or straight up find the delivery fee too expensive to justify an order. So far, I've only ever used Amazon when I have a coupon. It would be cool if I could accumulate Amazon restaurant credit as an option when I choose No Rush Shipping or have some form of loyalty/rewards system. Else, I'm just going to choose whatever is cheapest, even if slightly less convenient. And that's just me. Other users' loyalty could be even more elusive I'm sure.

rglover 10y ago

Cool, but soon enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU

nerfhammer 10y ago

"Amazon is eating the world" gets a new meaning today

CodeSheikh 10y ago

Amazon is moving forward with a GREAT momentum to dominate consumer market and extends its monopoly. It is not Amazon vs small businesses anymore. Amazon is in a ferocious battle right now with big players in various domains (Google, Walmart, Apple etc). So far it is turning out to be beneficial for an average middle-class consumer who conveniently gets to purchase cheap products and services. The way Amazon has extended its tentacles deep into TV content (Netflix vs Prime Video), produce (FreshDirect vs Amazon Fresh), Amazon Basics and Amazon elements, Alexa in home automation, e-readers, Spotify vs Amazon Prime Music, Rackspace vs AWS cloud, (failed) cellphones venture, and now Seamless vs Amazon Restaurants. Is it becoming more possible for Amazon to either acquire FedEx/UPS or create its own shipping company? I mean why not? This seems like a missing piece of puzzle.

mulmen 10y ago
They're way ahead of you: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/amazon-to-lease-20-boeing-767s-for-its-own-air-cargo-network/ http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/amazon... At its core Amazon has always been a logistics company. They already put warehouses close to airports so it's not much of a stretch to take over the air freight. Last mile is another issue, UPS, USPS, FedEx and the rest will continue doing that for a long time.
losteric 10y ago
> Is it becoming more possible fore Amazon to ... create its own shipping company? It's not just possible, it's already in the works. Back in March Amazon announced plans to lease 20 Boeing 767s. Their first plane flew at an airfair in Seattle a few months ago. Recently they've been showing off their long-haul Prime semitrucks around Seattle. Factor in Amazon Logistics (last-mile Fedex/ups/usps alternative) and Amazon Fresh (last-mile food delivery)... it's happening. I think we can expect big plays in 2017. * they also have their drone thing... I think that's just a moonshot hype project.

Animats 10y ago

So far, Amazon is just delivering for others. But perhaps they'll get into preparing food as well. Unlike Google, Facebook, GrubHub, Postmates, and Doordash, Amazon is willing to build physical infrastructure and hire people. Amazon could set up a large scale centralized catering operation like LSG Sky Chefs, which makes airline meals. For high-density metro areas, this could work quite well. Amazon could probably beat out the low-end guys simply by using vehicles and containers capable of keeping the hot stuff hot and the cold stuff cold.

gist 10y ago
Good points. Just like they do with Amazon basics they cherry pick items that they have already determined there is built in basic demand for.
petra 10y ago
I actually think the end goal for Amazon isn't making the food themselves(in a centralized operation), but creating a platform , across the US , where such businesses can operate and compete strongly , while owning the very cheap delivery network to corporate offices(and the network effects that come with it), and the customer relationship. And the next step, is using that network to deliver chilled meals employees will take home(in an isolated container). At low enough price point, and high quality(which munchery seem to do) this could replace many dinners,a very big business , while also offering a disruptive attack on Walmart, and restaurants in general.

Balgair 10y ago

So, Amazon is having some issues with retailers trying to sell you some gadget that really isn't what you thought you were going to get. Like a USB stick that says it's 256GB, but is actual 2 Mb. The 'reviews' of these shadier products are shilled out or just 'bots and amazon is trying to get these types of things off their market. So, what happens when this happens to these restaurants? Like, say I 'open' up a restaurant inside of my apartment. Maybe I list the address as some other place, or I just risk the local health inspector showing up unannounced. But I only sell via Amazon, and I get some friends and family to write reviews of my kitchen, or maybe I just pay some 'bots to do it too. Amazon has problems already with that fly-by-night operation, how are they going to combat it? For reference, this was an issue with GrubHub last year: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Seamless-Restaurant-Grubhub-Fake-Eatery-Unregulated-Kitchen-Investigation-I-Team-New-York-City-344708652.html http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Seamless-Restaurant-Gru... http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/11/grubhub-seamless-ghost-restaurant-investigation.html http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/11/grubhub-seamless-ghost-res...

