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>Dominos had this down pat twenty years ago, how come everything with an app is so much more expensive? The people making the app need a much bigger cut than D

>Dominos had this down pat twenty years ago, how come everything with an app is so much more expensive? The people making the app need a much bigger cut than Domino's. Domino's cut only needs to be big enough to pay their delivery drivers, they make their money selling pizza and the delivery is just an additional service that drives business. The app maker needs a cut big enough to pay their delivery driver and also be the main revenue stream for their entire business since they're not making money off the pizza.

giancarlostoro 3y ago
So if Uber buys out some small grocery store chains it could work, especially if its in major market cities.
shagie 3y ago
I would contend that Dominos is a pizza logistics company rather than a seller of retail pizza (compare Pizza Hut). https://biz.dominos.com/about-us/innovations/ https://biz.dominos.com/about-us/innovations/ They're not just selling pizza to make money - but also looking at making cars. https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/why-dominos-dxp-delivery-cars-were-anything-but-half-baked/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/why-dominos-dxp-d... While I'm not going to claim that was a good idea, the point is that Dominos sees making and delivering pizza as one and the same business. > 154 examples of the DXP cars were built. Along with the delivery driver, each DXP car could carry up to 45 pizzas, 12 two-liter sodas, and all the extra dipping sauces one could ever want. Add to that the fact that the car’s still held their five-year 100,000-mile warranty, were cheap on gas, and created a surprising amount of buzz, it is hard not to look at the DXP program as a success, low production aside.
- adolph 3y ago
  Hopefully they were made of something nonferrous to prevent pooling by pesky Kouriers. Edit: the Hagerty story was a nice read, thank you for linking to it
- hackerlight 3y ago
  Is this not corpspeak kool-aid? Dominos and Pizza Hut do the same thing. They deliver pizza to people. Dominos knows how to hype the markets, though.
  - luma 3y ago
    Pizza Hut has in store seating, Dominoes does not.
    - hackerlight 3y ago
      If Dominos is a logistics company then Pizza Hut is both a logistics company and a dine-in restaurant.
      - shagie 3y ago
        I believe that Dominos would include the delivery as part of its core competencies and business value that distinguishes it from other pizza companies while others do not consider delivery as part of their core business.
    - rascul 3y ago
      Plenty of Pizza Huts don't have indoor seating anymore. Some Dominos used to, not sure if any do now.
- dv_dt 3y ago
  It’s a shame they did not name the car model Deliverator
gamepsys 3y ago
The margins of the delivery business could be razor thin because the scale at which the app can operate is much bigger than domino's. There are ~7000 domino's in US, and hundreds of thousand on uber eats. I think as more apps offer the same service we'll see a race to the bottom and have a reduction in cost, but not to the VC subsidized levels we saw five years ago.
- im3w1l 3y ago
  Picking up one order from a restaurant takes the same amount of time as picking up a dozen. This is a much more important economy-of-scale than having a large app country-wide install base to spread dev costs over. So I think a third-party delivery business must seek exclusivity contracts to be competitive with an in-house solution.
  - kshacker 3y ago
    So what we need is bundling of orders based on 1) restaurant location 2) recipient location 3) time And if that could be done, maybe just 2 orders to start with (for example carpool benefits for 2 people), that will be awesome, but if you could pool 4-5 orders, that will make bank ! I guess this model, if scaled purely based on the model, will imply restaurants co-located (same parking lot) will benefit from such an arrangement.
    - nradov 3y ago
      That factor is driving the virtual restaurant (ghost kitchen) trend. There are commercial kitchens set up purely to service delivery orders. They use a single facility but have multiple different restaurant brands with different menus (burgers, Mexican, Italian, vegan, etc). These ghost kitchens have no dining rooms and you probably can't even directly order food outside of a delivery service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_restaurant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_restaurant
      - lynx23 3y ago
        These are the worst quality-wise. Yes, you can write a review if something went really bad. But not having customers right there who can complain and might even get an extra or a replacement gives less incentive to keep quality up. "Specialising" in everything, pizza-burger-kebab-china, is also likely a warning sign.
ToValueFunfetti 3y ago
I wonder if it could be solved with a decentralized system. You'd still need a way to vet drivers and handle refunds. I'm not sure other delivery apps bother with the former until bad reviews come in, and maybe the latter could be just between the customer and the store? Would be a big win for customers and gig workers if you could get past the obstacles.

