28 ms·

Phone is still the best way to order pizza

• intellix 5y ago
  Much prefer to open the app I use for all food orders and click 2 buttons to have it delivered. Using phone is a chore for many reasons: - Could be engaged and I have no idea when to try again - Having to explain anything over the phone sucks and prone for error - It's inefficient to hire a guy to answer phones all night
• lukaszkups 5y ago
  wait what? I have like 1 or 2 favorite pizzerias, they have their own web app, where I have my account, contact info & saved custom pizzas that I usually order. Ordering a pizza is like a 5 clicks for me and it will be also already paid online - I've noticed a pattern that if some restaurants doesn't have its own online way of ordering stuff I do really avoid ordering from them (or I order waay less often)
• blablabla123 5y ago
  Maybe I have a distorted view on that but when it was still normal that food delivery usually meant pizza delivery through the phone, it seemed there was much less exploitation going on and everybody was generally happier. Delivery people were then rather people going to school or studying and being happy about that money. Now it seems it's mostly people working full-time delivery and some places are just "dark kitchens". Now it's an innovation when the delivery process is without exploitation.
• joelbondurant1 5y ago
• pipeline_peak 5y ago
  I don’t understand his argument for having to create an account. Most of these apps allow logging in through Google or Facebook, or Email.
• jrib 5y ago
  Reminded me of this classic from 2008: http://hackedgadgets.com/2008/06/09/order-dominos-pizza-via-command-line/ http://hackedgadgets.com/2008/06/09/order-dominos-pizza-via-... Some notable results when I searched for the above: 1. cli tool written in go to order dominos: https://github.com/harrybrwn/apizza https://github.com/harrybrwn/apizza 2. vim plugin: https://github.com/arithran/vim-pizza https://github.com/arithran/vim-pizza
  • wyclif 5y ago
    Oh, yeah. I remember Pizza Party! Direct link: https://youtu.be/x7pPajOvQGo https://youtu.be/x7pPajOvQGo
• theshrike79 5y ago
  The local pizzeria I prefer runs their own website for orders, it's not as fancy as the app-based ones but it works and I know that 100% of the proceeds go to the pizza place and their drivers. Not some silicon valley giant who takes 99% off the top and gives 1% to their "platform economy" slaves.
• MattGaiser 5y ago
  That is the happy path. It has a lot more possible sources of error/time consumption than the app and there are many benefits to the app. 1. The line is busy. The app is next to never busy. 2. The line has static and you are not heard correctly. Especially problematic for delivery or complicated orders. Or they may get your name wrong. My first name is common and my last isn't great over the telephone. 3. You have to remember what you ordered each time. Apps let me quickly re-order. 4. You cannot easily pre-pay (irrelevant if you have cash, but if you are like me and wish to never use cash again, having to pull out the card is annoying rather than just grabbing the pizza). 5. Most places now seem to be on DoorDash, so you can just order from there and avoid the additional friction. You also know you can get excellent customer service from DoorDash while a new restaurant is an unknown.
  • Spooky23 5y ago
    Weird. Literally the opposite of my experience. I don’t do delivery except pizza because I don’t want to pay a premium for cold food. Websites always have built in timers that take longer. Usually 45m. Meanwhile I can call a pizza place, have pizza and wings ready in 15m, pay cash or whatever and have hot food. Order online, chances are it’s sitting there for 10m to avoid getting penalized on the SLA for online order pickup. Plus, shitty middlemen like DoorDash are gross. Why would I want to have someone take a vig off my business and have a worse experience by any measurement?
    • zenithd 5y ago
    • shagie 5y ago
      Dominos has a patent on this - https://patents.google.com/patent/US10262281B1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US10262281B1/en - and its rather accurate. The "its done" in the app or web page and it is within a minute or so of being able to walk out the door with it or have it show up. And ordering with Dominos you get a dominos driver - not a middleman.
      • 5y ago
• teeray 5y ago
  Yeah, but if you don’t collect their email address, you can’t spam them at will with “Trending Pizza Shops!” and “New York Style vs. Chicago”, and everyone’s favorite “Privacy Policy Updates” and “Winter Storm Pizza Prep”
  • MattGaiser 5y ago
    Just use separate emails? I really don't get all the ink spent on complaining about email spam and privacy of them taking emails and all that. I just use a different inbox for buying stuff.
• tyoma 5y ago
  This is only true for very simple orders. And may heaven help you if you and the person on the other end are both non-native English speakers. As soon as you want anything remotely custom, using an app or website is a lifesaver. And the good apps remember your order for one/two tap re-ordering. Chipotle’s app is one that does this extremely well.
  • mulmen 5y ago
    This is true but for me a pizza is a fallback plan for a long day or plans that fell through. So it is almost always the same or very similar order and I just want it now. My local pizza place actually asks if I want to repeat my last order or hear their specials. I can (to your point, re-) order a pizza in like 9 seconds.
  • Tempest1981 5y ago
    Chipotle’s app always says your food will be ready in < 10 minutes. Last week they had a 55 minute backlog due to sports and Covid-closures of neighboring stores. The poor workers. Their server needs a feedback channel from the stores. Or it should count the number of incoming items ordered per minute, and auto-adjust the "ready" time. Don't always show 5 minutes.
    • monocularvision 5y ago
      Yes, this. I am about ready to give up on Chipotle entirely because of the incredible lie that is their Ready to Pickup time. Last time I was there I would have saved time if I had just waited in their incredibly long line and ordered that way instead of doing them the favor of ordering ahead.
      • Tempest1981 5y ago
        You can use their in-app chat to cancel your takeout order while waiting in that line, or so I hear.
    • floatingatoll 5y ago
      Telling the customer to leave immediately for the store is the only viable solution for a time window that could be 7 to 55 minutes wide, if your priority is maximizing pipeline efficiency and throughout at the expense of occasionally making customers wait for up to 45 minutes in-store. Providing a <10 estimate to all customers ensures that they do their part by showing up in a timely manner, and removes their ability to blame the store for a cold pie. When the kitchen breaks down it may mean waiting in the store for an hour, but at least you’ll know that’s the case because you’re at the store on time. If the pizza’s ready in 7 minutes, you’ll be there in 10 and receive a hot pizza. If the pizza’s ready in 55 minutes, you’ll be there in 10 and receive a hot pizza eventually. You could theoretically try to offer more accurate arrival times, but then you’ll have to play queuing theory “fairness” games with the pizza queue versus in-person and phone orders to try and ensure that the pizza isn’t made too soon, as well as have to deal with people thay show up late and lie about the estimate shown in-app so they can get a new freshly-made hot pizza (which generates food waste). Doing this requires competent pizza personnel with a good understanding of how to manage expectations fairness, and if there one thing I would not expect from a Chipotle-sized business, it’s that — they’ll have maximized efficiency by removing human consideration from the equation altogether.
• fsloth 5y ago
  I like the "simpler is better" sentiment but for me it's actually nicer to order pizzas via my regional pizza franchise's web app and then pick then up. Four people. Preferences. I much prefer clicking them in in the app. This does not invalidate the sentiment in general - be as simple as possible - but the chosen example perhaps is not as obvious in all geographies.
