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This feels like GasBuddy, but for food. One of the reasons GasBuddy took off was that it wasn't just based on community reports; there was an incentive for gas
by jawns 2mo ago
This feels like GasBuddy, but for food.
One of the reasons GasBuddy took off was that it wasn't just based on community reports; there was an incentive for gas stations themselves to accurately report their prices and keep them up to date.
It seems like you're trying to discourage businesses from participating (e.g. by not accepting sponsored placements), and that will have implications for your growth rate. I think you should look for ways to give businesses an active role, without eroding user trust in the recommendations, of course.
Think of the possibilities:
- Business can add coupons to its listing, making cheap food even cheaper
- Business can confirm a reported deal, adding to its credibility
- Business can provide full menu and a link to order takeout
I don't think any of those features would make users feel like the business is "buying" a listing it didn't earn.
- jaep1 2mo agoWow, thank you for this suggestion. This might be most sustainable way to update prices, as long as I set boundaries correctly. I will research how GasBuddy set up their data pipeline this week to see if we can benchmark.
- Waterluvian 2mo agoI could be wrong but I think you’ll want to consider changing the name. The parent post is on point, but companies won’t be attracted by the “cheap food” moniker. Even “budget food” is more palatable for a restaurant to associate with.
- jaep1 2mo agoThis was our biggest concern as well. I already talked to few owners and negative connotation was making them reluctant to be on the site.. We thought about different name like "under10" "dimedrop" "Fooglemap" but none of them stuck. (We did like the name Fooglemap, but similarity to Google map will create risk of cease and decease letter if it ever becomes major.. so decided not to do it.) Still torn on name change.. We want cool / memorable name.
- Belphemur 2mo agoMay I suggest MealOnADime ? Dine n' Save Find your meal I'd say to avoid the under 10 branding because of inflation.
- jaep1 2mo agoMeal on a dime sounds good, checking namecheap right now =)
- Waterluvian 2mo agomealdeal.com
- jaep1 2mo agotaken ><
- mc32 2mo agolunch4less lunch4me luchprice foodfinder fooddeal foodranger foodgetter grub4less chow4less
- Waterluvian 2mo agoMunch4Less.
- jaep1 2mo agoMan, i would love a voting for favorite name at this time. no voting feature here right?
- toader 2mo agoThe word "cheap" while by definition means low quality is used in place of "inexpensive" most of the time in casual language, at least in the United States, and understood to mean low cost not low quality. I for one read the URL to mean inexpensive. Not that there aren't more appropriate URLs.
- jaep1 2mo agoThank you! I like the name too, but it has slight negative connotation so businesses might not like them.. but thats the part I like about the it
- crusty 2mo agoThe problem isn't the word cheap, it's just that'd you've attached it to the food, and not the diner. Food4thecheap Good food on the cheap Cheapo's meal map Bums' Guides
- jaep1 2mo agoMan.. I feel like I owe you lunch for making this suggestions. Noted and definitely taking this to heart
- elo2000 2mo agoAlso good for time-based deals (for example, happy hour specials) where businesses really do want to get more customers in the door at certain times.
- jaep1 2mo agoYes, rather than relying 100% on customers. Business will be better at updating correct cadence.
- tantalor 2mo agoNot really. GasBuddy has a standard: price per gallon But this is just a map of the lower-priced items, which are available everywhere. You can find a cheap sandwich, bowl of soup, slice of pizza, or taco virtually anywhere. There is no corresponding standard point of comparison (no "gallon").
- 9x39 2mo agoThere's the calorie. Not always a good metric of health, but it's still a signal. $/cal varies meaningfully between home cooking, Costco, Chipotle, fast casual, sit-down, frozen meals, etc.
- jasonfarnon 2mo agoIt's a little different, instead of maximizing gas/price they're maximizing community rating subject to 10$ limit. I have often wanted to query google reviews in this way. I think yelp might have let you do this back in the day. If this data is already being scraped continuously what I'd really like is a query interface.
- ant6n 2mo agoThe unit should be a Meal. Not just an appetizer, a full meal. (Does it include drink? In US, many places give free tap water, but not others. Is it okay if it’s only lunch, or should it be available for dinner too? What about tipping?)
- jaep1 2mo agoYes, adding this as default recommandation from now on, adding filter so user can filter out single item like taco and appentizer