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Uber Eats Nationwide Shipping
- throwaway22june 4y ago
- donsupreme 4y agonow you can buy an In-&-Out burger + fries from the east coast for $100
- bombcar 4y agoIs this an extremely delayed April fools joke? I also wanted to parse it as "Uber devours, consumes, masticates Nationwide Shipping" and that they had bought DHL or something.
- rilindo 4y agoI look forward to ordering my favorite Thai delivery[1] from LA [1] http://www.tgexpress.net/ http://www.tgexpress.net/
- Apocryphon 4y agoWonder how In-n-Out burgers would taste if they were frozen like White Castle sliders.
- yellowapple 4y agoI don't know about the burgers, but I'm reasonably sure if they did that for the fries it'd be a vast improvement.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Arrath 4y agoHaving it delivered probably won't take much longer than it would to get through the drive-thru line.
- HideousKojima 4y agoReminds me of Ezell's Chicken in Seattle. Apparently Oprah loved the place (they had a big photo of her on the wall that she'd written a fairly lengthy note on) and supposedly she would regularly have their chicken delivered to her by plane from Seattle to her home in Chicago.
- celim307 4y agoWhich is wild cause I lived in both and while ezelles is good, there’s tons of just as good places in Chicago
- whywhywhydude 4y agoI thought it was a April 1 joke. Are they planning to freeze the food first before shipping through Fedex?
- telecuda 4y agoTypically these things will ship deconstructed and require minimal cooking/assembly, like a weekly meal delivery kit. For example, you might receive a roll in one type of packaging and the sandwich contents in another, boxed with a few freezer packs.
- enlyth 4y agoMe too, what kind of nonsense is someone paying 200 dollars for some reheatable pasta and having it delivered thousands of miles? It sounds like an exercise on how to create the most wasteful and ridiculous business ever.
- agentdrtran 4y agoGoldbelly does this, it's very much a luxury/gift thing but yeah I don't get it
- kube-system 4y agoOmaha Steaks has been mailing frozen meat around for 70 years Meal kit companies are also pretty booming at the moment
- yellowapple 4y agoWell yeah, but neither Omaha Steaks nor meal kits are advertised as being already prepared. Sending frozen steaks or a refrigerated box of ingredients seems far more reasonable than flying an entire already-made pizza cross country.
- kube-system 4y agoGrocery store freezer sections are full of pizzas shipped half way across the country. I imagine that these food items will be shipped in an appropriate manner as well, or they won’t be very successful.
- telecuda 4y agoI’ve used GoldBelly to ship Philadelphia tomato pie to Florida for an inflated price. Same idea. It’s great for special occasions and gifts.
- wombat-man 4y agoYeah it just looks like a goldbelly competitor.
- 88913527 4y agoIs this market bigger than I might be thinking it to be? It's a cool feature, but my investor hat seems less thrilled. It seems expensive and seldom used. But the profit margins could be good.
- aaaaaaaaata 4y ago> It seems expensive and seldom used. You Have (1) Missed Call from: 1-800-FLOWERS
- Ekaros 4y agoWhat if they get the order wrong? Also, is there anyway they have logistics to handle something like this?
- bergenty 4y ago
- nonameiguess 4y agoI was in New York last Christmas, as for most Christmases since my wife's family all live there, and my wife insisted we stay on the lower east side because she went to school there and had some nostalgia. The end of the block our hotel was on had a place called Katz's Deli with a line that was around the corner and a several hour wait pretty much starting at 7 AM or earlier every morning. We never went because I didn't want to stand in line for that long, but I noticed the side of the building said they'll ship nationwide. That seemed crazy to me, like no matter how good the meal is, it can't possibly be as good once it's been in transit for a day. What sorts of meals don't degrade in texture and taste within a few hours of being cooked? I would love to send my friends and family in other parts of the country some great Texas BBQ that has no equivalent anywhere else I've ever been, but even that isn't nearly as good once it has gone cold and been reheated. Unless you ship it in a humidor, I don't see how you avoid losing moisture. Is that what they do?
- bergenty 4y ago
- fennecfoxen 4y agoThis post amuses me because of the classic Katz Deli slogan of WWII: “Send a salami to your boy in the army!”
- blakesterz 4y agoI can answer this! Last Christmas someone sent us a big box of stuff from Katz's. The meats (there were 3 or 4) were vacuum packed, and there was some condiments and some bread and I forget what else. It was all packed in a big box with ice packs. I think it was shipped over night from Katz's. I assume that most deli meats don't lose much being packed up like this? I can't say for sure, but this kind of stuff is probably already served in a similar state, not right out of the oven. So I can only assume it tasted more or less like it would if we have gone to Katz's. The bread no doubt would be better fresh. It all tasted... ok. I expected it to be awesome, but it was just ok.
