[ptasci67]

As a concept this seems to make a lot of sense to me. A restaurant actually seems like the worst place to prepare food meant for delivery. I think of my local taco place which usually has a line of Door Dash, Postmates, and Uber Eats drivers out the door while people are trying to order.

I am curious how this article relates to Cloud Kitchens[1] the Travis Kalanick startup because I am skeptical they arrived at the same name out of coincidence.

[1] https://www.cloudkitchens.com/

[crazygringo]

> A restaurant actually seems like the worst place to prepare food meant for delivery.

A restaurant... which already has all the equipment and overhead for making food... and which has excess capacity that's already paid for... and even someone whose job it is to answer the phone...

I can't even imagine how you think this is the worst place. It's literally the best, most efficient place in terms of taking advantage of excess capacity.

So your local taco place has delivery people waiting around. Doesn't exactly seem like a major life inconvenience, does it? And taco places have had delivery people hanging around long before the apps. You just used a thing called a phone. Delivery has been around for decades. It's not new.

[JMTQp8lwXL]

It's pretty annoying when you walk into a place like Chipotle and they're making five online orders in front of you. Like, I'm standing right here. I put way more effort into doing business with you by making a physical presence. Please prioritize my order.

[jcomis]

Chipotle doesn't make online orders on the front line, so there's that.

[jSully24]

Some Chipotle locations have a separate line for take out orders, but not all.

[JMTQp8lwXL]

At my Chipotle, they do. It may vary based on location. People have disagreed with me, but I still believe it's poor customer service to ignore your customers.

[thecolorblue]

To flip that around, their customer acquisition costs for online orders is probably lower, and their customer retention for online orders could be higher too.

[lonelappde]

Ignoring walk-in customers is eating the goose that lays the golden eggs

[hombre_fatal]

It's not ignoring. It's FIFO. How is that unfair? Just seems like an HNer's ego trip that someone ordered something before him and, gosh darnit, he can't even see them!

[JMTQp8lwXL]

I disagree that it's an ego trip and I think many other people would feel equally inconvenienced. Is it slightly irrational? Sure. Were they there before me? Technically. But they clicked a button. I walked in. For that reason, I think I'm more valuable of a customer. We can virtue signal and pretend we don't have egos, but I'll readily admit mine in this scenario.

Saying it's "just FIFO" is, well, too logical. Because if it were simply logic, I wouldn't feel inconvenienced. Feelings defy logic. The person who ordered online isn't going to notice the two or three minutes, since they aren't standing in line, but I do. And the person who has to wait the food, is actually get paid to do so, as a courrier. I am not. So maybe the FIFO should account for that, is what I'm suggesting.