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>Restaurants must relocate to cheaper areas like warehouses and shift to a delivery-first distribution model, which Uber, Lyft, and Google Express could help di

>Restaurants must relocate to cheaper areas like warehouses and shift to a delivery-first distribution model, which Uber, Lyft, and Google Express could help dispatch. It sucks from a customer-interaction perspective, but it's necessary. Other businesses like Pret in London were already using a hybrid centralized preparation with small, hyperlocal retail sales model. Yes. Let's just kill all community space. Great idea. I too enjoy being a pod person.

pdonis 6y ago
> Let's just kill all community space. It might be helpful to differentiate "community space" from "restaurant". Or perhaps to differentiate "restaurant that is primarily selling convenience", which is the kind the article seems to be describing, from "restaurant that is primarily selling a dining experience in a community space". I would expect margins on the latter type of restaurant to be significantly higher.
- chii 6y ago
  all restaurants want to be a 'dining experience'. But only restaurants that can be this are famous ones which have a lot of celebrity pull. So the remaining ones that don't have such pull will need to adapt, or die. It's not that all restaurants will die - just the ones who aren't celebrity/famous and can sell an experience.
  - pdonis 6y ago
    > all restaurants want to be a 'dining experience'. Wanting to be a dining experience, and having "be a dining experience" be your primary business model, are two different things. I'm sure the author of the article would like his restaurant to be a "dining experience", but that's not his primary business model. His primary business model is selling convenience. His customers buy his food because it's more convenient than preparing it themselves, not because they need to have the "experience" of dining in his restaurant. His restaurant could just as easily be a truck parked at the curb--as many sellers of food actually do in large cities--and his customers probably wouldn't care as long as the food was the same and was available as quickly. Sure, if you ask the customers, they'll say they prefer the restaurant space to a truck at the curb, but unless they're willing to pay more for the former than they would for the latter, there's no business value in the former. And the fact that customers aren't willing to pay enough to support a restaurant space, but what they're willing to pay probably would be enough to support a truck at the curb, is precisely why the author is struggling to find ways to cut costs--because he mistakenly thinks the space itself is part of his business model, when it actually isn't. He'd like it to be, but it isn't, because his customers aren't willing to pay extra to support it.
dralley 6y ago
Because it's so much easier to fundamentally change a huge and enduring societal institution (the concept of restaurants in trafficked places) than to re-adjust the expectations of the fucking landlords, which has never been dealt with before... The hyperfocus on "disruption" you sometimes see in here is really... something.
lostcolony 6y ago
Chain coffee houses are doing fine. And ever been to a McDonald's on a weekday morning? Community still has places, even if independent restaurants are likely going to reduce in number.
MattGaiser 6y ago
> Yes. Let's just kill all community space. Great idea. I too enjoy being a pod person. The problem is that a heck of a lot of people are ok with that. I'm one of them. When I went to university, the delivery apps arrived in the middle of my time there. I think I went to a restaurant a 5-6 times in the remaining two years after UberEats and SkipTheDishes arrived. I lived in the centre of downtown my final year and I didn't go to a restaurant downtown once. I'm an extreme case of wanting to be at my computer to be sure, but it only takes a small percent opting out to make slim margins go to zero. A lot of the demand for community type space was under a certain logistical duress. I either had to go to a restaurant, choose from a limited selection of delivered foods, or order takeout (and I may as well just eat it there if I have to make the journey anyway). That no longer exists and instead of paying for the overhead of the restaurant, my money goes to UberEats.
- distances 6y ago
  I also want to be on my computer, but I have never ordered food delivery and don't plan to change that. I'm lucky to have a wealth of restaurants nearby and I like it that way, so it's eat out or take-away when I don't feel like cooking. The price premium alone for delivered food makes the whole concept unappealing to me in inner city.

pdonis 6y ago

> Let's just kill all community space. It might be helpful to differentiate "community space" from "restaurant". Or perhaps to differentiate "restaurant that is primarily selling convenience", which is the kind the article seems to be describing, from "restaurant that is primarily selling a dining experience in a community space". I would expect margins on the latter type of restaurant to be significantly higher.

chii 6y ago
all restaurants want to be a 'dining experience'. But only restaurants that can be this are famous ones which have a lot of celebrity pull. So the remaining ones that don't have such pull will need to adapt, or die. It's not that all restaurants will die - just the ones who aren't celebrity/famous and can sell an experience.
- pdonis 6y ago
  > all restaurants want to be a 'dining experience'. Wanting to be a dining experience, and having "be a dining experience" be your primary business model, are two different things. I'm sure the author of the article would like his restaurant to be a "dining experience", but that's not his primary business model. His primary business model is selling convenience. His customers buy his food because it's more convenient than preparing it themselves, not because they need to have the "experience" of dining in his restaurant. His restaurant could just as easily be a truck parked at the curb--as many sellers of food actually do in large cities--and his customers probably wouldn't care as long as the food was the same and was available as quickly. Sure, if you ask the customers, they'll say they prefer the restaurant space to a truck at the curb, but unless they're willing to pay more for the former than they would for the latter, there's no business value in the former. And the fact that customers aren't willing to pay enough to support a restaurant space, but what they're willing to pay probably would be enough to support a truck at the curb, is precisely why the author is struggling to find ways to cut costs--because he mistakenly thinks the space itself is part of his business model, when it actually isn't. He'd like it to be, but it isn't, because his customers aren't willing to pay extra to support it.

dralley 6y ago

Because it's so much easier to fundamentally change a huge and enduring societal institution (the concept of restaurants in trafficked places) than to re-adjust the expectations of the fucking landlords, which has never been dealt with before... The hyperfocus on "disruption" you sometimes see in here is really... something.

lostcolony 6y ago

Chain coffee houses are doing fine. And ever been to a McDonald's on a weekday morning? Community still has places, even if independent restaurants are likely going to reduce in number.

MattGaiser 6y ago

> Yes. Let's just kill all community space. Great idea. I too enjoy being a pod person. The problem is that a heck of a lot of people are ok with that. I'm one of them. When I went to university, the delivery apps arrived in the middle of my time there. I think I went to a restaurant a 5-6 times in the remaining two years after UberEats and SkipTheDishes arrived. I lived in the centre of downtown my final year and I didn't go to a restaurant downtown once. I'm an extreme case of wanting to be at my computer to be sure, but it only takes a small percent opting out to make slim margins go to zero. A lot of the demand for community type space was under a certain logistical duress. I either had to go to a restaurant, choose from a limited selection of delivered foods, or order takeout (and I may as well just eat it there if I have to make the journey anyway). That no longer exists and instead of paying for the overhead of the restaurant, my money goes to UberEats.

distances 6y ago
I also want to be on my computer, but I have never ordered food delivery and don't plan to change that. I'm lucky to have a wealth of restaurants nearby and I like it that way, so it's eat out or take-away when I don't feel like cooking. The price premium alone for delivered food makes the whole concept unappealing to me in inner city.