- lastofthemojito 4y agoI had Goldbelly ship me a brisket from a BBQ place in Texas and I felt like it traveled well. It shipped frozen, and they provided instructions on thawing and reheating, and it really turned out to be delicious. Not quite as good as fresh from the smoker in Texas, but better than brisket I can get in my area.
- gordon_freeman 4y agoThis seems strange especially when the target market seems small as I don't see many people would have such cravings to get NYC food delivered to LA. But I am not sure. On the other hand, I would really love to get some Neapolitan pizza from Napoli. :)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- IceMetalPunk 4y ago:O I attended college in upstate New York, and I practically lived on the pizza from one particular pizza place there. I've been back home for 7 years, and I still crave it and miss it. If they expand from NYC to the larger New York area and include that one pizza place... I will pay any premium for it. To anyone saying "but the pizza will be cold": I used to order an extra large chicken-bacon-ranch pizza just for me, and have refrigerated -- and not reheated -- leftovers all week. Still delicious. I've tried to recreate that pizza myself many times, and it never comes out quite the same. ...now I want pizza, dammit.
- king-geedorah 4y agoWhich spot?
- IceMetalPunk 4y agoPizza da Vinci! (Not to be confused with the many restaurants around the country named DaVinci's Pizza.)
- efrank02 4y agoMister Shoes?
- IceMetalPunk 4y agoNope, Pizza da Vinci! (Not to be confused with the many restaurants around the country named DaVinci's Pizza.)
- craftkiller 4y agoBruh, I Loves on 4th was so much better than that poor imitation of pizza bella.
- IceMetalPunk 4y agoIf I remember right, I Loves was okay, but not even close to Pizza da Vinci, in my opinion.
- jthirkle 4y agoWhat a fantastic waste of carbon emissions to fly some donuts across the country, rather than buying something locally
- barbazoo 4y agoI thought this was hyperbole but it's almost verbatim their 2nd sentence. What a waste of all kinds of resources.
- hef19898 4y agoHaving worked in logistics and fulfillment for eCommerce, I am fairly certain this service will stop as soon as someone starts to look at actual profitability. Problem just might be that nobody does for quite some time.
- kube-system 4y agoYou underestimate what Americans are willing to pay for convenience. People already pay nearly double to order from local restaurants now on these platforms.
- londons_explore 4y agoSteep carbon pricing is the only way to fix this... Only when a good chunk of your salary is going into carbon taxes will you choose to do things that don't have hidden carbon costs.
- tmp_anon_22 4y agoVCs seem to love supporting luxury services they themselves want to consume. Which is understandable, but in bad taste given how many of their portfolio companies are doing layoffs and hiring freezes. Rescinding offers. Etc.
- Ekaros 4y agoThis level of insane decadence being offered by a capitalistic company just might tell us how close we are to crash of current civilization. I somehow understand factory made food, or even transporting items that last good while, but individual orders?
- throw03172019 4y agoI thought April Fools day was a few months ago.
- Ekaros 4y agoI suppose someone needed to take it up after Diablo Immortal launched...
- aaaaaaaaaaab 4y agoAs if they aren’t bleeding money fast enough…
- nowherebeen 4y agoYou are basically eating microwave food when it gets there. For $200, you might as well go to a restaurant in-person.
- wildmanx 4y agoRead the room, Uber. We are in a climate crisis.
- renewiltord 4y agoAh, they're going after Goldbelly. Checks out.
- kilroy123 4y agoForget this. I just want to be able to buy something from the other side of the city. There are such small delivery areas for large cities (London). I desperately want to order from a favorite place in the city but I'm out of the area. I would be happy to pay extra and wait a bit longer for this perk.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- shtopointo 4y agoThis must be a marketing thing, right? (I had to check the date to make sure it wasn't April 1st) The use case is bagels or pizza across the country? If you don't eat those within the hour they're not good anymore. Other than that, I really can't think of a situation where I would be willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for cold food.
- dawnerd 4y agoDoordash has had similar. Such an incredible waste of resources.
- yellowapple 4y ago> If you don't eat those within the hour they're not good anymore. Blasphemy. Pizza is best when served cold the next morning.
- lotophage 4y agoI assume that they have to be reheated at the destination city before delivery. They may even be cooked there. In Australia several years ago you could get "freshly baked" French croissants from the supermarket. They were actually frozen "parbaked" goods that were cooked on the day.
- erikpukinskis 4y ago> If you don't eat [bagels] within the hour they're not good anymore This is a very New York/New Jersey perspective. And I respect that your palette is too refined to ever accept a non-fresh bagel. But there are people who live outside of NY/NJ, who don't have a bagel shop down the street. And you may be surprised to learn that some of us love bagels, and will even eat a toasted bagel. I understand this is an abomination no New Yorker or New Jerseyan would ever touch. But I can assure you many of us with lower standards get quite a bit of joy out of a good re-toasted bagel. If a bagel is sliced and frozen shortly after baking it actually keeps fairly well. Again, I can't recommend you ever try a toasted bagel yourself. You would certainly be disgusted by it, as any respectable New Yorker would be. But for the rest of us they can be quite enjoyable.