• xahrepap 5y ago
  Not only invasive but restaurant websites are so buggy. For example, I tried ordering a Papa Murphy’s pizza the other day online. It used one of the major food ordering sites. It described “toppings. Pick 5. $2 per topping for extra toppings” So I chose a few toppings. It added $2 per topping. Period. Didn’t matter if it were red flakes, Parmesan cheese, bacon, onions, olives: $2/ea. So I’ll just order over phone from now on so I don’t have to worry about these crazy bug fees.
  • MattGaiser 5y ago
    Buggy restaurant websites pushed me the other way actually. If I am not in the mood to deal with a potentially/known buggy site, I will use DoorDash pickup instead. Costs a couple extra dollars, but would rather pay that than fill out a form 5 times, especially for complicated orders.
  • duxup 5y ago
    Papa Murphy’s app is horrible. It feels like if a computer generated it… or a “wizard” from the 1990. So many pages and adding toppings on to the pizza is treated like an exception where you have to click a checkbox just to indicate you want your pizza to have toppings…. Meanwhile the Dominos pizza app is super fast and easy, provides updates on status.
• post_break 5y ago
  I'm sorry but I don't agree. Dominos pizza has coupons, deals, etc. Trying to get those deals over the phone is a chore. Ordering specific toppings can be a chore since it's a relay back and forth vs a button. Multiple pizzas with multiple toppings? The delay just compounds. If you live alone and order one pizza or one style of specific themed pizzas then sure, it might be faster, if that's the metric of "best" but in no way is the phone superior to the app or website. Ever call a pizza place when they are slammed, usually when you order pizza? The guy or girl on the phone is in an absolute rush to get you off the phone for the next person who still uses the phone to call in. I just don't agree. There is one exception to this rule, pizza places who are not the big three. The mom and pop who doesn't have an app.
  • mulmen 5y ago
    When I was in college I could call my local Dominos, ask for a large pizza and a two liter of soda and at the end say "if I pick it up will you double it?" They never said no. A local pizza shop always offered the same deal so Dominos had no choice. Good luck doing that in an app.
    • dymk 5y ago
      Is this in the 80s or, like, 2019? I've never heard of this "will you double it" thing before. Is it just because the other local shop did it, or would you expect this to work at any Dominos?
      • mulmen 5y ago
        This was in the late 2000s. I don't think it would work at any other Dominos. It was just to match the other local shop. The connection I was trying to make is I didn't have to cut a coupon, that is pretty much the best possible pizza deal and it was always available.
    • LegitShady 5y ago
      Domino's here has a straight 50% off for students. Lots of late pizza delivery study sessions were had.
• Kiro 5y ago
  No. I hope I never have to make another phone call in my life. One click in the app and the pizza is at my door step 30 minutes later. Can't beat that.
• aaron695 5y ago
• jayunit 5y ago
  Can't pass up a chance to share the delight that is (was?) PizzaTool: https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-story-of-sun-microsystems-pizzatool-2a7992b4c797 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-story-of-sun-microsystems-...
• duxup 5y ago
  I strongly disagree. I find people’s ability to converse / comprehension very poor. I worked a pizza job answering the phone in a busy shop and getting verbal instructions while some people change their mind is terrible. A good app / website takes me under a minute to order a pizza, and it is consistently reliable. Logging in gives me my order history, address, and preferences. Usually I have to login maybe every couple months. If that.
  • mulmen 5y ago
    Do you have an example of such an app/website? My local shop used to have a decent website but they recently redesigned it and now it loses my login token and adds a bunch of steps to re-order. My experience with food ordering apps is universally negative and not trending toward improvement.
    • duxup 5y ago
      Dominos pizza’s app is pretty good.
  • tomjakubowski 5y ago
    > I find people’s ability to converse / comprehension very poor. I worked a pizza job answering the phone in a busy shop and getting verbal instructions while some people change their mind is terrible. That's the perspective from the business end. Maybe taking orders over the phone is worse for the shop and its workers, because of difficult calls like that. It's not a problem for the common case of a decisive caller whose speaking voice is understandable over the phone. > Logging in gives me my order history, address, and preferences. Usually I have to login maybe every couple months. If that. This could just as easily be saved locally without a login.
    • Turing_Machine 5y ago
      > It's not a problem for the common case of a decisive caller whose speaking voice is understandable over the phone. Have you ever worked taking orders of any kind over the phone? I suspect not. The "common case" isn't nearly as common as you seem to think it is.
• sbaildon 5y ago
  I bought a burrito during lockdown in the UK, but it was such a miserable experience. The menu wasn’t particularly intuitive, and took me a few minutes to pick out what I wanted — then I was greeted with a registration page. Email, password, phone, address, you name it, they wanted _everything_ — I only wanted to collect. They didn’t take mobile wallet payments either! Manual card entry! I feel like the restaurant recognised they had a problem, but contracted out a solution to the lowest bidder that actively went out of their way to design the worst UX. In the end I actually went ahead and built a platform that’s not user hostile. Im going to rewrite the landing page and do another round of marketing soon. The page that I wrote in an afternoon is far too negative in hindsight. It needs a positive spin. https://plated.direct https://plated.direct
  • nsomaru 5y ago
    Your demo page does not work
    • sbaildon 5y ago
      Thank you — the demo restaurant wasn’t set to be open 24h
• jimmyswimmy 5y ago
  Most of the comments here are focused on the question of why you would prefer an app to calling. The author's point is a great one though, and something I've wondered a lot. Why should I create an account to order a pizza? The app should reduce friction even from the very first order. Instead it adds, and adds for every order... Got to go look up coupon codes! On the phone I just ask the guy what their best deal is in a large cheese and garlic knots and he gives it to me. The app or website should make my life better but instead it's harder. Worse, the app pretends to be an unrelated party when something goes wrong. "Sorry, you need to call the store. Look up their number, it's on the website." For me it doesn't add anything to the transaction, it only takes away. The literal only reason I use the pizza app at all is for chains where I have no idea which store delivers to me. Rest of the time I've gone back to calling. Much faster that way.
  • jcelerier 5y ago
    > On the phone I just ask the guy what their best deal is in a large cheese and garlic knots and he gives it to me damn, you're lucky. I remember a few phone calls a decade ago where some brand had a sale on burgers, but they had a policy of waiting for me to dictate the coupon code over the phone... ugh
  • duxup 5y ago
    > Instead it adds, and adds for every order... Got to go look up coupon codes! I just stay logged in and several apps I have let me just browse and click on coupons.
    • deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  • lostgame 5y ago
    >> Why should I create an account to order a pizza? Most of the apps in my area (Toronto, Canada) absolutely do not require account creation and allow you to just use a ‘guest’ account; usually just requiring (reasonably) your phone number. As to why I’d want an account to order? Let’s say I have a local favourite pizza joint and a favourite pizza I like to order. Having my personal info and payment info already filled out and hitting ‘reorder’ makes ordering and paying a literal 5 second experience. Since it’s optional almost everywhere online and in app here; I don’t see the big fuss. I ordered from Jolibee last night and was happy to find out I didn’t need to make an account, since I don’t eat there often; unlike my local pizza joint. I used the guest system and my girlfriend just gave them my name and picked it up.