mahyarm 10y ago
They streetview your business and check if you have a previous presence elsewhere? During your first transaction from a schlub the delivery driver will drive to your fake address, see that there is nothing there and you wont even get money since there would be nothing to pick up.
- Balgair 10y ago
  Well, it wasn't a problem for the GrubHub drivers, so one can assume that at least some of the Amazon ones won't have an issue either.

BHSPitMonkey 10y ago

Question for the HN mods (and community): At what point is a post like this not simply an advertisement? This isn't a link to a press release, an article, a blog post, etc. that discusses the project, and this isn't even new (I've been getting snail mail ads for this for a month or two). Should big companies just start linking directly to things they want us to buy on HN, with no context? Is that encouraged here?

herghost 10y ago
I think to an extent, yes they should. Amazon does interesting things with tech and logistics. This is their latest foray and is interesting to this audience/niche. I understand your concern, but if this was just mindless advertising, I would think it would receive short shrift from the down voters and would disappear fairly quickly. As it happens this is pretty interesting zeitgeist news.
rgawdzik 10y ago
I think it's a gray area where voting should decide. Articles/blog posts/etc can be pure advertisements as well.
euphoria83 10y ago
Since this is a community that cares equally about new ventures and technology, a direct pointer to a new venture makes sense. The community is getting introduced to the venture directly and is free to click around to understand more.
pkinsky 10y ago
I'd prefer links to stories about new ventures, their strategic impact, etc, but given that anything worth discussing usually produces multiple stories it's better that all the discussion occur on a single thread with a link to the announcement.

Androider 10y ago

Amazon Prime Now has a $10 minimum, free delivery, and no markup allowed on the restaurant menus in New York. For me, that makes it the best service available hands down, and actually starts to change my behavior as a customer. If it doesn't cost any more than what I'd pay in person schlepping to the restaurant, the psychological barrier to ordering on a whim is virtually eliminated. It also has that Uber-esque impersonality to it: the delivery guy doesn't wait around after dropping of your food in your typical managed NY apartment building (literally racing down when I get the call, I've never been able to spot them), since they're tipped up front. In fact, the last service I can remember that was such a no-brainer improvement when introduced, was Uber X. That's not sustainable you might say. But members do pay $99/year for Prime, which isn't a whole lot since it does so much, but is increasingly a larger part where Amazon makes their margin from.

voltagex_ 10y ago
>But members do pay $99/year for Prime, which isn't a whole lot since it does so much What do you get out of Prime? I don't have it in Australia (although there's rumblings that Amazon might be starting here) and I thought it was just faster delivery and video.

tigershark 10y ago

I am really missing something here. If I click the link it brings me to my Amazon application and I don't see anything new. My first order with Amazon restaurant was at the beginning of September. So I guess that I am missing something? Amazon restaurant is three months old and the useless link that just brings me to their app doesn't really help me to shed any light.

nodamage 10y ago

They seem to be pushing this hard here in Seattle. This past week they've sent me two coupons for $20 off my entire order.

kozikow 10y ago

I wanted to order food just for myself. I didn't due to minimal 20.00 USD price. If I am with a group of people we can go to restaurant anyway. On the other hand, eating out alone is awkward, so ordering online becomes more attractive.

kriro 10y ago

Interesting. This probably makes a couple of food delivery companies rather nervous. Are they delivering 24/7 or at least in the evening? A killer feature for normal amazon would be delivery at a time where people are home from work instead of during working hours...not sure why this isn't a thing yet.

kriro 10y ago

I'm curious...are there restaurants (or I guess kitchens) that are delivery only? If the infrastructure works well you could have strongly automated kitchen in a warehouse type of setups and deliver via Amazon. Guess the branding/word of mouth could be a problem but that might be solvable with money (free stuff, hope people like and recommend it)

heisnotanalien 10y ago

Will there just be one company in the future called Amazon?