|
Parakeet vs. Phone posted:It probably was just something shiny to dangle in front of VC. Their real business was supposedly the cloud kitchens/commissaries, which also seemed like a strange worst of both worlds experience. Restaurants that aren't popular/successful enough to sustain a kitchen location or real food truck can produce food in one central location that's probably just far enough to suck for delivery for everyone. The best scenario is that they don't try to do service and become WeWork but for commercial kitchens, which would be neat honestly, but makes very little business sense. Deliveroo in London was putting commercial kitchens in shipping containers, with the idea that they could park one under a railroad trestle or on a vacant lot and rent it to a restaurant for cheaper than a retail storefront. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/28/deliveroo-dark-kitchens-pop-up-feeding-the-city-london Seems like from the restaurant’s perspective you could definitely increase your delivery footprint that way, without making GBS threads up your in-house customer experience with couriers walking through all the time (this is kind of annoying in a lot of NYC restaurants). But you’re beholden to one delivery vendor top to bottom and at that point they’ve kinda got you over a barrel on the terms of engagement.
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 04:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 17:34 |
|
|
kitten smoothie posted:Deliveroo in London was putting commercial kitchens in shipping containers, with the idea that they could park one under a railroad trestle or on a vacant lot and rent it to a restaurant for cheaper than a retail storefront. But that market can be disrupted by a third party not beholden to one app
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 05:19
|
|
|
Parakeet vs. Phone posted:It probably was just something shiny to dangle in front of VC. Their real business was supposedly the cloud kitchens/commissaries, which also seemed like a strange worst of both worlds experience. Restaurants that aren't popular/successful enough to sustain a kitchen location or real food truck can produce food in one central location that's probably just far enough to suck for delivery for everyone. The best scenario is that they don't try to do service and become WeWork but for commercial kitchens, which would be neat honestly, but makes very little business sense. It’s more than that though, it’s sheer loving arrogance. They likely had a “great idea” while high, didn’t bother to learn about the industry because they’re tech bros and of course they know more than anyone else. It’s food production, that’s for dumb poors with a GED, how hard can it be??? Finally they just started loving up big time after being enabled by a bunch of VC assholes who couldn’t be bothered to hire a consultant or two for a day to sanity check this bullshit. How many times have we heard this story and yet people keep throwing money at them.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 05:31
|
|
|
A lot of restaurants make good food because they have specialized equipment that costs a lot and wouldn't be in a generic commercial kitchen. A "cloud kitchen" wouldn't be capable of making anything beyond what you find at an average cheap diner.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 05:31
|
|
|
Konstantin posted:A lot of restaurants make good food because they have specialized equipment that costs a lot and wouldn't be in a generic commercial kitchen. A "cloud kitchen" wouldn't be capable of making anything beyond what you find at an average cheap diner. Food Safety and OSHA would be a nightmare. A shipping container kitchen sounds like it would be easy for bugs to get in and hard for people to get out in a fire, and the general techbro disdain for safety regulations makes me doubt they'd care about passing health inspections. No one would risk doing an allergy-friendly menu in a shared kitchen either, which kills a lot of the bay area clientele they were probably imagining catering to.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 05:36
|
|
|
Yeah, thinking about it, Zume reads like a classic "great idea" that breaks down once you start trying to math out who would actually want it. It'd be great to expand delivery ranges and times, but the problems of opening a good kitchen makes it only practical for more generic stuff. And if it's not specialty, then who really cares about which specific place makes an average burrito/pizza/Chinese food. Spazzle posted:The number of ads I get on Facebook for unique premade uncooked food delivery services is really insane. Who the gently caress is funding this garbage? It's a weird thing where, ecological costs aside, it's not a bad idea. Shipping costs get crazy better with scale and there's a huge demand for it. Whoever wins out in the end is going to have one hell of a monopoly and it can probably roll over into being profitable once they don't have to constantly knife fight 10 other companies, but so many are going to die or get bought out before then. It's just the usual case of VCs gambling with hundreds of millions of dollars. There's also the chance that grocery stores will wind up eating their lunch. I know Kroger's lets you just pick up a prepped, frozen meal at the store and I've heard of other chains getting in on it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 05:56