• jeffdubin 5y ago
  Large, semi-national pizza chain says "text your order and receive 20% off", so I skeptically text my order and promptly receive a reply with a link to continue to their website for confirmation and payment. Pointless.
  • chapium 5y ago
    I actually like this, in theory. Our local Jets does this and it makes it really simple to reorder pizza since all you do is look back 2 or 3 messages and copy the previous message. However, the implementation is not so great, it seems like randomly the pizza shop does not get the order or respond to it.
  • bronco21016 5y ago
    I’ve been using this for months now and the 20% offer has been there forever. After the initial jaunt to a webpage for payment you set up a pin. Every subsequent order you text the order, they respond, you enter the PIN, you go pickup a paid for pizza. My order is consistent and for me it works amazingly!
• DonHopkins 5y ago
  Just fax a PostScript picture of the pizza you want! https://medium.com/@donhopkins/the-story-of-sun-microsystems-pizzatool-2a7992b4c797 https://medium.com/@donhopkins/the-story-of-sun-microsystems... >The Story of Sun Microsystems PizzaTool: How I accidentally ordered my first pizza over the internet.
  • jrockway 5y ago
    Good reading. Seeing emails with 1990 as the date on them is amazing, and I love how they discuss things like banning discussing certain topics at work. I thought that was a creation of the 2020s, but nope... ever since people have been working together, some manager has been prescribing what they should and should not discuss. I also see that it was as ineffective then as it is now.
  • Bluecobra 5y ago
    I used to work at a company that ran all their proprietary applications on x86 Solaris 10 and used OpenWindows (same greenish color scheme) all the way up to 2014 or so. I would have loved to have had that pizza app! :) I still have a fondness for the simplicity of OpenWindows and how well it it handled virtual desktops. It was really cool to use on quad monitor setups.
• ecshafer 5y ago
  The biggest issue with phone call pizza ordering is currently that many places are still curbside pickup. I don't like giving my credit card over the phone, so an app is better.
• Karrot_Kream 5y ago
  No idea why the author had to make such a silly strawman to make such a cynical take about technology. Most of the pizza spots in my area have online websites that dump orders directly to the business. My partner and I frequently use that to order, and while we rarely do delivery, it's been unproblematic the few times we have ordered delivery.
  • a2tech 5y ago
    A local chain's website basically dumps to fax(!) to the selected store. It works...most of the time.
• jscholes 5y ago
  > Why not just have an image of a menu and a box where you type the order. Because then the menu wouldn't be readable, searchable, or adaptable by many people, including blind, low vision or dyslexic users. Meanwhile, the people who could read it could type any old freeform nonsense into the box... nobody has to care about spelling on a phonecall or proper ordering system.
  • MattGaiser 5y ago
    Also assumes that people will type useful instructions and not "I want two of the pizzas with the red stuff", failing to note size, crust type, or what the "red stuff" they are referring to is.
• amelius 5y ago
  Only for pickup orders, not deliveries.
• kingcharles 5y ago
  I hate ordering anything on the phone in the USA because no-one understands my British accent. "No, I want extra tomatoes. TOM-AH-TOES. Oh jesus. Onions. Just put some onions on there."
• vmception 5y ago
  Apple ID w/ pseudonymous relay and maybe phone number verification and Apple Pay is a tolerable sign up process for me My food was even delivered by a robot that texted me Granted, I had called the restaurant first because I didnt know why they werent on the other food delivery apps anymore and they told me which one, I also wasnt picking up as it was delivery.
• jackjeff 5y ago
  The sign up is more complicated but once you’re in, it’s much easier. Pretty sure I can re-order on most app in less time it takes someone to answer the phone.
• woodruffw 5y ago
  On top of the UX, ordering by phone (or walking up and ordering, if you have that privilege) keeps companies from firing their dedicated delivery guys. It's already a dangerous and physically taxing job; I'd rather tip them cash and know that they have a dedicated route than having to zip around the city trying to figure out whether The Algorithm is going to nudge people to buy McDonald's or Taco Bell today.
• Macha 5y ago
  Ordering on the phone means that I need to pay cash, which means I need to have cash, which means I need to walk to the ATM, which means I may as well walk the extra two to three minutes further that the takeaway place is from the ATM and skip the delivery fee altogether. Also yeah, trying to explain an order to be heard by someone trying to relay it back to a noisy kitchen in some of these takeaway places which don't have a dedicated person to man the phones is also a problem.
• oceliker 5y ago
  I remember posting this in a similar thread a while ago but I’ll repeat it here. As an international student with an accent and an uncommon name, I will literally never order a pizza over the phone.
  • ryanlol 5y ago
    But why would you care if the pizza place gets your name right? My name is difficult too, but I just don’t give restaurants my real name.
    • oceliker 5y ago
      True, I go by Mike in Starbucks. I guess I can do the same there. I guess it hasn't occurred to me because I never actually called a pizza place :) My point about the accent is still valid in my opinion. It's difficult to call someone in a loud restaurant and and try to get a point across.
      • ryanlol 5y ago
        Oh yeah, I’d assume that most people hate calling restaurants :) It’s been a loong time since I last phoned in a pizza order, but for restaurant reservations it’s a daily thing (lots of places do have tables even though online booking says “full”).
• culturedsystems 5y ago
  Needs a [2005] tag
  • theandrewbailey 5y ago
    > 27 January 2022
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• ruraljuror 5y ago
  My pizza place offers SMS text ordering and it is definitely the best option for ordering, especially when ordering a custom pizza. The only issue is that! he automated response includes a wait time which can be inaccurate, but I recognize this and follow up with a quick call.
• iwanttocomment 5y ago
  Who on earth has ever ordered just a "large pizza for pickup"? Without specifying ingredients, type of crust, anything. This is like ordering a chair by phone from a furniture store by dialing the number, saying "Armchair for pickup" and heading on over to the store. Why reserve books online from the library? Just call them and say "10 books for pickup" and then hang up.
  • tamaharbor 5y ago
    Back in the day in NYC, I always ordered simply a ‘large pizza’. Cheese only and thin crust were assumed.
    • kzrdude 5y ago
      This is wild, I didn't know such default pizzas existed (my context: scandinavia)
      • hnal943 5y ago
        I'm USA and had no idea adults ate cheese pizza.
        • thehappypm 5y ago
          .. your pizza doesn’t have cheese?
        • rcpt 5y ago
          Proper Naples pizza doesn't have toppings. There are regulations https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/en/ricetta_pizza_napoletana https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/en/ricetta_pizza_napoletana
        • throwaway2037 5y ago
          How about Pizza Margherita in Italy? It is one of the most common pizzas for adults to order.
• cm2012 5y ago
  I just timed myself and was able to get to the final button of ordering a delicious pizza on DoorDash in 8 seconds.
  • mulmen 5y ago
    I find this hard to believe. When did you start the count? At opening the app? Did you decide on a pizza before ordering and attempt to order that thing or did you just accept the first deal you saw to save time?
