[duado]

One cost advantage to delivery is that you can prepare the food in conditions so horrifying that nobody would eat it if they saw it in person. Some of the Deliveroo-exclusive restaurants in London are like this, inside shipping containers.

[beardog]

Such as using Gutter Oil (not limited to delivery), a practice where cooking oil is retrieved/derived from random unsafe sources such as sewers, a practice thought to be common in parts of China:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrv78nG9R04

[cstrat]

Honestly I had never even thought that this would be a thing. Shocking.

Whenever I have traveled, I always enjoy trying street food but this has put the fear in me... at least if I travel to China.

edit: slightly disappointed I can't express my feelings by using the vomiting emoji on HN...

[meko]

'Common' in 'parts' is weasel-wordy with a tinge of orientalism.

Whether gutter oil exists in any capacity whatsoever, it'd be merely a brief encounter with rural Chinese principles and the commercialism of the developed world; therefore it won't stick around for long as China becomes more developed.

[beardog]

If I could edit my comment I would replace "common in parts" with "found in some areas". I used the phrase "common in parts" because it has been found in multiple cities[1] (in fairness, early 2010s), however I logically believed that it would be unlikely for this to be in every region of China, as it is a vast country with various cultures and levels of development. Some sources I've found claim it is a more common practice than others.

https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/04/03/chinese-gutte...

[slig]

I wish I hadn't watched this video.

[inapis]

This is beyond revolting.

[dragonwriter]

> One cost advantage to delivery is that you can prepare the food in conditions so horrifying that nobody would eat it if they saw it in person.

That's not a same-restaurant advantage.

It's not even really an advantage; restaurants usually don't have open kitchens.

[NullPrefix]

Slightly related, but a downtown restaurant can't have it's kitchen in the outskirts.

[reaperducer]

Slightly related, but a downtown restaurant can't have it's kitchen in the outskirts.

But the opposite can be true.

There was an article posted on HN in the last six months or so about "virtual restaurants" where established restaurants drive a van or drop a shipping container into a parking lot after hours and set up shop exclusively for delivery purposes in urban areas. The restaurants that actually bother to be part of the neighborhood were pissed about it.

[organsnyder]

Seems pretty similar to food trucks (other than the delivery part).

[A2017U1]

> actually bother to be part of the neighborhood

I'm guessing this solely means paying rent?

[NullPrefix]

Property taxes too.

[A2017U1]

Is higher demand and subsequent ballooning commercial rents a net positive for communities?

I'd argue not at all.

It's only a benefit to a very small number of people who have zero requirement to be local residents.

Food vans are contributing far more to communities through their efficiencies.

[dragonwriter]

> Slightly related, but a downtown restaurant can't have it's kitchen in the outskirts.

That seems intuitively obviously true...but it's not, entirely; food needs to be finished on site, of course, but central kitchens for restaurant chains (or groups, where the individual restaurants are branded differently) are a common thing, and very often are located in lower rent outskirts than where many of the supported restaurants are.

[reaperducer]

If your dinner comes out of the kitchen faster than you think it should, there's a chance it, or is ingredients, were bulk cooked in a central kitchen somewhere else during lunch, then shipped to the restaurant and just assembled or spruced up before being presented to you.

Another sign of this is if the building doesn't seem to have enough space for a kitchen of a size needed to serve the number of seats in the dining room.

[ReptileMan]

As long it tastes right I am fine with such efficiencies. This is literally why sous vide were created. Precooked edible school lunches in bulk.

[QuercusMax]

One of the great things about working at Google is the availability of reasonably tasty, healthful food, with minimal effort. Not having to plan for food helps free up mental energy for other things.

Now, don't me wrong, I'm an excellent cook, and we cook dinner at home most nights of the week. But if there were a food delivery service (via drone, robo-van, whatever) which could delivery me reasonably tasty, healthful cafeteria-style food at a price cheaper than I can make myself (since they can prepare in bulk), I'd be tempted to subscribe.

[rb808]

> so horrifying that nobody would eat it if they saw it in person

Is that because of food safety or the way employees are treated? I can't imagine its that different than how supermarket ingredients are prepared - most people wouldn't like the insides of a chicken slaughterhouse, commercial fishing boat etc either.

[oilin]

Food's already prepared in rather horrifying conditions (and the nicer the place, the worse they usually are).

Main advantage of delivery is that Beijing streets are shit to travel -- too wide, awful traffic, poorly placed metro stops, etc.

[purplezooey]

Yeah I bet a lot of hand washing occurs in there.