|
|
|
Parakeet vs. Phone posted:There's also the chance that grocery stores will wind up eating their lunch. I know Kroger's lets you just pick up a prepped, frozen meal at the store and I've heard of other chains getting in on it. Albertson's bought Plated a while back and announced the subscription kit service is dead as of this week. They're still selling the kits in their stores though. Whole Foods has also started selling straight up Amazon-branded kits in-store, too. I think it's smart on the grocery stores' part. Meal kit services don't replace your entire grocery store trip, presumably you're still buying milk and whatever else. Pre-assembled recipe kits in the fridge case at the grocery store would bring much of the same value at that point. Have a website to pre-order kits for pickup at the store and the store assembles on the spot from their own inventory. Blue Apron's marketing is all centered around the actual process of cooking and implies it makes that easier. I bought into that line and tried it out. The reality was that it was the same amount of active cooking work, it just meant I didn't have to buy those ingredients at the grocery store. I still needed to do a grocery run every week anyway so Blue Apron wasn't really solving any problems I had. It also made me feel really dirty for how much packaging I was tossing. kitten smoothie fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Nov 27, 2019 |
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 06:46
|
|
|
extremely online posted:A shipping container kitchen sounds like it would be easy for bugs to get in and hard for people to get out in a fire, and the general techbro disdain for safety regulations makes me doubt they'd care about passing health inspections. No one would risk doing an allergy-friendly menu in a shared kitchen either, which kills a lot of the bay area clientele they were probably imagining catering to. it could work as like a non-mobile food truck (outdoor food hall?) with a very specialized menu, but it would be super niche. more of a hobby or passion project and definitely not scaleable Parakeet vs. Phone posted:There's also the chance that grocery stores will wind up eating their lunch. I know Kroger's lets you just pick up a prepped, frozen meal at the store and I've heard of other chains getting in on it. there's really only so much difference between a meal kit and a fancy frozen meal in a bag that you dump in a pot. like if you're extracting 2 1/2 oz carrots from individual plastic bags, let's be real here
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 06:58
|
|
|
kitten smoothie posted:Albertson's bought Plated a while back and announced the subscription kit service is dead as of this week. They're still selling the kits in their stores though. Whole Foods has also started selling straight up Amazon-branded kits in-store, too. Yeah I've tried several of these and you're shipped a box of things, but half of the ingredients in the recipe they just assume you carry and need to go buy if you don't. They ship you the easiest ingredients of the meal at a massive markup, and throw in some herbs and spices because buying those in store they're in far larger quantities than you'd need.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 07:38
|
|
|
less than three posted:throw in some herbs and spices because buying those in store they're in far larger quantities than you'd need.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 15:55
|
|
|
ryonguy posted:Honestly a service where you just get random spice packs and a bunch of recipe suggestions would be fantastic, and far better environmentally than Blue Apron's pile o plastic. There are definitely services like that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 16:01
|
|
|
Truck is decades old but this is too good: https://twitter.com/LEGO_Group/status/1199644074866888706?s=20
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 16:58
|
|
|
I'd love a service that does weekly recipe combos plus automatically ordering the relevant groceries from local stores in normal quantities (e.g. ordering a full sack of potatoes for multiple recipes that use potatoes through the week, rather than Blue Apron-style "here's exactly how many potatoes you need for this one meal"), especially if I can tell it what spices I already have. Haven't found something like this yet, though to me it sounds like an obvious win.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 17:22
|
|
|
An assistant, or maid, sort of combo without the costs, pressure, and guilt of directly employing someone please.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 18:33
|
|
|
Cicero posted:I'd love a service that does weekly recipe combos plus automatically ordering the relevant groceries from local stores in normal quantities (e.g. ordering a full sack of potatoes for multiple recipes that use potatoes through the week, rather than Blue Apron-style "here's exactly how many potatoes you need for this one meal"), especially if I can tell it what spices I already have. Haven't found something like this yet, though to me it sounds like an obvious win. The BBC food site has a tool where you can put in one or more ingredients that you have and it'll spit out a bunch of recipes using those things; it's great and I use it for meal planning inspiration from time to time. Honestly I'd be faintly tempted to at least try a service that does something similar to what you're suggesting, sort of a combo of that tool and a veg box concept.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 19:23