    • cm2012 5y ago
      Right before I clicked the app. First recently ordered restaurant on first tab waw my favorite pizza place. Top item on the most popular menu was cheese pizza. Add to cart, checkout
      • mulmen 5y ago
        Ah. My preferred pizza has four toppings and a slightly different sauce. I can (re)order it in 9 seconds over the phone. The website requires a login then clicking on "add last order to cart" then a checkout flow. So closer to 60 seconds.
• bovermyer 5y ago
  "Best" is subjective. For me, the ideal way to order pizza is one where I can order exactly what I want quickly. Trying to order a pizza I want through a phone takes a _hell_ of a lot longer than using a website. An example of a pizza I typically order: * Thin crust medium, low cheese, BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce, half with jalapenos and pineapple, half with mushrooms and diced tomatoes Phone orders are slower and prone to miscommunication. Online apps, however, are precise and quick. Therefore, the best way to order pizza given the criteria I specified above is through a website.
• racl101 5y ago
  Big pizza chain - I prefer app and I expect to find a coupon for a deal Local pizza place - most times I have no choice but phone and it's all good. Usually local pizza place is better tasting but more expensive. You know you're gonna pay more.
• ajkdhcb2 5y ago
  I hate talking on the phone. I'd rather pay a huge price markup than have to do that. Delivery works so well in my area that i just make some taps on my phone and food arrives at my door with no human contact. Incomparable experience compared to talking on the phone and then going out and picking it up.
• pugworthy 5y ago
  I go to one of our little local shop and place the order to go along with a beer while I wait. Drink the beer, read on my Kindle, chill to their music, and before you know it the pizza is done and I'm on my way home. But then I haven't ordered from a chain pizza place in years. The little local shops are far better, and appreciate your direct business over using any service that adds fees, etc. I'm more than happy to pay more to help keep them around.
  • mulmen 5y ago
    Hah, this is really interesting! This is the one case where an "engagement" metric actually makes sense. Is your storefront inviting enough that a customer would place an order in person just to hang out for a few minutes? And does that drive sales (beer?). Incredible.
    • MattGaiser 5y ago
      I have never seen a restaurant try to sell you a drink while awaiting your pickup order, but it seems like quite a clever idea.
      • mulmen 5y ago
        I was at a brewery/restaurant recently. They have a small beer garden attached to the waiting area. You put your name on the list for a table and can grab a beer while you wait. It took about 20 minutes to be seated but walking to our table we noticed there was no shortage of available seating. We also noticed that the beer garden prices carried something like a 40% premium.
      • pugworthy 5y ago
        Well, they don't make it a selling point, but they should. $1 off a pint while you wait kinda deal maybe?
  • mdoms 5y ago
    You're the only person in this whole thread who gets it. I hope I never become the kind of person who starts thinking about basic interactions in terms of number of seconds spent, chances of a minimum wage worker making a minor error in an order or how much I can get delivered without leaving my home office or speaking with a human.
• theHNAcct 5y ago
  I would prefer a slower/unrushed system without social interaction. I am a reader of HN.
• lostgame 5y ago
  >> On average, it takes no more than 20 seconds: >> Dial number >> Say: “Large Pizza for Pickup” >> Hear: “OK. 15-20 minutes.” ‘Large pizza for pickup.’ Hilarious. The author must know this is an absolute best-case scenario. The #1 issue anyone who has ordered pizza on the phone is of course them getting the order right. Lots of us are not content with ‘large (whatever) pizza’. I have had orders wrong via phone orders probably a couple dozen times. I’ve never had a mobile order go wrong. I’m not sure if I’m just lucky, but the margin for error is certainly higher on the phone. What if the line is busy; and you are put on hold? I actually tried to order Pizza Hut off the phone by calling my local Pizza Hut and was sent to a generic call center where I was put on hold for at least a couple minutes before I reached someone who even asked for my phone number and the location of the store… It might take a moment to set up the app the first time (many of these apps here in Canada offer a guest signup page), but if that’s your pizza joint of choice, an app kicks ass. Assuming I’m ordering the same thing as last time; I typically spend about 5 seconds in the app. And how about paying in the app and just picking it up? I could honestly go on - but calling into pizza places is one thing I sure as hell don’t miss; and my only recent experience was a rough reminder of why I’m so glad this much more straightforward web/mobile option exists.
• josh2600 5y ago
  You can build this right now with https://github.com/mobilecoinofficial/forest#a-forest-of-signal-bots https://github.com/mobilecoinofficial/forest#a-forest-of-sig.... We have programmable chatbots running today that will accept payment for goods and services with just a phone number and cryptocurrency (caveat emptor, crypto is volatile and we're still in the very early days of building the on and off-ramps for mobilecoin, but we'll get there).
• jedberg 5y ago
  I always prefer to order online, even if I have to sign in. There is just so much more fidelity in the data transition when I type it myself instead of relaying it over the phone. My orders are always right when I do it online, but only like 50% right when I do it over the phone.
• yeison 5y ago
  This guys just completely ignoring that it's much easier to pay in the app?
• huffmsa 5y ago
  Not only that, but they know me by number and how I sound so I get a 20% employees and family discount. (Which I more than offset by buying beer when I get their early and the tip)
• jdavis703 5y ago
  And how does he pay for the pizza? Cash? Check (do they even take checks these days?) Seriously, I can open the Toast (they started off making POS software) for my go-to pizza place. I can look to see if their special of the day looks worth ordering. If not, I go to my default. Then comes the fun part: payment. They have Apple Pay enabled, so I let them save my Apple Pay token. So even if Toast gets compromised, they won’t have my card number. And I definitely have to worry about some underpaid cashier taking the card number I read off over the phone.
  • mariojv 5y ago
    You just pay when you pick up the pizza, card or cash. If it's delivery, you just read out your card number to them or pay the driver in cash. Are you in the US? When I was in Mexico, delivery people carried devices to process credit card payments with them. That's less common here.
• scaredginger 5y ago
  Definitely feels like standardisation could be a solution to the author's woes. Given food ordering places can have templates that fit most restaurants' menus, we ought to be able to define open standards for these and then anybody could make a client to interface with a restaurant's system. Payment is probably the only part that couldn't be made standard, but you generally don't pay over the phone anyway
• _RPL5_ 5y ago
  But over the phone you have to talk to a person. When I use an app, it's not because I want to save time. It's because I want to avoid having to talk to people. English is a second language for me, maybe that's why, but even in my native language I dread making a call to a live person. I have to hype myself up for a few minutes, before I pick up the phone.
• fma 5y ago
  There's a grocery store in the Southeast called Publix. They have a pretty awesome deli. You can order w/o creating an account. All you need is name, phone and email. You can give them a fake name, phone number and email if you want. You don't even need to pay on-line. Any specials they have the week gets applied without an account, unlike other grocery stories (Looking at you, Kroger...selling customer's digital data).
• perth 5y ago
  With all the pizza places near me going under and stopping delivery, DoorDash is slowly becoming the only way to order pizza.
