Ask HN: What are the ‘restaurant’ or ‘coffee shop’ of online business? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are the ‘restaurant’ or ‘coffee shop’ of online business?

2 pointswgx6 comments

IRL a coffee shop is a pretty simple, basic business that anyone can start. You need to rent a place, buy equipment and supplies, hire staff. Then, in theory, it “just works”. What are the parallel businesses in online/tech? You don’t need to develop self-driving AI or a teleporter, it “just works” - and there’s still a space for you against big incumbents (Starbucks). Is this even possible anymore?

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What is not mentioned in that perrygroup article is the presence of the landlord. The stories of these long running family restaurants with good food etc are OWNED by the family. Sooner or later almost all properties fall into the hand of landlords whose function is rent maximization. No long lasting family restaurants here - landlords ramp up the rent until they break. This leads to high intensity food-fraud businesses like Strbucks. I say food fraud when costco sells a can of cok for 22 cents with the can, how much does the same coke in a plastic cup cost at a food fraud? $1.50-$2.50. The rise of these specialty food frauds who buy all their stuff at the deepest wholesale discount and sell at stratospheric prices and cross subsidize new locations in paramount locations by other store profits. I never buy a thing from Strbucks - the scrape of the gouge is too deep to bear...

You may want to rethink the assumption that coffee shops/restaurants “just work”. Like tech startups, many restaurants don’t last long. Here’s and older study on restaurants: https://www.perrygroup.com/foodservice-expert-overview-on-ho....

Donut shop might be a better example of a food business that tends to work. They open before other most other restaurants. It works well as takeout. The product has wide appeal. The starting price is low. Businesses and community organizations buy in bulk.

Perhaps most importantly, opening early filters out "my dream is opening a coffee shop" approaches. "Time to make the donuts" is o-dark-thirty. It's a business were just showing up goes further.

I don't think those are separate categories at all, it's simply a tool. Modern companies are also internet companies.

That coffee shop over there? On the internet. Order something at PizzaHut? Over the internet. Want to move some sand? All on the internet.

What does "just works" mean for you?

It is far from a guarantee way of making a living out of it.

online retail, hosting or VPN services

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