[zaroth]

Pizza and Chinese restaurants are famous for efficient phone ordering.

Growing up I could get a pizza ordered in 3 seconds flat.

Finish dialing... doesn’t even ring once. “George’s Pizza”. “Large cheese pickup!” “Ok 10 minutes.” <click>

Now try ordering from Cheesecake Factory. They pickup, and then read a script just to then put you on hold, where you might wait for several minutes before they pickup and make you recite name, phone number (Interrupting you to repeat each segment back as you are saying it), ask you a half dozen questions, finally let you order, insist on repeating it all back to you, etc.

I think it’s funny you’d think a digital menu and checkout cart would increase accuracy. I guess you just can’t win either way.

[mulmen]

The family owned Mexican restaurant across the street is really good too. Something something small business something.

There's another active thread at the moment: "Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life" [1].

I didn't think I had an answer but now I do:

"This isn't a technology problem."

All our shiny bleeding edge hyper-connected disruptive technology can't hold a candle to the level of service pizza shops and Chinese restaurants have been delivering for basically always. Using a pen and paper. Or maybe just shouting! Best we can offer is "Alexa repeat my pizza order" but is that really even better? It's almost exactly the same experience for the consumer but there's some surprising long term consequence like the pizza shop can no longer make ends meet.

I continue to be happy placing takeout orders over the phone like a caveman. A tech company that provides that level of service to their customers will go very far indeed.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23092657