• billiam 5y ago
  Aren't you just saying a single threaded human voice interface is better than machine to machine and HCI to solve this one problem? You have at least 2 FA or 3FA with the phone call: your callerID # looks real, you respond appropriately, your voice sounds real too. Everyone wants one basic item from the pizza shop, so little interaction is needed. Sure, you could be a prank caller, but you both implicitly agree to conditionally trust each other.
• jaxomlotus 5y ago
  how did this article gloss over the fact that the second time you use an app, it's infinitely easier than calling, because all the information is already stored inside. It literally could be 1 single click to be done.
• ajaimk 5y ago
  You couldn't be more wrong. I just ordered my go-to pizza order from Dominos today with 3 button clicks. Was already signed in, click easy order, add tip and place order. As for "why do they need the last name" = credit card? As for adding my address in... It was already saved from last time. As for the pizza place mishearing my order on the phone... o wait, that didn't happen. And lately, I don't want to wait on hold or talk to another person. This is just displacing personal opinion on everyone else. Also: Please avoid posting the "dominos sucks" comments. Let's focus on the tech here.
• 0xbadcafebee 5y ago
  Phone is the only method that supports all pizza places and prevents any barrier to ordering. It is the best method by default. I've lived all over the USA, and I like pizza. In big cities, the closest pizza place is not a franchise. In small towns, often no pizza place is listed on an online service, the closest pizza place is literally a gas station, nobody takes credit cards, and delivery makes no sense. People in the suburbs are the only ones whose closest pizza place is a franchise with an app. I have run into a slew of tech problems when trying to order online. Often I am not ordering from a chain, so I have to either walk through some bizarro custom website that doesn't work half the time, or I have to call anyway. If I want a deal, I'll look online, but I make the order by phone and pay at pick-up. The phone is the only thing that always works. Speaking my order is literally faster than clicking through a form. Even if you're deaf or blind, you can order pizza over the phone without issue. And besides all of that, "ordering services" (Slice, GrubHub, Uber Eats, Doordash, etc) are actively detrimental to small business. Because people aren't calling in and ordering and are instead trusting these websites' listings (that the business owners did not list), the customer doesn't get their order or it's delayed or screwed up, and then they leave a negative review for the business on Yelp/Google, even though it's not the business's fault. More people should order over the phone, if only to ensure they actually get what they want, and how long it will take before they order.
  • mariojv 5y ago
    I agree with you wholeheartedly that phone ordering is the best method, and I use it myself most of the time. It's always been the best method except during the busiest takeout periods at the busiest restaurants. I just wanted to point out one nitpick, when you mentioned this: "Even if you're deaf or blind, you can order pizza over the phone without issue." That is true, but that doesn't mean that online ordering systems cannot help people with disabilities. My brother does not have to live alone, but if he did, he is mute and has trouble using a speaking device. An app would be far easier for him than a phone call. In other words, accessibility requires both systems, not one or the other.
• dfdz 5y ago
  > Phone is still the best way to order Pizza Best for whom? [1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/dining/restaurant-phone-line-call.amp.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/dining/restaurant-phone-l...
• doomrobo 5y ago
  One argument in favor of offering BOTH phone and textual ordering interfaces is accessibility. If someone is deaf or hard of hearing they might not be able to call and order, and they may not be able to find someone at the moment to do it for them
• notreallyserio 5y ago
  > On average, it takes no more than 20 seconds... to be put on hold for a few minutes.
• funstuff007 5y ago
  web3 can solve the sign up problem. or https://slicelife.com/ https://slicelife.com/ lets you use google or apple IDs. or your sign up on your own. so maybe no need for Web3 here.
  • robobro 5y ago
    you don't need "web3" to solve sign up problems; there's already oauth from web2 :-)
• ddingus 5y ago
  Heh! My local pizza place knows me. "Hey [name], you want the usual?" "Yeah, and add some chicken, 8 piece, mixed" "You got it, that will be [total], anything else?" "Nope, delivery please." Sometimes I pick it up too.
• spcebar 5y ago
  I don't disagree with any of the author's points, but if I'm ordering over the phone I either need to pay by cash, which I never have, or say my credit card number out loud to a random stranger.
• Lamad123 5y ago
  On the other side of the communication channel things are even worse! You'd think not calling the restaurant would free the workers so they spend more time making food, but it doesn't always. Now a restaurant would have 3 or more tablets, one for grubhub, another for doordash, etc. There is no way for you to tell the customer you don't have green pepper, you don't have the time to update the thing so people stop ordering a particular item. The customer will still get charged and then complained or you might have to call them and tell them you don't have that thing. This shit happens so often that i's just not worth it. You also have to pay a premium for it sometimes.
  • Lamad123 5y ago
    Sometimes you have to scroll through that fucking screen and there would be a long list of identical items that only differ on some tiny details like extra ranch.. You scroll on that thing with your grease-covered gloves or might have to take them and use new ones and there are a million other things to do!
• theandrewbailey 5y ago
  I agree, I always call pizza places to order. Last time I ordered from Dominos, it was clear that the person on the other end was not located on site (sounded like she was working from home), and was putting my order into an app or site. I was only ordering a pizza and salad and it took about 5 minutes: way longer than it should have. Most of it was waiting on her part.
• egypturnash 5y ago
  I just ordered a pizza tonight. Went to the main site for the local pizza joint, clicked on the link to the ordering page for the proper location (there’s two of them), constructed a custom pizza order, entered my contact info and credit card, and about 25 minutes later there was a guy at the door with a hot pizza. No accounts, no apps, just a website built sometime in the nineties that works perfectly fine. Or maybe a little later, I’m looking at the source and there’s a comment in the HEAD with a 2011 date. Took maybe a minute or two, including taking the card out. If I’d called I might have had to wait on hold while they dealt with another order, they only have the one line. I am pretty sure that’s what happened when the site was broken for a month or two last year.
• DecoPerson 5y ago
  Fraud & pranksters. That’s why you need to create an account & pre-pay when ordering online. You can reduce fraud a few ways. One is friction: - Calling takes time. It can’t be automated. - The pizza shop can blacklist a phone number. Acquiring new ones to keep defrauding is difficult. - Creating an account and solving a captcha can be automated, but the barrier for entry is higher. - Requiring pre-payment is a big one… it costs you money! If you actually pay with your own card, it’s not really even fraud anymore. If you pay with stolen details, then you had to acquire those which is really difficult. - Emails can be blacklisted. Re-usable email domains (such as Mailinator) can be blacklisted. Creating a new email on most sites is a bit of effort. Another is traceability (make the fraudster scared): - Most countries require a real identity to be linked to phone numbers. Hence phone orders are a worthy gamble to accept without requiring a voice captcha, pre-payment, an email, etc. - Pre-payment requires a real card. If it’s yours and you do a chargeback, you can be traced. Cards can be blacklisted. If you’re using stolen details, then the store can get the police involved. The best way is detection: - Even if you can automate phone calls, the employees taking the orders would notice patterns eventually, even in the short conversations where you give only first name, number, and the order. People are really good at detecting patterns (though it might take a few successful fraud attempts before they become aware). - As accounts & emails get blacklisted, the online site can employee expensive third-party fraud detection software, which does work AFAIK. It looks at thing like data entry speed, IP addresses, order size, issuing card bank, etc. If fraud is suspected, it usually results in an additional soft barrier, such as SMS verification, rather than a hard block. This brings it back to phone numbers & their need for real identity verification — increasing friction & traceability. This should explain nearly all the things mentioned by the OP. Anything else, like needing to enter your age or whatever, can be explained by some marketing executive desperately trying to hit their KPIs.