|
|
|
Werong Bustope posted:The BBC food site has a tool where you can put in one or more ingredients that you have and it'll spit out a bunch of recipes using those things; it's great and I use it for meal planning inspiration from time to time. Honestly I'd be faintly tempted to at least try a service that does something similar to what you're suggesting, sort of a combo of that tool and a veg box concept.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2019 19:53
|
|
|
can I just say I cant wait to be an ECO-FASH PMU driving around executing meat eaters in this:
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2019 02:05
|
|
|
If I’m a meat eater I’m setting up camp at least 260 miles from a charging station.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2019 02:10
|
|
|
I just realized that US Auto standards specify that the taillights and rear turn indicators need to be on a non-moving body panel. So the dumb rear lightbar would make it impossible to sell in the US. They're gonna have to add secondary indicators on the bumper
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2019 02:14
|
|
|
FilthyImp posted:I just realized that US Auto standards specify that the taillights and rear turn indicators need to be on a non-moving body panel. So the dumb rear lightbar would make it impossible to sell in the US. Elon gives less than 0 shits about standards. His successes are when someone comes in his orbit that can trick him into using a standard. Another reason he needs to be jammed in a locker.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2019 02:16
|
|
|
FilthyImp posted:I just realized that US Auto standards specify that the taillights and rear turn indicators need to be on a non-moving body panel. So the dumb rear lightbar would make it impossible to sell in the US. we'll fix it in appeals court
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2019 07:35
|
|
|
I don't think the crash test results on that thing are going to be pretty. There is a reason why modern cars all look the same, and the reason is that extensive modeling and testing has shown that is the best shape for safety and performance.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2019 11:33
|
|
|
Konstantin posted:I don't think the crash test results on that thing are going to be pretty. There is a reason why modern cars all look the same, and the reason is that extensive modeling and testing has shown that is the best shape for safety and performance. It will definitely kill anyone inside it on any significant crash yeah. Remember Elon Musk's family motto, 'Safety third'.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2019 17:14
|
|
|
I just finished listening to the CryptoQueen podcast. Real pro listen about onecoin and its creator. Available from the BBC and your favourite podcast app. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07nkd84/episodes/player
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2019 18:34
|
|
|
CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Have you heard of headphones as a service? the best part is that these headphones dont actually do what they advertise and just make music sound lovely until you run the 'personalisation' thing on the app to 'tune' them to your ears.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2019 02:33
|
|
|
Konstantin posted:I don't think the crash test results on that thing are going to be pretty. There is a reason why modern cars all look the same, and the reason is that extensive modeling and testing has shown that is the best shape for safety and performance. Reminds me of this old VW commercial: Round for a reason. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1gNcmi4tQ8
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2019 02:40
|
|
|
This article is probably worth reading for folks in this thread: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/02/big-techs-big-defector It covers a lot of ground that's already been covered in this thread (re: privacy), but draws some interesting conclusions at the same time.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2019 10:22
|
|
|
kitten smoothie posted:Deliveroo in London was putting commercial kitchens in shipping containers, with the idea that they could park one under a railroad trestle or on a vacant lot and rent it to a restaurant for cheaper than a retail storefront. Seems like a great way to move from being a middleman that profits off every transaction to running up huge losses because you're taking on the risk of running kitchens/restaurants.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2019 13:41
|
|
|
Except the middlemen don't profit off every transaction, they run at a massive VC-subsidised loss and are desperately flailing for any scheme that might convince people the company can ever be profitable.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2019 13:43
|
|
|
peanut- posted:Except the middlemen don't profit off every transaction, they run at a massive VC-subsidised loss and are desperately flailing for any scheme that might convince people the company can ever be profitable. And since that IV drip of VC money comes with a mandate for hyper revenue growth every quarter the schemes also get more and more cockamamie every quarter.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2019 16:09
