Amusingly, the date on this article and the fact it still loads today.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-08-25-fi-31168-...
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-08-25-fi-31168-...
Quote near beginning to put things in context of where we were back in 1994 :
“ To participate in the pilot, hungry Santa Cruzers need computers with Internet access and a version of an Internet interface program called Mosaic.”
But other interesting predictions:
“Instead of simply letting people order a pizza, why not let them design it as well? Instead of showing an ordinary menu with a list of toppings, show a picture of a pizza with the toppings clustered on the side.”
And then : “Why not customized T-shirts? Log on to the Internet and browse through assorted logos and designs. Mix, match and modify them to suit your interest. Then superimpose them onto the virtual T-shirt on the screen. Hit the right key and within 48 hours your new shirt is Fed-Exed to the desired address.
Of course, this network designability concept easily extends to bouquets of flowers, boxes of chocolates, fruit baskets and the $6.85-billion annual market in mail-order clothes shopping. It would be perfect for all kinds of gift giving.”
Whoever does this for Mongolian BBQ delivery will be the next Bill Gates.
It thinks that just offering a cart is a waste of the internet's potential rather than worth the billions that it is.
The article was pointing out what ordering over the internet with computers can potentially add to the ordering experience. Using the "web" in the same way one might have used a fax machine isn't particularly interesting then or now.
(obligatory xkcd-everyone-knows goes here)
"Surely, a lot of those people would be prepared to pay a little premium to custom-design their own pizza [with the visual pizza builder online]."
No, users will NOT pay extra to custom design a pizza online. They will simply expect it.
Via web..
* Ordering could easily fuck up somehow. Eg. Send multiple identical pizzas cus you pressed the button multiple times, cus the 1st time u pressed it nothing happened. I read about this actually happening recently.
* You dont get confirmation from a human.
* You cant ask questions and get answers from a human.
* You could only order what the app allows and nothing else.
* You'll probably need to register / login, forget your password, reset it, etc. etc. It will take a lot longer.
The big problem with customer service nowadays is thats it's impossible to get hold of a human you can tell your problem to, and who will hopefully deal with it (eg. google)
Ordering pizza online takes me less than a minute. If I called I'd still be on hold
I don't think I've ever had an online order experience any of those problems. On the other hand, I've had countless phone/human interactions that have led to order screwups, usually misspellings of my name/email/phone number despite my spelling it out for the person.
In both roles, online ordering was worlds better than a phone call.
As a Domino's employee, it was a lot easier and faster to get an order from the online system. It was often more accurate too. We didn't have to ask the drunk customer to repeat their order multiple times, then have them rage at us when we delivered what they ordered, only to find out it was not what they thought they were ordering.
As a customer, it's faster and more efficient to order online. I can save a custom order and have my really weird Frankenstein pizza ordered at the click of a button. Also, payment online is far easier and more reassuring than handing over credit card details on the phone (and don't get me started on cash).
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21188594
For even more irony, Pizza Hut’s and Domino’s pages from the mid-90s are more blind-accessible than the meth-addled versions of today. We’ve somehow regressed.
Google wasn't dictating how websites are developed/optimized back then.
Not that hard.
Also, there is no way I'd just call in and say "Pickup, a large pizza, half pepperoni, well done" because that just seems incredibly rude so calling would take even more time. Much easier to load the website/app and enter your pizza
I can't imagine you've ever called a pizza place. It's a business transaction, there's no pleasantries on either side. It's not rude. They want to move on with the business as quick as you want to hang up.
Maybe it's just a North East thing but my calls for pizza are about 10 seconds long and I've never thought "Gino is being rude, he didn't ask me how I was doing"
Literally two words from me. A perk of being a regular customer perhaps, but honestly I order pizza maybe two times a month, not that much imho.
Aren't all of you glad that you can use Vim or Emacs, as you prefer?
Aren't you all glad that you can shave your yak in a bike shed painted exactly the way you prefer?
I suppose there are some advantages to having all your account info already stored if you're getting a delivery but that's not an option for me.
Haven't ordered from Pizza-Hut online, but ordering online from Dominos was absolute hell. There is no way to view your total without clicking through to checkout, and prices aren't listed. So the only way to find out what a specialty pizza costs is to add it to the cart, dismiss all the upsell popups about adding dessert and a soda, then view the cart.
Plus, even on a desktop computer with a decent connection it loads so much crap. The page ends up being heavier than Youtube, and I fail to see why I need to load as much resources to order a pizza vs. watch streaming video. Not worth it, especially as their pizza is neither particularly good or particularly cheap.
The book clearly states that Americans excel at four things:
music
movies
microcode (software)
high-speed pizza delivery
I expect it was more recently put online from the archives, but retaining its date of authorship (as it should) rather than being originally published online in 1994 and remaining there since.