• thewebcount 5y ago
  So much this. At my local pizza shop, the owner answers the phone and he recognizes my voice. I live on a street that is someone’s last name. (Let’s say Jones.) As soon as I say “Hello,” he says, “Mr. Jones! So good to heat from you! What would you like?” Contrast this with using Papa John’s (or whoever’s) app. Since I didn’t sign up for an account, it makes me re-enter my address every time instead of storing it locally on my phone, etc. Not to mention the constant upsells. Do you want a large 2-liter bottle of cola with that? No. How about butter sauce? What? No. Chicken wings? Kill me.
  • vidanay 5y ago
    My pizza place has caller ID hooked into their POS computer. When I call, it brings up my order history and I can literally say "same as last time" and my order is complete.
• k__ 5y ago
  I think, I haven't ordered food via phone for 15 years or so. We have some okayish delivery websites here in Germany that don't even require a sign up. Open the website, enter my address, choose a shop, choose food, and pay.
• not2b 5y ago
  Yes, and if you call the restaurant directly to order the pizza, the restaurant and the delivery person get the money, and you don't have some company skimming most of the profit. Restaurants are struggling after two years of Covid and I want my money to go directly to them, not to some company with an app. So I order direct whenever possible.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• marcodiego 5y ago
  https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-story-of-sun-microsystems-pizzatool-2a7992b4c797 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-story-of-sun-microsystems-...
• mastazi 5y ago
  I don't understand one point: how can you order a pizza without giving your address (which is apparently what the article is describing)? Is this something specific to the USA? Perhaps in the US there is a way for the pizza shop to retrieve an address from a phone number? Also, the pizza shop is probably using a landline phone, how are they going to know the caller's number? I know that some landline phones are supposed to show the caller's number on a display, but in my experience (Italy, Australia) that feature doesn't work half of the times. Do you folks in the US have a more reliable system?
  • bschwindHN 5y ago
    From the article: On average, it takes no more than 20 seconds: Dial number Say: “Large Pizza for Pickup” Hear: “OK. 15-20 minutes.” Pickup is the keyword here, they'll be driving over to get it instead of delivery.
    • mastazi 5y ago
      oh, pickup, yeah I missed that, thank you. It all makes sense now.
• steelframe 5y ago
  One of my local pizza chains has a system where they give you an order number and an ETA, and they text you when it's ready. Sometimes on super-busy nights I show up at the ETA time to find a full parking lot. I know I'll need to park down the street and keep listening to my audiobook until the text comes, usually 7 or 8 minutes later. I can then walk in, give them a 3-digit order number, and depart with my pizzas. Of course they could always collect the info they need over the phone and provide you with an order number once they enter it into their system. But then it really isn't any faster than me just ordering through their web site. While we're on the subject of shaving seconds off how long it takes for us to order pizzas, I've noticed that this thread currently has about 10,000 words of user-generated content. At an average of 50 words per minute, it represents about 200 minutes of effort so far. (Back-of-the-envelope, suspicious method of word counting, but it's in the neighborhood.)
• gmiller123456 5y ago
  Having worked at a Dominoes for 5 years, well before apps were a thing, I can say the benefit of an app is for the business. While the author's account of ordering a pizza by phone is quite efficient, it almost never goes like that. Most customers ask a lot of questions and don't know what they want, and this costs time for the employees. We had one customer who was notorious for taking 10-15 minutes to order, even though in the end he always ordered the same thing. He certainly wasn't the norm, but would make up for dozens of the "large peperoni, thanks" orders.
• jccalhoun 5y ago
  meh. I really hate talking on the phone for some reason. When calling an order in it is usually worse because they are usually busy, you have to repeat it to make sure they get it right, spell you name (and my name is pretty standard Anglo-Saxon). On an app or website, I don't have to talk to anyone and I can see the order is right.
• thom 5y ago
  You would have to tear the Deliveroo app out of my cold, greasy hands. It’s years since I attempted to order something for delivery over the phone but even just thinking about it now makes me flinch.
• CarVac 5y ago
  If true, how do you order a "none pizza with left beef" on the phone?
• kemayo 5y ago
  Okay but, and hear me out here, I hate talking on the phone. I cannot stand the difficulties of mutual accent-interpretation and talking over restaurant crowd noise. I will always use an app/website to order if it's an option, even if it's technically less efficient. (Similarly, I also hate ordering at drive-throughs because the intercoms are generally terrible. I'll get out of my car and walk inside to order if that's an option.)
  • unsignedint 5y ago
    I agree with sentiment. Sometimes I develop anxiety as it is sometimes difficult to tell if other side actually got my order correctly until I receive it. (Though this is definitely not limited to restaurant order.) With apps or website, if orders are wrong, at least I can rule out miscommunication, let alone arising from a lossy information over voice.
  • function_seven 5y ago
    The Taco Bell and Chick-fil-a apps are amazing. I spend as much time as I want going over the menu, customizing my items as I see fit (steak instead of ground beef, or creamy salsa dressing instead of avocado lime), and pay for it before I get in the car. When I drive up, I just say "online order for function_seven" and they say, "cool, we'll have it at the window". The staff taking orders from the speaker are often doing 2 things at once. They're also taking money from another car or prepping orders as well. They don't catch every nuance, and screw it up half the time. Not their fault! They're not being allowed to focus on one thing. The app is like skipping that unreliable middleman and putting my order directly into their system.
    • samtheDamned 5y ago
      > I spend as much time as I want going over the menu, customizing my items as I see fit (steak instead of ground beef, or creamy salsa dressing instead of avocado lime) Having worked in fast food for a long time, I've noticed that with the rise of ordering on mobile apps, a lot of the apps have started to nudge customers to customize their orders way more. It can be somewhat frustrating to be on the receiving end of orders that would normally sound extreme to order over the counter or through a drive-thru speaker, but the app makes it seem fine. They're usually not a problem other than slowing down the line, but getting them in a rush can be a nightmare. I do have to say though, I do like the ability to browse the menu without feeling like I have to hurry up and order, and I think the benefits of ordering through an app generally outweigh the downsides.
• themadturk 5y ago
  I cannot tell you how much money I've save at Round Table Pizza by earning points. Can't do that over the phone (that I'm aware of). And, if you want to downgrade to Dominos, for a long time pre-pandemic I was able to get large single-toppings for $7 each if I ordered via the app -- nothing even close to that on the phone or in the store.
• franzwong 5y ago
  If the app adds guest order, does that solve author's problem?
• nvr219 5y ago
  Domino's web app is the one to beat here. Superior to phone - it remembers my past custom orders, remembers multiple addresses, gives me a free pizza every once in a while, my kids get to watch the gps of the delivery driver (creepy imo but hey it sells)
• tegiddrone 5y ago
  One thing changed this for me: Apple Pay. The fact that when implemented properly I can just select what I want on a website and my fingerprint pays for it while also filling in my shipping address. Sold. I actually have to REALLY want something to order it online otherwise. Finding my card and dealing with account creation is a barrier.