|
|
|
kitten smoothie posted:And since that IV drip of VC money comes with a mandate for hyper revenue growth every quarter the schemes also get more and more cockamamie every quarter. If I tell VC guys that I will grow at a normal rate for a business in my sector, he's going to fund the other guy in the sector who plans to grow at 10x, attempt hostile takeovers of competitors, poach all talent in the sector, and or go to Europe or China in the next Qtr. Some businesses can't physically deliver all the above items, in fact most cant. What was once, we need 1 or 2 more servers, now becomes a question of how many servers can Amazon give us tonight. Good architecture goes out the window, as does most everything else sane. Side note, get yourself a Herman Miller aeron chair if you ever find yourself in this situation.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2019 19:19
|
|
|
Shooting Blanks posted:This article is probably worth reading for folks in this thread: More interesting than I'd expected, thanks. Question about one bit it skims over: The article posted:Tristan Harris, a former Google ethicist and the executive director of the Center for Humane Technology, said that most people “would never say a doctor or lawyer shouldn’t have access to information about us, or that they can’t monetize something in their relationship with us. We say they have to monetize it in alignment with our best interests.” Am I missing something extremely obvious here or is Harris crazy? What is the social benefit to a doctor or lawyer being able to monetize what they know about you beyond your paying them for service?
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2019 22:12
|
|
|
Irony.or.Death posted:More interesting than I'd expected, thanks. Question about one bit it skims over: It is incredibly not allowed for lawyers to use confidential information from clients for personal profit.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2019 03:31
|
|
|
Irony.or.Death posted:More interesting than I'd expected, thanks. Question about one bit it skims over: The short version: Harris is crazy, that information can't really be monetized without consent. Consider the source, however, Harris comes from Google where information is something you always monetize when possible.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2019 04:11
|
|
|
Shooting Blanks posted:This article is probably worth reading for folks in this thread: Not a full critique but lol at this in the fifth paragraph: quote:McNamee was convinced that Facebook was different. Then, in February, 2016, shortly after he retired from full-time investing, he noticed posts in his Facebook feed that purported to support Bernie Sanders but struck him as fishy. That spring, the social-media-fuelled vitriol of the Brexit campaign seemed like further proof that Facebook was being exploited to sow division among voters—and that company executives had turned a blind eye. The more McNamee listened to Silicon Valley critics, the more alarmed he became: he learned that Facebook allowed facial-recognition software to identify users without their consent, and let advertisers discriminate against viewers. (Real-estate companies, for example, could exclude people of certain races from seeing their ads.) There's definitely criticism to be made of Facebook but that it is overwhelmingly afflicted by centrist-lib-brain-disease seems problematic to me
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2019 05:15
|
|
|
Fifth paragraph? More like fifth column.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2019 09:09
|
|
|
FilthyImp posted:I just realized that US Auto standards specify that the taillights and rear turn indicators need to be on a non-moving body panel. So the dumb rear lightbar would make it impossible to sell in the US. Also side mirrors, and I will wager good money that thing balls up like something from The 50's in an offset crash test. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Nov 30, 2019 |
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2019 16:38
|
|
|
The amazing thing is that, even obviously not paying attention to best practices or regulations, they still managed to create something so absolutely gently caress-ugly. If you ignore reality and the constraints it imposes on design, I'd like to think you could come up with something far better looking than the Cybertruck.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2019 17:11
|
|
|
it looks like they had trouble manufacturing more advanced panel shapes. like the blocky stuff isn't because of aesthetic or advanced design, but because with the resources elon was able to muster to whip this prototype together he wasn't able to use better machines to produce anything other than flat polygons
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2019 17:37
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 17:34 |
|
|
You can lease a Model 3 but they don’t allow you to buy the car for the residual value at end of term, because they claim the car will be used in their self-driving ride hailing network. We all know how that’s going to go, when they’ve been saying “full self driving in 12 months” for years now. Is Tesla just going to quietly send these off-lease cars straight to the crusher rather than have a glut of used cars driving down the prices?
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2019 17:55
|
|