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Door Dash? You mean the company that takes 30% on top of the driver fees and delivery fee? That company? The company that, when you call restaurants, they’ll

Door Dash? You mean the company that takes 30% on top of the driver fees and delivery fee? That company? The company that, when you call restaurants, they’ll ask you not to use because it’s so expensive for them that they’re losing money on the already thin margins of food sales? That one can scale? I believe it can scale, sure. But some company that only takes 5-10% cut will some day eat its lunch, I hope. I like reasonably priced food.

MattGaiser 6y ago
I think the problem is even taking 30%, the model barely/still does not work financially. Having someone drive halfway across town to deliver food is never going to be cheap.
- crispyporkbites 6y ago
  This is it - we can’t all afford personal delivery services and our own chauffeur. It’s nice when it’s vc funded though
- t-writescode 6y ago
  Yet somehow local pizza shops have been able to do it for decades. There would probably be more benefit in having small sets of delivery drivers for all deliveries and all businesses in a small, square mile or 3, area; and probably something that isn’t trying to power a whole country’s purchasing habits.
  - jfim 6y ago
    > Yet somehow local pizza shops have been able to do it for decades. Pizza is a really high margin business. From this article [0]: > Consider the ingredients – flour, yeast, water, sauce, cheese and toppings. None of these are expensive, particularly when purchased wholesale. To build a small cheese pizza the cheese is the most expensive ingredient at $0.60, with the dough adding about $0.24 and the sauce $0.05. That adds up to $0.89 for a basic cheese pizza that could be sold for many times that amount. [...] One estimate of the cost of a meat pizza with pepperoni and sausage is $1.90 for food costs and an average retail cost of $14.00, which translates to a 636 percent markup. [0] https://smallbusiness.chron.com/much-profit-margin-pizza-62139.html https://smallbusiness.chron.com/much-profit-margin-pizza-621...
    - MattGaiser 6y ago
      You beat me to it. The economics of pizza are uniquely good. Spending 30% on the cost of delivery does not matter in that case.
    - romanoderoma 6y ago
      It's crazy how much pizza costs in USA In Italy pizza costs a third of that
      - MattGaiser 6y ago
        You can get a whole pizza for $5?
        wikibob 6y ago
        Yes 5 euros when ordered in person. On deliveroo, 7-9 euros for something that’s easily 3x higher quality and taste than in the US https://deliveroo.it/it/menu/firenze/bellosguardo/pizzeria-o-scugnizzo https://deliveroo.it/it/menu/firenze/bellosguardo/pizzeria-o... https://deliveroo.it/it/menu/firenze/bellosguardo/pizzeria-o-scugnizzo https://deliveroo.it/it/menu/firenze/bellosguardo/pizzeria-o...
        MattGaiser 6y ago
        Those pizzas are a lot smaller than US pizzas judging by the knife and fork though.
        romanoderoma 6y ago
        Size does not matter You will find a great variety of pizza sizes, from the giants to the tiny, I for example prefer smaller pizzas, I don't like feeling bloated after eating a big one, but the price is always the same (more or less, you can pay 15 euros for a pizza in Italy, but it's not the norm ) If you refer to the fact that pizza is usually shared in US, we have a different kind of pizza for that, it's called pizza al taglio (sliced pizza, but it's not really the same thing) and you can have an entire pan for 12-18 euros, but at least 4-5 people can feed on it and you can have different toppings
- vladf 6y ago
  What about drone-based delivery instead?
bsder 6y ago
Yes, DoorDash ... the company responsible for almost all restaurants adding sealing stickers to the bags because the drivers were losing food (I'm being nice ...). DoorDash got a lot of bump from the fact that they were booted and scaled for online operation as the pandemic hit--they were the only option for delivery for a lot of restaurants for quite a while. This has changed. Restaurants are realizing that controlling the delivery experience is worth profit. They can sign up with an online ordering website service for far less than DoorDash. If they have their own drivers, they can control the quality and timing (make a batch of <n> orders all together and send the driver out).
jimbob45 6y ago
Agreed. The headline reads like, “Soprano family proves family businesses can still thrive in corporate America”.

MattGaiser 6y ago

I think the problem is even taking 30%, the model barely/still does not work financially. Having someone drive halfway across town to deliver food is never going to be cheap.

crispyporkbites 6y ago
This is it - we can’t all afford personal delivery services and our own chauffeur. It’s nice when it’s vc funded though
t-writescode 6y ago
Yet somehow local pizza shops have been able to do it for decades. There would probably be more benefit in having small sets of delivery drivers for all deliveries and all businesses in a small, square mile or 3, area; and probably something that isn’t trying to power a whole country’s purchasing habits.
- jfim 6y ago
  > Yet somehow local pizza shops have been able to do it for decades. Pizza is a really high margin business. From this article [0]: > Consider the ingredients – flour, yeast, water, sauce, cheese and toppings. None of these are expensive, particularly when purchased wholesale. To build a small cheese pizza the cheese is the most expensive ingredient at $0.60, with the dough adding about $0.24 and the sauce $0.05. That adds up to $0.89 for a basic cheese pizza that could be sold for many times that amount. [...] One estimate of the cost of a meat pizza with pepperoni and sausage is $1.90 for food costs and an average retail cost of $14.00, which translates to a 636 percent markup. [0] https://smallbusiness.chron.com/much-profit-margin-pizza-62139.html https://smallbusiness.chron.com/much-profit-margin-pizza-621...
  - MattGaiser 6y ago
    You beat me to it. The economics of pizza are uniquely good. Spending 30% on the cost of delivery does not matter in that case.
  - romanoderoma 6y ago
    It's crazy how much pizza costs in USA In Italy pizza costs a third of that
    - MattGaiser 6y ago
      You can get a whole pizza for $5?
      - wikibob 6y ago
        Yes 5 euros when ordered in person. On deliveroo, 7-9 euros for something that’s easily 3x higher quality and taste than in the US https://deliveroo.it/it/menu/firenze/bellosguardo/pizzeria-o-scugnizzo https://deliveroo.it/it/menu/firenze/bellosguardo/pizzeria-o... https://deliveroo.it/it/menu/firenze/bellosguardo/pizzeria-o-scugnizzo https://deliveroo.it/it/menu/firenze/bellosguardo/pizzeria-o...
        MattGaiser 6y ago
        Those pizzas are a lot smaller than US pizzas judging by the knife and fork though.
        romanoderoma 6y ago
        Size does not matter You will find a great variety of pizza sizes, from the giants to the tiny, I for example prefer smaller pizzas, I don't like feeling bloated after eating a big one, but the price is always the same (more or less, you can pay 15 euros for a pizza in Italy, but it's not the norm ) If you refer to the fact that pizza is usually shared in US, we have a different kind of pizza for that, it's called pizza al taglio (sliced pizza, but it's not really the same thing) and you can have an entire pan for 12-18 euros, but at least 4-5 people can feed on it and you can have different toppings
vladf 6y ago
What about drone-based delivery instead?

bsder 6y ago

Yes, DoorDash ... the company responsible for almost all restaurants adding sealing stickers to the bags because the drivers were losing food (I'm being nice ...). DoorDash got a lot of bump from the fact that they were booted and scaled for online operation as the pandemic hit--they were the only option for delivery for a lot of restaurants for quite a while. This has changed. Restaurants are realizing that controlling the delivery experience is worth profit. They can sign up with an online ordering website service for far less than DoorDash. If they have their own drivers, they can control the quality and timing (make a batch of <n> orders all together and send the driver out).

jimbob45 6y ago

Agreed. The headline reads like, “Soprano family proves family businesses can still thrive in corporate America”.