- bocytron 4y agoI first thought it was some kind of april fool's joke. Many people who care about climate change are taking their bike to go to work, or avoiding taking a plane for their holidays, and then there's this. I am genuinely shocked.
- bee_rider 4y agoThis seems like it will require coordinating with the local entity (I mean they aren't going to ship the whole meal all made up, right? It'll have to be a microwave-dinner-ized version I guess?). Is this really a core competency of Uber? I thought their main business model is ramming through services by ignoring local entities.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ghaff 4y agoDoesn't really make sense generally. But it can make sense to ship frozen or smoked food in moderate quantities. There are a few companies I periodically order from--usually around the holidays. Not cheap but if it isn't something you can get locally and it can survive shipping reasonably, it's reasonable to order as an occasional thing. But it's usually a fairly big order. I can't imagine having a pizza shipped.
- joshgachnang 4y agoIf we can't get the fabled SF -> NYC burrito tunnel [0] I guess this will have to do. [0] https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_tunnel.htm https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_...
- manarth 4y ago1. Announce a ridiculous product. 2. Spark discussion / controversy. 3. Increase brand-awareness. 4. Profit!!
- dymk 4y agoNot all press is good press. Look at Facebook, for example.
- naveen99 4y agoToo bad they don’t have Daw Kun Thai yet from new hampshire.
- reducesuffering 4y agoI would love to hear Dara or Uber PR squeam trying to explain how this isn’t flagrantly hypocritical to any climate change “green” talk they do. If I was an employee who cared about those things, I’d be feeling pretty betrayed. https://www.uber.com/us/en/about/sustainability/ https://www.uber.com/us/en/about/sustainability/
- stuntkite 4y agoMy god. In my opinion this is downright offensive. Even if for no other reason that in city delivery french fries are an abomination.... but also all the other disgusting carbon and workforce issues that this is going to encourage. MMMMMM. $5000 Nobu from 10 hours ago! THIS SHIT IS DELICIOUS!
- Overtonwindow 4y agoI wouldn't mind getting some Voodoo Donuts from Portland, even if it did take a few days….
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- anm89 4y agoUber is like the Michelangelo of losing money.
- kregasaurusrex 4y agoThis sounds like a nightmare in cold chain logistics waiting to happen, where Uber brokers the deal between the end user and restaurant, then subcontracts the necessary steps out. An example from the meal kit services industry is where a truck is required to stay below 40F so that raw meat doesn't grow bacteria during transport, or else the entire truck is deemed a total loss and the affected parties have to create an entirely new shipment. There's some insulative material between the your food and the outside air but the handoffs will have to be timed well especially in LA during the summertime. My guess is that shipping companies like UPS have built out excess cold chain capacity intended for vaccine rollout during the pandemic, and now are sitting on a lot of empty subzero-capable freezers in their warehouses that Uber is renting for pennies on the dollar. As far as how excited people are to get a glorified TV dinner of leftovers not designed to be frozen then eaten a week later? The entire idea has a bit of silliness in that you could get prime ribeyes for 2 at a high end steakhouse locally versus a stale spaghetti dinner at the same price. And the bonus of not frivilously contributing to climate change in the process.
- igetspam 4y agoOh man... If I thought a sandwich could travel... Freshly Baked Eatery in downtown San Jose. Hands down my favorite sandwich place on the planet. The bread is always fresh. It wouldn't survive a flight from SJC to AUS and I'm moving even further in a few weeks. One of th top five things I miss about the bay area.
- iancmceachern 4y agoMy favorite sandwich ship on the planet is Two Cousins in San Carlos.
- bahubalime 4y ago
- JohnHaugeland 4y agoIt's finally happened. A shipper I trust less than fedex. Amazing.
- maddynator 4y agoThis could be a ploy to make stuff in local cloud kitchen, charge for cross country shipping and delivering locally cooked stale food. IDK, I seems to have a pessimistic view of it at the moment
- elforce002 4y agoI think you are right. If you order a pizza from NYC, how are you sure it's from NYC and not from your local store? Charge a big shipping fee while getting a local product. I really hope they go under this decade.
- lwhi 4y agoI despise UberEats. Their customer support is a scripted, gaslit hellscape where the customer is always wrong.
- elforce002 4y agoMe too. I vouched to never use them. I prefer calling directly to the restaurant (it's also cheaper for customers and the place can retain that 30% which is crazy to say the least).
- Shadonototra 4y agomust be good for the environment!