[mcculley]

I don't understand the appeal of these food delivery services at all. For those occasions where I feel lazy enough to have a pizza or Chinese food delivered instead of walking or driving to pick it up, I don't want a middleman company contracting the job out to some random person. Who thinks that's a good idea? How many layers of profit-taking do people think is acceptable to have random people touching their food along the way?

That's setting aside the ridiculousness of all of the one-off trips I see in my building and my neighborhood, burning gasoline to hand-deliver a sandwich.

[newfriend]

> I don't understand the appeal of these food delivery services at all

I'm sure there's no end to the things you don't understand.

> For those occasions where I feel lazy enough to have a pizza or Chinese food delivered instead of walking or driving to pick it up, I don't want a middleman company contracting the job out to some random person.

You may be surprised to know there are people in different situations than yourself.

* What if I want something besides pizza or Chinese food?

* What if I don't have a car?

* What if restaurants are too far to walk?

* What if I'm unable to walk?

* What if I have small children that I can't bring with me and can't leave behind?

* What if I have something important going on and can't take time to go get food?

* What if I don't want to call them on the phone? What if I have anxiety or can't speak?

* What if I don't know what kind of food I want, and would like to browse options?

* What if I'm new/don't know the area?

> How many layers of profit-taking do people think is acceptable to have random people touching their food along the way?

So you're ok with the food preparer and other employees, and the restaurant's delivery person "touching" your food, but not a 3rd party delivery person. Anyway, the delivery bag is typically sealed when ordered through these services.

Maybe if you thought about it for 5 seconds, you could understand why these services are so popular.

[mcculley]

I've thought about it quite a lot and discussed this with some of the delivery people I see on the street and in my building. I have enjoyed these elevator discussions about the economics of feeding the lazy. Many of them are also surprised that people will pay them to deliver a Jimmy John's sandwich.

[SketchySeaBeast]

Every level of civilization is built not on laziness but on convenience and the additional freedom that convenience brings. I'm sure at some point someone was complaining that people were eating bread from grain they didn't grow themselves.

[mcculley]

There's a difference between economies of scale and technological advances enabling the leverage of comparative advantage and the situation with Uber Eats. Uber Eats is just VC cash being burned to employ human labor to hand-deliver fast food to the lazy and gluttonous. It's not appealing to me. I understand some people will enjoy it while it lasts.

[colinbartlett]

If one can bill their time at $200/hour and it takes 30 minutes to go get a sandwich, is it lazy to pay someone $10 to do it for them or just good economics?

[mcculley]

I have often (pre-COVID) employed my comparative economic advantage and had other people make meals for me in a restaurant. I have occasionally had my assistant pick up a meal when I am working. I still don’t see the appeal of having two other legal entities involved in a fast food transaction.

[shermanyo]

You have an assistant though? How is my uber eats driver any different in that case?

[mcculley]

Do you trust your Uber Eats driver? As I said, I understand the appeal of the occasional food delivery. I don't understand how delivery of fast-food at such scale can be sustainable. Right now it is making it possible to have cheap fast food delivered. I don't see how that works once the VC cash is all burned up. That is, until it is fully automated.

[smabie]

Who cares how many entities are involved? Why does it matter?

[mcculley]

It really doesn't matter to me what random person delivers my Amazon package. I care about what I eat.

The fact that it is fast food is what surprises me. There's so little value added for so much money. I'm sure it appeals to other people. I ride elevators with Uber Eats drivers delivering a Subway sandwich. That's a ridiculous investment for such a terrible meal.

[skj]

> feeding the lazy

To avoid that group, I suppose you have to cook all your food yourself?

As a society, we take on different specializations and, as a result, increase overall efficiency. No reason to call this specialization out as something that only serves the "lazy".

[mcculley]

Maybe it is mean of me to consider the consumption of fast food as lazy. I did eat fast food myself frequently when I was younger and I consider that version of myself to be lazy. Nowadays I know I can wait to have a proper meal in almost all occasions. Regardless, if do decide I can't function without a Chick-Fil-A sandwich, I won't have it delivered by a middleman.

[bsder]

> I don't understand the appeal of these food delivery services at all.

The appeal was that these services would work with almost any restaurant that had takeout but not delivery.

Personally, if I were a restaurant, I would use these services to gauge how much interest my clients have in delivery. Once I pass a certain threshold or during peak times, I would hire my own drivers and do my own delivery while cutting out the SillyVally VC backed services.

11:37 PM on Tuesday--sure, Uber gets that one, LOL. Peak Friday from 5:00PM to 10:00PM--I'll have my own drivers for that timeslice, thanks.

[mcculley]

That would be a great strategy, in my opinion.

I think one point I failed to make is that I'm astounded that restaurants are outsourcing such an important role on the higher end. But at least it makes sense on the higher end.

On the lower end (hand-delivering a Subway sandwich) it is just a clear sign of VC cash being set on fire.

[supernova87a]

When a person starts to have discretionary spending power, or starts to feel to not have to be cheap any more, the previously unimagined items or services that one didn't feel one needed, inflate greatly.

[mcculley]

I get that. I enjoy same-day Amazon deliveries and other benefits of modern technology and industrial scale.

I'm still not going to have random middlemen hand-deliver terrible fast food for me.

When we have truly driverless cars and robots delivering food it will make sense to me. Until then, it's just an artifact of there being too much VC cash needing to be burned intersecting with laziness.