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Comment by opportune | Hacker News Reader

That's fair. To be clear I don't expect it to be a huge money maker in the short term, just something that's worth doing. Long term the margins look much better once the food delivery market starts to see some consolidation/higher margins due to less promotions and subsidies.

Very good point on the supply-side costs for rideshare, hadn't thought of that.

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even long-term, it's tempting to think that synergies and market consolidation would lead to higher utilization rates through stacking (making multiple delveries at once), but indications from current players in the space are discouraging in that regard.

last-mile logistics is an exceedingly tough nut. i think it's really going to take a wholesale reconfiguration of cities around much more density and mixed-use where shared industrial kitchens and warehouses can make the synergies work out, but of course that's decades in the making.

>i think it's really going to take a wholesale reconfiguration of cities around much more density and mixed-use where shared industrial kitchens and warehouses can make the synergies work out, but of course that's decades in the making.

It's actually closer than it seems if this bet plays out: https://www.cloudkitchens.com/

yes, that's the easiest part and where there has been some activity, but even then, it's a capital-intensive business without obvious super-scalar competitive advantages.

shared industrial kitchens become advantageous only with density, proximity (mixed-use), and (unfortunately) high land values.

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