• _8j50 5y ago
  I can order pizza with uber eats just fine. I don't like taking calls and dealing with store people directly. Haven't had any issues outside of lost drivers and slightly cold pizza which I don't mind. Even before app ordering was a thing I preferred a website because they can't hear me wrong and get my order wrong that way. I only used dominos back then but they had excellent UI. Could be a personality thing, like how some people actually like taking meetings and working from the office. To each his own, glad we have options.
• jjeaff 5y ago
  One of the local Thai restaurants here uses some sort of software integrated with their phone system and it is amazing. When I call, they know my name, address, and they already have my order history and credit card on file. I literally call them up and rattle off what I want. Or say, same order as last time, and done. They then show up at the door with the food and I can put the tip or the receipt.
• bkraz 5y ago
  Best of all worlds: A website that doesn't require account sign-up, shows current wait time and special menu items, allows payment in-person or online, and doesn't even require an email address if you don't want to provide. The regional pizza place, Round Table does exactly this, and I really like the chain and their pizza.
• meatmanek 5y ago
  Something I haven't seen mentioned in the article or any of the comments so far: Estimates for when the food will be ready tend to be way more accurate over the phone (as the person taking the order actually knows how busy the restaurant is). In my experience, most online ordering estimates are padded by 20-30 minutes (so the website will say it'll be ready in 40 minutes, but it's actually ready in 10), presumably because the restaurant doesn't have the time/ability to be updating ETAs throughout the night, and it's better to overestimate than underestimate. You also have the option of easily cancelling your order if it's going to be too long - I've even had a restaurant warn me it was going to be a long time: > > Name of Restaurant, how may I help you? > I'd like to order for pickup. > > We're very busy right now, it would be at least an hour. > Oh, nevermind, thank you.
• bennysomething 5y ago
  Local pizza delivery place users Uber eats and dilveroo, they send a note with all orders saying that Uber and deliveroo take a 30 percent commission and to please use another service that only take 6 percent. How the hell do Uber and diveleroo expect businesses to survive when they are taking 30 percent of their revenue!?
  • Ekaros 5y ago
    They don't expect themselves to survive if they do not take 30%... How else will you pay back the VC money and expensive software-engineers, marketing and everything else... The reality is that using humans to deliver food is expensive. And food is already low margin business...
• seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  I use the MOD Pizza app a lot, if I order MOD pizza in person I’ll go for a branded pizza since choosing ingredients is too troublesome. With the app, it’s easy enough to customize the pizzas being ordered. Couple that with online payment, and it’s just so easy to walk 5 minutes, grab my pizzas off the take out counter, and get home (the only reason to not use it is because pizza isn’t very healthy). We have one Vietnamese restaurant nearby that doesn’t do app ordering, and a Thai me that does. Suffice it to say, we get lunch from the Thai one alot more than the Vietnamese one because it’s sooo much easier than calling the order in and then fumbling with a credit card to pay once there. Facebook makes the sign up friction disappear, but if you don’t use Facebook, you wouldn’t get that benefit.
• zanzibar735 5y ago
  This is exactly how I used to order: - "hello" - "medium cheese pizza for delivery" - "1 main st?" (they have caller id) - "yes" - "should be there in 20 mins" (it was)
• giorgioz 5y ago
  At https://www.waiterio.com https://www.waiterio.com we offer a free whitelabel website with takeaway for restaurants. We are damn close to the firstname and phone number: https://pizzeria-da-giorgio.waiterio-staging.com https://pizzeria-da-giorgio.waiterio-staging.com Only thing more is currently entering the pickup time. We could default it to something... 30 minutes?
• hawski 5y ago
  As much as I don't like it phone is still _the_ way to deal with various issues, requests and orders. Doubly so in Germany. All those moves to squeeze the lemon by digital platforms just prolong the pain.
• flibble 5y ago
  Co-founder of https://flipdish.com https://flipdish.com here (Unicorn whitelabel online ordering provider). We felt very similar to the author in 2015 — utterly frustrated needing to enter email address, be asked for a DOB!!, create a password etc before being allowed place an order. We set out to design an app that required a minimum number of taps from opening app to placing an order. By using geo-location, using a phone number for authentication instead of email (delivery drivers are going to want a phone number), having sensible defaults (like presuming you want to order for ASAP unless you say otherwise), we build an app where people can open it for the first time, register, order and pay in under 20s. We initially automatically logged people in silently on Android by detecting their phone number, sending a verification SMS and intercepting it in the app. This was viewed as more spooky than good UX, so we had to reverse course a little and add another manual step in that case. But other little UX niceties remained, like extrapolating the customer’s name from the name of their iPhone (chances are you phone us called “[first name]’s iPhone”) to save them typing it in. I think it would be quite difficult to manage a production system that lets people pay with cash but not log in, as it would be so easy for a single script kiddy to take all your restaurants offline by placing fake orders over and over. You would be amazed (or maybe you wouldn’t) at how little business owners think about UX. We get so many requests to require a DOB before being allowed placing an order so they can send birthday messages to customers. A nice summary of the state of affairs by UK comedian Michael McIntyre https://youtu.be/O5FeZti1cjs https://youtu.be/O5FeZti1cjs
  • phoboslab 5y ago
    Co-founder of https://topchef.de https://topchef.de here (bootstrapped whitelabel online ordering provider, focusing on the German market). We felt the same. It's truly amazing how bad the UX of many competitor apps is and how little business owners think about it. Sometimes it's an uphill battle to even explain to business owners why being on takeaway.com is stupidly expensive - after all, at the end of the month they _receive_ money from them, instead of paying a monthly subscription fee. Congratz to your unicorn status :)
• Geee 5y ago
  90% of time, I don't really care about what food I want to eat, I'm just hungry. Whether it's ordering online or with a phone call, the most annoying and time consuming part is going over available restaurants and food options etc. So, I wish I had a "food"-button on my desk. When pressed, random food would be delivered to me.
  • EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 5y ago
    I get food rations delivered to my door. 6 dishes every day, totally random, I don't know what next package will contain. It's pretty funny.
• dkdbejwi383 5y ago
  I like to order from apps because: - it helps to find new places I wouldn’t otherwise have ordered from - I can spend 15 minutes being indecisive if I want. I’m not sure someone in the shop would want to spend that amount of time reading the menu to me over and over
  • Ekaros 5y ago
    Not to mention I can spend the 15 minutes comparing different places.
• tpoacher 5y ago
  > When ordering pizza for pickup, there is no easier way to do it than using a phone. On average, it takes no more than 20 seconds That is, until they realise that adding an artificial 10 minute delay, with elevator music interspersed with "Our operators are all busy. You are in a queue. Have you tried our app?" before a phone operator is even alerted to your call, will likely drive people back to the app where the real data is collected and profiled. My gas company provides a number for you to call, which is 'great' for those queries that aren't covered by their FAQ section ... but this has never been answered sooner than 30 minutes, and that's excluding the initial menus to get to the point you want, which easily take about 10 minutes to get through. My average wait on the phone is about 50 minutes. "Did you know you can do this on the app?" typically comes up every 2-3 minutes during that call.