giancarlostoro 3y ago

So if Uber buys out some small grocery store chains it could work, especially if its in major market cities.

shagie 3y ago

I would contend that Dominos is a pizza logistics company rather than a seller of retail pizza (compare Pizza Hut). https://biz.dominos.com/about-us/innovations/ https://biz.dominos.com/about-us/innovations/ They're not just selling pizza to make money - but also looking at making cars. https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/why-dominos-dxp-delivery-cars-were-anything-but-half-baked/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/why-dominos-dxp-d... While I'm not going to claim that was a good idea, the point is that Dominos sees making and delivering pizza as one and the same business. > 154 examples of the DXP cars were built. Along with the delivery driver, each DXP car could carry up to 45 pizzas, 12 two-liter sodas, and all the extra dipping sauces one could ever want. Add to that the fact that the car’s still held their five-year 100,000-mile warranty, were cheap on gas, and created a surprising amount of buzz, it is hard not to look at the DXP program as a success, low production aside.

adolph 3y ago
Hopefully they were made of something nonferrous to prevent pooling by pesky Kouriers. Edit: the Hagerty story was a nice read, thank you for linking to it
hackerlight 3y ago
Is this not corpspeak kool-aid? Dominos and Pizza Hut do the same thing. They deliver pizza to people. Dominos knows how to hype the markets, though.
- luma 3y ago
  Pizza Hut has in store seating, Dominoes does not.
  - hackerlight 3y ago
    If Dominos is a logistics company then Pizza Hut is both a logistics company and a dine-in restaurant.
    - shagie 3y ago
      I believe that Dominos would include the delivery as part of its core competencies and business value that distinguishes it from other pizza companies while others do not consider delivery as part of their core business.
  - rascul 3y ago
    Plenty of Pizza Huts don't have indoor seating anymore. Some Dominos used to, not sure if any do now.
dv_dt 3y ago
It’s a shame they did not name the car model Deliverator

gamepsys 3y ago

The margins of the delivery business could be razor thin because the scale at which the app can operate is much bigger than domino's. There are ~7000 domino's in US, and hundreds of thousand on uber eats. I think as more apps offer the same service we'll see a race to the bottom and have a reduction in cost, but not to the VC subsidized levels we saw five years ago.

im3w1l 3y ago
Picking up one order from a restaurant takes the same amount of time as picking up a dozen. This is a much more important economy-of-scale than having a large app country-wide install base to spread dev costs over. So I think a third-party delivery business must seek exclusivity contracts to be competitive with an in-house solution.
- kshacker 3y ago
  So what we need is bundling of orders based on 1) restaurant location 2) recipient location 3) time And if that could be done, maybe just 2 orders to start with (for example carpool benefits for 2 people), that will be awesome, but if you could pool 4-5 orders, that will make bank ! I guess this model, if scaled purely based on the model, will imply restaurants co-located (same parking lot) will benefit from such an arrangement.
  - nradov 3y ago
    That factor is driving the virtual restaurant (ghost kitchen) trend. There are commercial kitchens set up purely to service delivery orders. They use a single facility but have multiple different restaurant brands with different menus (burgers, Mexican, Italian, vegan, etc). These ghost kitchens have no dining rooms and you probably can't even directly order food outside of a delivery service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_restaurant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_restaurant
    - lynx23 3y ago
      These are the worst quality-wise. Yes, you can write a review if something went really bad. But not having customers right there who can complain and might even get an extra or a replacement gives less incentive to keep quality up. "Specialising" in everything, pizza-burger-kebab-china, is also likely a warning sign.

ToValueFunfetti 3y ago

I wonder if it could be solved with a decentralized system. You'd still need a way to vet drivers and handle refunds. I'm not sure other delivery apps bother with the former until bad reviews come in, and maybe the latter could be just between the customer and the store? Would be a big win for customers and gig workers if you could get past the obstacles.