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> Most people were not able to afford butlers or drivers before, and DoorDash or Uber have not changed that basic fact, even if the butler/driver is split over

> Most people were not able to afford butlers or drivers before, and DoorDash or Uber have not changed that basic fact, even if the butler/driver is split over 3 customers per hour. I disagree - delivered food has been a thing for a long time, back in the day done by employees of the restaurant itself. If it can work despite the driver being limited to a very specific restaurant, it should work better if the driver can be load-balanced across a wide range of restaurants near their current position to minimize downtime and travel time (in case of a driver owned by a specific restaurant, the journey back after their final delivery is a loss - doesn’t have to happen if they’re no longer bound to that specific restaurant and can deliver another restaurant’s food on that otherwise-lost journey).

lotsofpulp 4y ago
That is not obvious to me. Only certain types of restaurants did delivery, and they probably had process optimizations to make it work. One being that the driver was basically paid in all cash netting the driver immediate savings from tax evasion. It seems like it could be possible, but coordinating many individually owned and operated small businesses to ensure efficiency and throughput seems like a big task. Which is not a problem, but the upside is limited - how much extra are people really willing and able to pay?
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  > Only certain types of restaurants did delivery, and they probably had process optimizations to make it work. I think that a big part of that would be because certain types of food are primarily enjoyed taken-away instead of dine-in. It wouldn’t make sense for a dine-in restaurant to have delivery staff & vehicles (which would sit idle for the most part) given the bulk of their customers dine in. However this is exactly the problem that a restaurant-agnostic delivery service would solve. The drivers can be shared across all the restaurants in the area which not only brings delivery to restaurants who otherwise wouldn’t have it but it also theoretically makes it cheaper for the usual delivery-focused restaurants because their drivers no longer have as much downtime (as they will now be able to deliver for other restaurants in the area too).

lotsofpulp 4y ago

That is not obvious to me. Only certain types of restaurants did delivery, and they probably had process optimizations to make it work. One being that the driver was basically paid in all cash netting the driver immediate savings from tax evasion. It seems like it could be possible, but coordinating many individually owned and operated small businesses to ensure efficiency and throughput seems like a big task. Which is not a problem, but the upside is limited - how much extra are people really willing and able to pay?

Nextgrid 4y ago
> Only certain types of restaurants did delivery, and they probably had process optimizations to make it work. I think that a big part of that would be because certain types of food are primarily enjoyed taken-away instead of dine-in. It wouldn’t make sense for a dine-in restaurant to have delivery staff & vehicles (which would sit idle for the most part) given the bulk of their customers dine in. However this is exactly the problem that a restaurant-agnostic delivery service would solve. The drivers can be shared across all the restaurants in the area which not only brings delivery to restaurants who otherwise wouldn’t have it but it also theoretically makes it cheaper for the usual delivery-focused restaurants because their drivers no longer have as much downtime (as they will now be able to deliver for other restaurants in the area too).