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Very important note (near the bottom of the post) on why Doordash did what they did: > Note 1: We found out afterward that was all the result of a “demand test

Very important note (near the bottom of the post) on why Doordash did what they did: > Note 1: We found out afterward that was all the result of a “demand test” by Doordash. They have a test period where they scrape the restaurant’s website and don’t charge any fees to anyone, so they can ideally go to the restaurant with positive order data to then get the restaurant signed onto the platform.

bb611 6y ago
It doesn't fully explain why they priced a $24 pizza at $16. I wouldn't be surprised if they're subsidizing purchases, but just skipping fees doesn't explain that.
- vkou 6y ago
  They are taking a loss on every order, but they are hoping to make up for it with volume.
  - nelaboras 6y ago
    You can't make up for it in volume if each order makes a loss and you get no benefit from having more orders (they still pay each time the full price to the restaurant!)
    - shawabawa3 6y ago
      (that's the joke)
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  Lets them inflate the order count for the pitch.
- Talanes 6y ago
  "My second thought: I knew Doordash scraped restaurant websites. After we discussed it more, it was clear that the way his menu was set up on his website, Doordash had mistakenly taken the price for a plain cheese pizza and applied it to a 'specialty' pizza with a bunch of toppings."
- kabacha 6y ago
  Web-scraping is hard man, especially with mom-and-pop restaurant websites that are often exported straight from microsoft word or some ancient "platform" that got reconfigured 20 times over. As article pointed out it picked up full-toppings pizza as plain cheese.
  - ramraj07 6y ago
    But they still paid full price to the restaurant! Someone in doordash knew the real price at some point then!
    - shiftpgdn 6y ago
      The full price was paid because a door dash card was used to pay for the order on pickup.
      - yreg 6y ago
        Which should have triggered some sanity check indicating that their scraped data is way off.
        icebraining 6y ago
        Maybe there are so many triggers that they can't keep up.
        sumedh 6y ago
        In the end you need someone to look at those alerts, maybe they just got missed.
        Super_Jambo 6y ago
        They wanted high orders for the negotiation when getting a new restaurant signed up. "Hey in the last month we delivered X amount of your food! If we don't list you then you'll lose those sales."
  - bvm 6y ago
Traster 6y ago
Can you imagine getting that call "Hi, little Pizza place, we've been fraudulently impersonating your business, dragging your brand through the mud and pissing off all your customers selling your pizza at a loss, clearly we're the sort of people you need to do business with"
- Spivak 6y ago
  I think there's a huge grey area between "hire a 3rd-party person to pick up your food and deliver it to you" and "impersonating your business." Like DD, GrubHub, or whatever aren't pretending to be the restaurant (shady website bullshit notwithstanding). They're just saying that they can buy and drive the food to you on your behalf.
  - FireBeyond 6y ago
    Absolutely they are. They'll set up phone numbers and answer as though they're your restaurant. They'll set up websites (which I think you allude to? "they aren't pretending to be the restaurant... other than setting up a website pretending to be the restaurant"). They'll pretend to be the end customer if they have to.

bb611 6y ago

It doesn't fully explain why they priced a $24 pizza at $16. I wouldn't be surprised if they're subsidizing purchases, but just skipping fees doesn't explain that.

vkou 6y ago
They are taking a loss on every order, but they are hoping to make up for it with volume.
- nelaboras 6y ago
  You can't make up for it in volume if each order makes a loss and you get no benefit from having more orders (they still pay each time the full price to the restaurant!)
  - shawabawa3 6y ago
    (that's the joke)
MattGaiser 6y ago
Lets them inflate the order count for the pitch.
Talanes 6y ago
"My second thought: I knew Doordash scraped restaurant websites. After we discussed it more, it was clear that the way his menu was set up on his website, Doordash had mistakenly taken the price for a plain cheese pizza and applied it to a 'specialty' pizza with a bunch of toppings."
kabacha 6y ago
Web-scraping is hard man, especially with mom-and-pop restaurant websites that are often exported straight from microsoft word or some ancient "platform" that got reconfigured 20 times over. As article pointed out it picked up full-toppings pizza as plain cheese.
- ramraj07 6y ago
  But they still paid full price to the restaurant! Someone in doordash knew the real price at some point then!
  - shiftpgdn 6y ago
    The full price was paid because a door dash card was used to pay for the order on pickup.
    - yreg 6y ago
      Which should have triggered some sanity check indicating that their scraped data is way off.
      - icebraining 6y ago
        Maybe there are so many triggers that they can't keep up.
      - sumedh 6y ago
        In the end you need someone to look at those alerts, maybe they just got missed.
      - Super_Jambo 6y ago
        They wanted high orders for the negotiation when getting a new restaurant signed up. "Hey in the last month we delivered X amount of your food! If we don't list you then you'll lose those sales."
- bvm 6y ago

Traster 6y ago

Can you imagine getting that call "Hi, little Pizza place, we've been fraudulently impersonating your business, dragging your brand through the mud and pissing off all your customers selling your pizza at a loss, clearly we're the sort of people you need to do business with"

Spivak 6y ago
I think there's a huge grey area between "hire a 3rd-party person to pick up your food and deliver it to you" and "impersonating your business." Like DD, GrubHub, or whatever aren't pretending to be the restaurant (shady website bullshit notwithstanding). They're just saying that they can buy and drive the food to you on your behalf.
- FireBeyond 6y ago
  Absolutely they are. They'll set up phone numbers and answer as though they're your restaurant. They'll set up websites (which I think you allude to? "they aren't pretending to be the restaurant... other than setting up a website pretending to be the restaurant"). They'll pretend to be the end customer if they have to.