• freetime2 5y ago
  I live in a country where the local language is not my first language. Phone conversations are so much harder than in-person conversation due to the lack of visual cues and poor audio quality. Or sometimes you just get someone who is really difficult to understand. Even with something as simple as ordering a pizza, I’m really glad there’s an app for that (and it’s even translated into English!)
  • refactor_master 5y ago
    You call. It’s Friday. Rush hour. His hands are full, so you’re on speaker. Pizza guy is Italian. You’re not. Neither of you know the NATO alphabet. I’d take the app any time.
• jzb 5y ago
  I’m guessing this author doesn’t regularly order delivery for a family or a group larger than three. If, say, my brother is over I need to order at least 3 pizzas including something vegan and a salad for my wife. Specifying all of that over the phone while somebody is at the store with everything going on in the background is always a PITA. Plenty of places have order systems that allow guest checkout with no account if you don’t want to create one.
  • Closi 5y ago
    Absolutely - put your order in and pass it on to the next person to add their stuff. So much easier! Ordering on the phone might be faster for some people and bad apps, but I find ordering on the app more chill. I can be sure what I ordered, see the whole menu with the latest pricing, and get delivery updates without ringing back. (As a sidenote - i'm not sure it's actually faster though, particularly as most people seem to be talking about repeat customers. I usually order from Dodo's Pizza (dodopizza.co.uk) and just opened the app and attempted to order a pepperoni pizza for pickup, and the whole interaction took c10 seconds. I logged out and tried and it took 15 seconds instead as they have sign in with Apple).
    • Macha 5y ago
      > Absolutely - put your order in and pass it on to the next person to add their stuff. So much easier! And hope the staff member has taken proper notes while dealing with everything else going on and not put the extra bacon on the vegan burger or the coleslaw in with the picky eater's meal?
      • Closi 5y ago
        I mean pass the app on, I'm agreeing with OP.
• bell-cot 5y ago
  Phone, for sure. These days - if they are too under-staffed to answer the phone, I don't want to order and then wait. And wait. And wait... And usually from a little regional pizza chain - which has ~30 "Gourmet" options (popular combinations of sauce and 3-5 items, at a slight discount) to speed up deciding & ordering. Plus a Caller ID/Order History system, so I can tell a new employee "my usual".
• bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
  Phone is best for one simple reason: the actual price.
• op00to 5y ago
  What? I have to give name, address, credit card information, order information… or click two buttons in an app and get a pizza.
• iso1631 5y ago
  "Lage pizza for pickup", what is this, Soviet Russia? 1) Why would I go out and pick it up 2) What is a "large pizza". What toppings? 3) What happens when someone walks in and says "I ordered a large pizza", they take yours, you then turn up and yours is no longer there It also misses steps like "find out what the number is of the pizza place in the first place"
• ioman 5y ago
  My local pizza place in Seattle has moved the technology the other way. Here’s the dialog when I call. “Pagliacci Pizza, how can I help you?” “I’d like to order a pizza” “Sure thing. Is this John Smith?” “Yes” “Do you still live at 1234 Main Street” “Yes” “Would you like to order the same thing you did last time?” “Yes” “Ok, it’ll be there in 20 minutes” Even better, while you talk to the store you called, the order goes into some sort of pizza load balancer and gives the order to the least busy store with a good drive time to your house. I’d seriously like to buy/have a beer for/with whoever designed it.
  • sdnas211 5y ago
    My local pizza place (not a chain) does this. But manually. If you call they will ask if you want the usual. Then that is it. No confirmation of address, price, anything. I can literally call and say "I want a pizza" and unless I want different toppings, that is the whole process.
  • lamby 5y ago
    > “Would you like to order the same thing you did last time?” The next iteration of this clearly for them to call you when you are likely to be hungry (and/or drunk) and ask you this. :)
  • thehappypm 5y ago
    Best pizza in Seattle, too.
  • sdoering 5y ago
    Wow. This sounds like an interesting project. Would love to share some coffee with the designer as well. And in hindsight obvious in times of my phone transmitting my number to the other party.
  • MAGZine 5y ago
    Jet's Pizza in New York allows you to text in an order, including saying "last order". ... unfortunately its then hooked up to a bad webui to review/complete the order, and their text to data interface is bad at trying to guess what you want unless if you specify things exactly how they're written in the menu.
• erenyeager 5y ago
  Worst part of apps for me is accessibility. I have dietary restrictions I need to inquire the restaurant about and make modifications the food preparation staff understand. Also don’t allow enough space if any for writing about customizations and they don’t allow you to emphasize them like you can with a human. In this case, the technology makes things harder for those of us who fall outside the “default”.
• MihaiSandor 5y ago
  Or the annoying "accept all cookies" pop-ups that, after reading them and redirecting you to dozens of options, forget why you entered that app / website.
• nottorp 5y ago
  > This is one of those situations where signing up is irrelevant, just like with most mobile apps1. In theory I should be able to autocomplete first name and phone number (maybe credit card2) and voilà my pizza is in queue. So... the phone should give your personal data to any app that pretends to deliver pizza? On a tangent, I think the best thing about food delivery apps is they inform you there is other food than pizza in the world. Even if most of it is junk-y, still some variation sounds more healthy than the same thing every day.
• ramoz 5y ago
  Uber Eats is just as simple if not simpler. Doesn’t need extensive analysis.
• oneplane 5y ago
  Imagine someone trying to attack you by simply ordering many paid-on-delivery services to your house... man, wouldn't it be great that to order something like that you had to do a bit more validation or proving you say who you are? Oh wait, that's exactly what is happening. (as a side-effect) I also don't understand the “Large Pizza for Pickup” bit, do you just get a random pizza? What size is 'large'? 25cm? 35cm? 40cm? more? What is on it? Cold fish and milk? Used car oil and yesterday's bread? This all seems to be hyper-personal and while that is fine, it doesn't really mean that everyone wants to order this way. Especially when you simply do not want to call or talk to someone.
  • lyjackal 5y ago
    Exactly. It’s not really hypothetical. I first heard about the pizza delivery attack it on dark net diaries podcast: https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/97/ https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/97/ It was used to make someone give up his Twitter/Instagram account handle. They sent him tons of pizzas from different restaurants, and started also attacking other family members
• AuthorizedCust 5y ago
  This is hilarious because I just read a NYT article about restaurants ditching phones. I submitted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30137434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30137434. Among the arguments is hourly wages paid for an inefficient job duty. If done right, or if you are ok accepting lost business from disgruntled customers, ditching the phone can be a decent idea. I’d like to hobble my work phone by removing voice mail.
• astura 5y ago
  >On average, it takes no more than 20 seconds I order a lot of pickup. You're calling a busy restaurant whose employees don't have time to answer the phone and take your order so you end up spending at least 3x that waiting on hold or waiting for someone to answer/not busy signal. I thought online ordering was silly when I first heard of it (it was the year 2003, Papa John's was the restaurant) but after using it, I totally get it.