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Comment by tyoma | Hacker News Reader

This is only true for very simple orders. And may heaven help you if you and the person on the other end are both non-native English speakers.

As soon as you want anything remotely custom, using an app or website is a lifesaver.

And the good apps remember your order for one/two tap re-ordering. Chipotle’s app is one that does this extremely well.

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This is true but for me a pizza is a fallback plan for a long day or plans that fell through. So it is almost always the same or very similar order and I just want it now. My local pizza place actually asks if I want to repeat my last order or hear their specials. I can (to your point, re-) order a pizza in like 9 seconds.

Chipotle’s app always says your food will be ready in < 10 minutes. Last week they had a 55 minute backlog due to sports and Covid-closures of neighboring stores. The poor workers.

Their server needs a feedback channel from the stores. Or it should count the number of incoming items ordered per minute, and auto-adjust the "ready" time. Don't always show 5 minutes.

Yes, this. I am about ready to give up on Chipotle entirely because of the incredible lie that is their Ready to Pickup time. Last time I was there I would have saved time if I had just waited in their incredibly long line and ordered that way instead of doing them the favor of ordering ahead.

You can use their in-app chat to cancel your takeout order while waiting in that line, or so I hear.

Telling the customer to leave immediately for the store is the only viable solution for a time window that could be 7 to 55 minutes wide, if your priority is maximizing pipeline efficiency and throughout at the expense of occasionally making customers wait for up to 45 minutes in-store. Providing a <10 estimate to all customers ensures that they do their part by showing up in a timely manner, and removes their ability to blame the store for a cold pie. When the kitchen breaks down it may mean waiting in the store for an hour, but at least you’ll know that’s the case because you’re at the store on time.

If the pizza’s ready in 7 minutes, you’ll be there in 10 and receive a hot pizza.

If the pizza’s ready in 55 minutes, you’ll be there in 10 and receive a hot pizza eventually.

You could theoretically try to offer more accurate arrival times, but then you’ll have to play queuing theory “fairness” games with the pizza queue versus in-person and phone orders to try and ensure that the pizza isn’t made too soon, as well as have to deal with people thay show up late and lie about the estimate shown in-app so they can get a new freshly-made hot pizza (which generates food waste). Doing this requires competent pizza personnel with a good understanding of how to manage expectations fairness, and if there one thing I would not expect from a Chipotle-sized business, it’s that — they’ll have maximized efficiency by removing human consideration from the equation altogether.

The downside: you have 30-40 angry customers packed into a tiny restaurant, some unmasked, all crowding the pickup window, waiting for their name to be called.

Surely technology can help improve this?

That downside is acceptable to Chipotle, it seems.

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