3 ms·

Can somebody explain to me what the problem in the US is? I mean here I choose food, I order it, pay it and it gets delivered in less than 30 minutes (usually).

Can somebody explain to me what the problem in the US is? I mean here I choose food, I order it, pay it and it gets delivered in less than 30 minutes (usually). It does not require not exhibit magical thinking to do so. What step does not work in the US? Do people call pizza delivery and before it comes sacrifice some small animals? :-)

soared 6y ago
I don’t know where you’re located, but I live 2 miles from downtown and it takes at least 15 minutes to drive there. So the restaurant would need to see my order, immediately start cooking, and drive immediately to me after it’s done to accomplish the same. Plenty of other problems, but our urban/suburban sprawl presents challenges.
- andi999 6y ago
  Well here it is also probably 10min. And yes, the restaurant probably sees the order, immediately starts cooking and immediately drives to me. Why would they delay this process? For the pizza joint one can track the process online and it seems to be frictionless.
  - m4rtink 6y ago
    At least one local pizza place even shows a map when you can track the delivery vehicle in real time once it gets on it's way. :)
m4rtink 6y ago
Yeah, here in a smaller town in Europe (Czech Republic) you just call to the restaurant (basically 100% pizzerias provide deliveries, others case by case) say what you want & they will tell you an estimate when it will come. Then after a while a guy in a car shows up, you pay him (usually in cash, some accept meal tickets) and you get your food. And the service is not limited to the town but also the villages around it. Some restaurants have their own cars, some cooperate with taxi companies. A fairly new addition to this are what I would say are "food aggragator services", like: https://www.damejidlo.cz/en/ https://www.damejidlo.cz/en/ The provide a common interface for restaurants that cooperate with them in a given area, so you just search the street or location you are in and it will show you the restaurants that provide deliveries in that area & their menus. The main added value is in this case convenience - you can just click what you want and have ti delivered without calling someone. They also have their own cars so they can offer deliveries from restaurants that otherwise don't offer deliveries. Also they make it possible to pay for most deliveries by card. The downside is of course that not every restaurant that does deliveries is in their system & substantial cut they are taking from the money that goes to the restaurant to cover their services. Which most likely explains why there are restaurants missing in their list.
cpuguy83 6y ago
In addition to suburban sprawl... These delivery/logistics companies are really trying to be marketing companies rather than behind the scenes logistics. Customers go to the delivery company to order their food rather than to the restaurant. Restaurants pay fees just to be listed. Delivery company gets a cut of every sale AND they charge the customer a delivery fee AND a "service" fee, which I've found to be roughly 2x the tax rate (which is very high here already). Restaurants a lot of the time make menu items more expensive to offset the cut of the sale that the delivery company takes... which also makes the "service fee" charged to the customer higher. Don't forget, still need to tip the driver, because they are not being paid a living wage. It is a shit business. Companies trying to be unicorns and don't want to be relegated to being behind the scenes. Even with all the insane fees, they still don't make money. Make a habit of asking the restaurant how they'd prefer you to place your order.

soared 6y ago

I don’t know where you’re located, but I live 2 miles from downtown and it takes at least 15 minutes to drive there. So the restaurant would need to see my order, immediately start cooking, and drive immediately to me after it’s done to accomplish the same. Plenty of other problems, but our urban/suburban sprawl presents challenges.

andi999 6y ago
Well here it is also probably 10min. And yes, the restaurant probably sees the order, immediately starts cooking and immediately drives to me. Why would they delay this process? For the pizza joint one can track the process online and it seems to be frictionless.
- m4rtink 6y ago
  At least one local pizza place even shows a map when you can track the delivery vehicle in real time once it gets on it's way. :)

m4rtink 6y ago

Yeah, here in a smaller town in Europe (Czech Republic) you just call to the restaurant (basically 100% pizzerias provide deliveries, others case by case) say what you want & they will tell you an estimate when it will come. Then after a while a guy in a car shows up, you pay him (usually in cash, some accept meal tickets) and you get your food. And the service is not limited to the town but also the villages around it. Some restaurants have their own cars, some cooperate with taxi companies. A fairly new addition to this are what I would say are "food aggragator services", like: https://www.damejidlo.cz/en/ https://www.damejidlo.cz/en/ The provide a common interface for restaurants that cooperate with them in a given area, so you just search the street or location you are in and it will show you the restaurants that provide deliveries in that area & their menus. The main added value is in this case convenience - you can just click what you want and have ti delivered without calling someone. They also have their own cars so they can offer deliveries from restaurants that otherwise don't offer deliveries. Also they make it possible to pay for most deliveries by card. The downside is of course that not every restaurant that does deliveries is in their system & substantial cut they are taking from the money that goes to the restaurant to cover their services. Which most likely explains why there are restaurants missing in their list.

cpuguy83 6y ago

In addition to suburban sprawl... These delivery/logistics companies are really trying to be marketing companies rather than behind the scenes logistics. Customers go to the delivery company to order their food rather than to the restaurant. Restaurants pay fees just to be listed. Delivery company gets a cut of every sale AND they charge the customer a delivery fee AND a "service" fee, which I've found to be roughly 2x the tax rate (which is very high here already). Restaurants a lot of the time make menu items more expensive to offset the cut of the sale that the delivery company takes... which also makes the "service fee" charged to the customer higher. Don't forget, still need to tip the driver, because they are not being paid a living wage. It is a shit business. Companies trying to be unicorns and don't want to be relegated to being behind the scenes. Even with all the insane fees, they still don't make money. Make a habit of asking the restaurant how they'd prefer you to place your order.