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The bigger issue here imo is that there isn't a framework for other would-be ride-sharing company to easily onboard and compete for the pie of government fundin

The bigger issue here imo is that there isn't a framework for other would-be ride-sharing company to easily onboard and compete for the pie of government funding for these activities. You have to already be big to "compete". JPM (administered nearly half of all states’ EBT programs before the mandated oct 1st 2020 deadline) and Uber/Instacart have a nice little gov sponsored moat growing here...

dragonwriter 3y ago
> The bigger issue here imo is that there isn't a framework for other would-be ride-sharing company to easily onboard and compete for the pie of government funding for these activities. There's no government funding for the activity; SNAP EBT doesn't pay for delivery. > JPM (administered nearly half of all states’ EBT programs before the mandated oct 1st 2020 deadline) and Uber/Instacart have a nice little gov sponsored moat growing here... Its a moat that Amazon, DoorDash, store-operated delivery services from all the major chains and many locals, etc., were inside before Uber. But, sure. “moat”.
- cinquemb 3y ago
  > There's no government funding for the activity; SNAP EBT doesn't pay for delivery. So Uber will make nothing on processing these transactions that originate through them, and only offering because of their good will. > Its a moat that Amazon, DoorDash, store-operated delivery services from all the major chains and many locals, etc., were inside before Uber. But, sure. “moat”. >> You have to already be big to "compete". Yeah, just ignore that part. Let me know when individual growers can get their account at their local credit union credited via an api call directly to the treasury dept without any frbny primary dealers involved.
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    > So Uber will make nothing on processing these transactions that originate through them, and only offering because of their good will. No, they’ll make something by selling more delivery fees than they otherwise would when both in-store and essentially every other grocery delivery service (both other third pary services and first party store-owned services) already takes EBT and they don’t. Uber taking EBT is just putting itself back on a level with every other way of buying groceries, rather than at a voluntary disadvantage.
    - cinquemb 3y ago
      > Uber taking EBT is just putting itself back on a level with every other way of buying groceries, rather than at a voluntary disadvantage. Every other way of buying groceries if one limits themselves to buying from well established entities that are big enough to support it, which is a much smaller subset of those who could supply food now.
      - joshuamorton 3y ago
        No, I can use EBT at most corner stores. Either uber is putting itself at the same level as {everyone who accepts EBT}, which includes a bunch of tiny players like mom-and-pop shops and farmers markets, or uber is putting itself at the same level as {delivery services that accept ebt} which yes, is a set of big players, but that's because {delivery services} is a set of big players, not related to ebt. What's your point? That large, established chains can't accept EBT?
        cinquemb 3y ago
        > No, I can use EBT at most corner stores. > What's your point? That large, established chains can't accept EBT? Corner store is already way more overhead than needed in some cases when a seller can market their product online and can communicate with any would-be buyer over any messaging channel and drive it to you while handling their periodic activities that may have them already out and about.
        joshuamorton 3y ago
        Are you implying the existence of an alternate universe where I buy lettuce online direct from the farmer with EBT, and they deliver it to me? Because there's an extremely small set of cases where such a direct delivery model makes any kind of economic sense. Distributors as intermediaries are more efficient for almost all cases.
        cinquemb 3y ago

dragonwriter 3y ago

> The bigger issue here imo is that there isn't a framework for other would-be ride-sharing company to easily onboard and compete for the pie of government funding for these activities. There's no government funding for the activity; SNAP EBT doesn't pay for delivery. > JPM (administered nearly half of all states’ EBT programs before the mandated oct 1st 2020 deadline) and Uber/Instacart have a nice little gov sponsored moat growing here... Its a moat that Amazon, DoorDash, store-operated delivery services from all the major chains and many locals, etc., were inside before Uber. But, sure. “moat”.

cinquemb 3y ago
> There's no government funding for the activity; SNAP EBT doesn't pay for delivery. So Uber will make nothing on processing these transactions that originate through them, and only offering because of their good will. > Its a moat that Amazon, DoorDash, store-operated delivery services from all the major chains and many locals, etc., were inside before Uber. But, sure. “moat”. >> You have to already be big to "compete". Yeah, just ignore that part. Let me know when individual growers can get their account at their local credit union credited via an api call directly to the treasury dept without any frbny primary dealers involved.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  > So Uber will make nothing on processing these transactions that originate through them, and only offering because of their good will. No, they’ll make something by selling more delivery fees than they otherwise would when both in-store and essentially every other grocery delivery service (both other third pary services and first party store-owned services) already takes EBT and they don’t. Uber taking EBT is just putting itself back on a level with every other way of buying groceries, rather than at a voluntary disadvantage.
  - cinquemb 3y ago
    > Uber taking EBT is just putting itself back on a level with every other way of buying groceries, rather than at a voluntary disadvantage. Every other way of buying groceries if one limits themselves to buying from well established entities that are big enough to support it, which is a much smaller subset of those who could supply food now.
    - joshuamorton 3y ago
      No, I can use EBT at most corner stores. Either uber is putting itself at the same level as {everyone who accepts EBT}, which includes a bunch of tiny players like mom-and-pop shops and farmers markets, or uber is putting itself at the same level as {delivery services that accept ebt} which yes, is a set of big players, but that's because {delivery services} is a set of big players, not related to ebt. What's your point? That large, established chains can't accept EBT?
      - cinquemb 3y ago
        > No, I can use EBT at most corner stores. > What's your point? That large, established chains can't accept EBT? Corner store is already way more overhead than needed in some cases when a seller can market their product online and can communicate with any would-be buyer over any messaging channel and drive it to you while handling their periodic activities that may have them already out and about.
        joshuamorton 3y ago
        Are you implying the existence of an alternate universe where I buy lettuce online direct from the farmer with EBT, and they deliver it to me? Because there's an extremely small set of cases where such a direct delivery model makes any kind of economic sense. Distributors as intermediaries are more efficient for almost all cases.
        cinquemb 3y ago