4 ms·

What a fantastic waste of carbon emissions to fly some donuts across the country, rather than buying something locally

by jthirkle 4y ago

barbazoo 4y ago
I thought this was hyperbole but it's almost verbatim their 2nd sentence. What a waste of all kinds of resources.
- hef19898 4y ago
  Having 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 ago
    You 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 ago
      Steep 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 ago
VCs 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 ago
This 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?
- heartbreak 4y ago
  You could use “insane decadence” to describe a lot of modern services like commercial air travel and cordless phones.
donthellbanme 4y ago
lumost 4y ago
This has been a business for a long time. Selling flash frozen NYC pizza on the west coast, overnight shipping of unpreserved caviar etc. If a restaraunt can prep a dish that lasts 24-48 hours, there isn't any hard reason they can't Presumably they are traveling via standard freight routes and not paying someone to hold a single meal on a passenger flight...
- el-salvador 4y ago
  There is a market for long distance food deliveries. Even more international. When a friend hears I'll be travelling nearby, its not uncommon for me to get special requests for food not available locally. Bringing Central American fried chicken into the U.S in family trips was so common, that the fried chicken restaurant had to make special packaging so the smell wouldn't escape from the box to the airplane cabin. They even ran an ad about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFd3a4g8dNc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFd3a4g8dNc
  - twalichiewicz 4y ago
    I think the increase in these services (GoldBelly, DoorDash National Favorites, etc...) also coincides with the COVID-driven increase of home food deliveries along with the modern restaurant/food social media lifecycle (think: Eater, Food Insider, Munchies, etc). So, right after someone in SF watches a video describing in great detail how amazing a new NYC chicken sandwich pop-up is, they're almost certainly willing to pay a premium to try it.

What a fantastic waste of carbon emissions to fly some donuts across the country, rather than buying something locally

barbazoo 4y ago

I thought this was hyperbole but it's almost verbatim their 2nd sentence. What a waste of all kinds of resources.

hef19898 4y ago
Having 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 ago
  You 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 ago
    Steep 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 ago

VCs 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 ago

This 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?

heartbreak 4y ago
You could use “insane decadence” to describe a lot of modern services like commercial air travel and cordless phones.

donthellbanme 4y ago

lumost 4y ago

This has been a business for a long time. Selling flash frozen NYC pizza on the west coast, overnight shipping of unpreserved caviar etc. If a restaraunt can prep a dish that lasts 24-48 hours, there isn't any hard reason they can't Presumably they are traveling via standard freight routes and not paying someone to hold a single meal on a passenger flight...

el-salvador 4y ago
There is a market for long distance food deliveries. Even more international. When a friend hears I'll be travelling nearby, its not uncommon for me to get special requests for food not available locally. Bringing Central American fried chicken into the U.S in family trips was so common, that the fried chicken restaurant had to make special packaging so the smell wouldn't escape from the box to the airplane cabin. They even ran an ad about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFd3a4g8dNc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFd3a4g8dNc
- twalichiewicz 4y ago
  I think the increase in these services (GoldBelly, DoorDash National Favorites, etc...) also coincides with the COVID-driven increase of home food deliveries along with the modern restaurant/food social media lifecycle (think: Eater, Food Insider, Munchies, etc). So, right after someone in SF watches a video describing in great detail how amazing a new NYC chicken sandwich pop-up is, they're almost certainly willing to pay a premium to try it.