Thread

1. dzonga · 1790195655 · focus · HN ↗

   services like door-dash are literally built on a concept of a sucker pays more. you order a meal that costs $10. total charge comes to $25. then delivery worker made $5 on that order. + the delivery worker expects a tip.

   which means the company sees both the delivery worker and the person who ordered as suckers. no wonder ride-share companies jumped onto food-delivery.

   1. ehe78qhe · 1790196663 · focus · HN ↗

      I thought they were built on "time is money". If you make the equivalent of $70 an hour, do you care about spending $15 for someone to bring you lunch and save you 15-30 minutes of your workday?

      1. dieselgate · 1790198428 · focus · HN ↗

         The gig workers are still suckers because gig work sucks. But yes the service is most sensible for higher paid consumers.

         1. moate · 1790200425 · focus · HN ↗

            ...only because the company is committing wage theft to subsidize costs. I don't think it feels reasonable to say "Your employer has to meet certain wages, but they didn't so you're a sucker".

            If you can't pay the wage you're required to then the whole house of cards starts coming down because now you can't create a large enough network to meet demand, which shrinks demand, which increases costs, which makes it accessible to fewer and fewer high paid consumers.

            Like a lot of capitalism "it's better than starving to death in the streets" is the appeal of the job and nothing more. Anything else is a paid message brought to you by UberDoorHub.

      2. odyssey7 · 1790198897 · focus · HN ↗

         It was kind of fun doing this math back when I was a freelancer. An hour saved would literally produce more money than the order cost. But really, it would have been better to save the money by making food ahead of time.

         1. drop_star · 1790199184 · focus · HN ↗

            Ya I dont get this argument. Takes me all of 2 mins to grab my lunch in the morning. It's also not a greasy burger that shortens my lifespan and physically disable's me.

            1. drdaeman · 1790200062 · focus · HN ↗

               The whole point of food delivery is for the occasions you can’t (e.g. sudden illness, or time management mishaps) or don’t want to (laziness/tiredness) cook or drive to grab a takeout. You pay a premium for the convenience, someone else takes care of it. Nothing wrong with that, no “suckers” in the general scheme.

               1. drop_star · 1790269413 · focus · HN ↗

                  From what I've seen its the fat lazy devs at work that order chipotle for lunch rather than walking downstairs to get it themselves. Mostly the younger ones too that are right out of school and should be saving their money.
         2. WesleyJohnson · 1790199626 · focus · HN ↗

            I've always struggled with this thinking. Yes, you have finite hours in a day and if you spend an hour going to get food then you can't necessarily also be doing freelance work. But if you planned on working 8 hours to earn X dollars, you can still work 8 hours after spending an hour going to get food and still make X dollars. Sure, that hour has to come from somewhere so maybe it's lost leisure time or an hour of sleep. I guess it makes sense if you're trying to work every waking moment; and I can appreciate that some choose to and some have to.

            1. Joker_vD · 1790200544 · focus · HN ↗

               > Sure, that hour has to come from somewhere so maybe it's lost leisure time or an hour of sleep.

               Well, if you value an hour of your sleep or entertainment less than $15 dollars (if, for instance, you like to cook), then sure, spend it on cooking instead. Many of people would rather not, and their revealed preferences show it pretty clearly.

      3. someonebaggy · 1790199009 · focus · HN ↗

         Tony Xu spent three times as much time as the driver did, did he?
      4. gennarro · 1790199895 · focus · HN ↗

         Except they increase the charges of the food also, so you are getting taken advantage of there as well.
      5. itopaloglu83 · 1790201389 · focus · HN ↗

         It’s not just “time is money”, but also the convenience as well. Sometimes you’re sick and need a hot meal, or you’re busy helping someone, etc.

         Edit: Spelling. “right” to “sick”.

      6. kelnos · 1790241163 · focus · HN ↗

         This sort of framing is never really valid, because when we go out to pick up our lunch, we generally do not lose part of our wages (for salaried employees). We may stay in the office a little bit longer to make up for it, but then that's a completely independent decision about how much that time is worth to us, plus how much we are willing and able to pay for that time.

         You might say "going home from the office 30 minutes earlier is absolutely worth $15" to me, but that has little to do with what your effective hourly wage is.

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