Friend's mom owns mom and pop Chinese takeout and said DoorDash changed their lives with the American Dream
I know there is a lot of hate for services like DoorDash and Uber Eats killing restaurants but I think the media (or Blind) blows this out of proportion. Especially ironic since most people who complain about the services probably use them everyday. My childhood friend's parents own a mom and pop Chinese takeout place, the kind you see in your local strip mall, totally unassuming. On Yelp there are like 10 reviews but on DoorDash, there are 7,000 reviews. My friend told me that ever since they joined DoorDash, their revenue went from 100k a year to 850k. Even with the DoorDash commission, they are making money hand over fist and his mom calls it "The American Dream". I asked how it is possible? He said at a local strip mall, their customers are only regulars so anyone who lives over a mile away won't know about them (so the people who live far away would just go to their own local Chinese spot). But with DD, all it takes is for someone to search for Chinese, and they get access to an audience who lives 2 to 5 miles away. Their business exploded and his mom said she wished she thought about doing this years ago. The best part she said is that she doesn't have to hire any delivery staff or worry about taking phone calls and addresses. I'm pretty happy that she quadrupled their income, couldn't happen to a nicer person. People seem to discount that once you are on a platform like DD or Uber Eats, it isn't a straight up 30% you are losing, some of it can be considered a "marketing expense" that opens you up to a giant audience. #doordash #uber
tc?
225k, 5 YOE (non-tech strategy and ops)
Thank you.
I’m just genuinely questioning, so if someone can explain the answer to my question... then I would really appreciate it. These gig economy jobs like Uber driver and door dash delivery are only meant to be done part time. They are only mean to supplement your income, not become the entire basis of your income. These are the jobs that I would do just for fun in my free time to gain some extra cash perhaps. But expecting these jobs to pay a decent living wage is a bit extreme don’t you think? It’s not the drivers are tricked into high wages only to see that the wages are barely minimum wage, I’m pretty sure that the drivers know the wage before hand. In addition, if they feel that they can’t make a living with this wage, why not pursue some other job?
I really wonder people's backgrounds when they say anything along the lines of "why don't they just pursue something else"? There are SO many answers to this question. The simplest is that they are living paycheck to paycheck and finding time and motivation to build a career is extremely difficult. It's difficult when you're making 250k working 40hrs a week, it's even more difficult when you're making 25k working 70. >It’s not the drivers are tricked into high wages only to see that the wages are barely minimum wage, I’m pretty sure that the drivers know the wage before hand They definitely don't. These apps work hard to hide the costs of deprecation of the vehicle for example.
From what I've seen the people who work these jobs full time, long term fall into 2 camps: 1. Not serious about long-term career or can't hold another job because of ability or other constraints. These aren't the type of people to do a full on cost/benefit analysis with depreciation etc on this type of income. They need money, they do this job, simple as that... they don't care how much they "really" make, what's the alternative? 2. Hustlers doing the hardcore analysis on their revenue and profitability regularly. They're the ones working 70 hours a week, maximizing every surge pricing opportunity. They're the dream stories Uber and Lyft try to sell drivers.
Any restaurant owner that didn't take the opportunity to make money with delivery and carry out is plain stupid. Especially the strip mall restaurants, which do not have seating space. Even restaurants with seating areas could have repurposed their waiting staff to become delivery drivers, kitchen helpers, etc. Also repurposed the dining room to food pre-preparation, streamlining the take out and delivery, invest in better packaging to help customers feel safe, etc. Most of the places that went out of business during the pandemic are poorly managed by people who just sit down and wait for the situation to go back to what it was. Then they blame China, non-believers, anti-Trump, science, the wind, immigrants, gays, etc. Then they vote for Trump, lose and convince themselves there was fraud in all places Trump lost, but not where he won.
Not all food is suitable for delivery. Ramen for example is something that really needs to be enjoyed dining in. Other types of food have profit margins so slim and elasticity of demand so high that listing on DoorDash is unwise.
Then they will go out of business for insisting on a service that can no longer be provided, just like what market law determines. Will join the whale oil packers (displaced by electricity), the horse manure collectors (displaced by cars) and the window knockers (displaced by alarm clocks). Tough luck.
Nice piece of content marketing. Next time say revenue is $1m+, people in blind can take it, it’s not too exaggerated.
Definitely a believable story ....
Such a warm story
Can someone explain why they think this is expected? From my personal experience, I live in a suburb with a car and I would pretty much never order delivery. I can’t understand why in a suburb when I’m assuming everyone has cars and it can only take 10 minutes to drive back and forth, why the OP claims all of a sudden customers in a 2-5 mile radius are newly available...
Most will not drive 5 miles for a pickup.
Yeah the ones that are not getting a decent living are the drivers, not the restaurant owners
Why? Do you expect the driver to make 850K, too? Driving for Uber, Door Dash and similar was never intended to be a full time job for anyone. They also need to do their homework to find out what strategy works for them. It's not just sit down and drive.
Yeah @microsoft, but effectively making less than minimum wage is also not expected, which is what happens to gig economy workers.