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The goal is to kill the competition, no local delivery service can compete with a few million in VC funding. Once you are the only delivery in town you can rais

by josefx 6y ago

The goal is to kill the competition, no local delivery service can compete with a few million in VC funding. Once you are the only delivery in town you can raise the prices all you want and force the local restaurants into one sided deals on your terms. It also has a rather questionable legality

tt433 6y ago
When it's goods and not services (delivery is the service here, I guess, not the food as a good), usually it's termed dumping, and I'm fairly sure it's illegal. I don't know if that language ever gets used for services.
jimmaswell 6y ago
> no local delivery service can compete with a few million in VC funding A simple ordering form on the restaurant's own website always gets preference from me and seems to usually end up being the first result on Google/Google Maps.
- jiofih 6y ago
  No, part of the problem here is that the big delivery company will always win in SEO.
  - jimmaswell 6y ago
    It doesn't in my experience. Google Five Guys near you, the actual first result ignoring ads will almost certainly be their website or even its order form. Same for every local restaurant with an order form I've tried it on.
    - kaslai 6y ago
      A lot of "local restaurant order forms" are actually sites set up by the likes of GrubHub, Uber Eats, etc. Not all of them, but it's one of the sneaky ways they use to insert themselves.
- retrac 6y ago
  But people like you and me are in the minority. Most young people I know, when they want to order takeout, go directly to their preferred delivery service on their smartphone, select from what comes up, and consider nothing else.
ashtonkem 6y ago
It’s not clear how that’ll work in the long run, since there’s no protective moat to protect GrubHub once they’ve outspent their competitors. Pizza companies can re-hire delivery drivers if GrubHub tries to charge monopoly prices, and the bigger chains are fully capable of making their own ordering apps. At this point I currently order my takeout through at least 3 separate small competitors to GrubHub. That these exist while GrubHub is still trying to use VC funding to push everyone out of the market makes me doubt that they’ll be able to recoup their investment without new competitors arriving.

by josefx 6y ago

tt433 6y ago

When it's goods and not services (delivery is the service here, I guess, not the food as a good), usually it's termed dumping, and I'm fairly sure it's illegal. I don't know if that language ever gets used for services.

jimmaswell 6y ago

> no local delivery service can compete with a few million in VC funding A simple ordering form on the restaurant's own website always gets preference from me and seems to usually end up being the first result on Google/Google Maps.

jiofih 6y ago
No, part of the problem here is that the big delivery company will always win in SEO.
- jimmaswell 6y ago
  It doesn't in my experience. Google Five Guys near you, the actual first result ignoring ads will almost certainly be their website or even its order form. Same for every local restaurant with an order form I've tried it on.
  - kaslai 6y ago
    A lot of "local restaurant order forms" are actually sites set up by the likes of GrubHub, Uber Eats, etc. Not all of them, but it's one of the sneaky ways they use to insert themselves.
retrac 6y ago
But people like you and me are in the minority. Most young people I know, when they want to order takeout, go directly to their preferred delivery service on their smartphone, select from what comes up, and consider nothing else.

ashtonkem 6y ago

It’s not clear how that’ll work in the long run, since there’s no protective moat to protect GrubHub once they’ve outspent their competitors. Pizza companies can re-hire delivery drivers if GrubHub tries to charge monopoly prices, and the bigger chains are fully capable of making their own ordering apps. At this point I currently order my takeout through at least 3 separate small competitors to GrubHub. That these exist while GrubHub is still trying to use VC funding to push everyone out of the market makes me doubt that they’ll be able to recoup their investment without new competitors arriving.