[zem]

the sort of casual home-based cooking for others as a small enterprise works well in india (any big city where people flock for work has tons of people working to keep them fed). however, in the usa i believe commercial kitchen requirements would make it a very high-overhead enterprise.

[shabble]

I came across something about this a little while ago, specifically the Dabbawalla/Tiffin[1] industry in Indian cities. The organisation and effectiveness of the system is quite astounding, especially given how ad-hoc and decentralised it all is. I can't seem to find the original article I'm thinking of, but there's one by the NY Times[2] that looks ok.

My recollection seems to tally with the WP numbers, with hundreds of thousands of deliveries a day, with less than 1 in a million mistakes, despite a multi-party transport network and widespread illiteracy (no written addresses!)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/business/worldbusiness/29...