Comment by jon-wood | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jon-wood | Hacker News Reader

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I think there's a space for something in between Ocado and Uber Eats, in the 2010s I worked for a startup where you could book an Ocado style delivery slot for the next day from a bunch of different butchers, bakers, etc and then we'd send a van round to collect from all of them and deliver it to you. Annoyingly they ran out of money just a little bit too soon, I'm pretty sure if they'd managed to hold out until 2020 they'd have seen a huge increase in sales as everyone fully got on board with online delivery and been laughing.

I think the big win with that model vs Ocado is that scaling down is fine, you work with whatever shops are in the area and don't need to deal with building fulfilment centres. Maybe you need a car park somewhere to put the vans overnight. Scaling up is a case of moving into different areas, or onboarding new shops. Absolutely agreed that last mile is a nightmare but we mostly had it down I think, the biggest pain there was that we were relying on a bunch of third parties to pack an order, and if any of them got something wrong we ended up with an unhappy customer on the phone and needing to deal with it.

I worked in this business for over 15 years on the tech and business sides and I can say that the traditional VC-funded startup regime is fundamentally incompatible with the basic realities of the food industry. What is sort of funny about it is that in many areas there are local companies that have been around for many years doing this fantastically. As other commenters pointed out, this is essentially the milkman model.

There are a number of extremely difficult problems that are definitionally insurmountable on the timescales that VC operates -- paramount among them being the establishment of trust and mutualistic relationships with your vendors/stores, customers, and employees.

You are right that there is such a space, it just won't happen in the context of a startup taking VC cash.

You're absolutely right on that - what eventually killed the business was an influx of VC cash and demands for massive expansion during a period when we almost had delivering in a single city nailed.

VC reinvents the milk man (who used to deliver much more than just milk.)

Our milk man still delivers a lot more than just milk.

>the biggest pain there was that we were relying on a bunch of third parties to pack an order, and if any of them got something wrong we ended up with an unhappy customer on the phone and needing to deal with it.

Why not have drivers verify the order with the store? Like have the store folks walk through the pick ups. It might be slower up front, but it would save lots of time and money for everyone in the long run. One of those slow is smooth and smooth is fast situations. Alternatively, the drivers should have a book they could match pics to items perhaps

The other thing I wonder if it would be possible, would be to reduce revenue share for stores that routinely had issues with accuracy, but that means you'd need leverage, and you simply may not have it.

I stopped using Doordash because they had absolutely no process to ensure drivers picked up the correct person's order, let alone actually making sure orders are correct. You give me another person's order with completely different things - I don't trust you again.

This is one of the most basic functions that a delivery service should have: making sure that you get the items you ordered, in good shape.

FC's can have very efficient fundamentals if done right. Sharing shops with direct customers is very problematic - while appealing, the scaling just doen't work for them very well. They're also subject to a lot of variability due to contention with said customers.

This is why next day delivery slots worked - shops were able to pack orders during quiet periods rather than suddenly getting slammed with delivery orders that will be picked up in 20 minutes just as the lunch rush arrives. Some of the shops we were delivering for had people they employed specifically to do this, and generally they loved it because it meant their staff were doing something during otherwise quiet periods.

Next day slots generally work for few customers. We offer delivery in the next 3-4 hours (unless demand is crazy) and the difference in demand when you offer 3-4 hours and when you offer next day is HUGE.

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