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Comment by squnch | Hacker News Reader

A real testament to how many broken business models have been funded by VCs in the last decade... they can't even make money delivering food when the government has ordered everyone into their homes.

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It's a complete failure. People don't want to pay outrageous prices, so they don't buy in. Restaurants don't want to pay fees. The companies want to make money so they have to squeeze somewhere - squeeze customers, you lose customers. Squeeze drivers, people no longer drive. Squeeze restaurants, they don't buy in.

It's just a system where everyone loses.

Owners of commercial real estate in urban markets are the ones who have been winning, seeing their property values skyrocket even as they put the squeeze on their tenants.

How much of the middle class can afford to routinely eat at restaurant prices, especially now that many people are stuck at home with their families, thus changing the opportunity cost of cooking?

Under and unemployed people staying in their homes are not going to order. They save money. People working from home could order but many of them feel insecure abut the future and also save money. Notice spike at the end: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT (the Dec 2012 spike was due to accelerated payment of bonuses and compensation in anticipation of increase in tax rate)

You can innovate and VC all you want, but it the demand decreases, so does the revenue.

Thank you for the chart - but I have one question.

How much could that spike be attributed to Trump-bucks arriving in people's bank accounts?

I'm sure that's a factor, but I think its more about peoples monthly expenses going down since so many things are closed. No vacations, no sporting events, no weddings, etc.

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