This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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This year I've been spending a lot of money with DoorDash, Uber Eats, Caviar, and various other services that bring food to my door. I've always done this, but in 2020 it has really ramped up. And of course I'm not the only one. Advancements in technology combined with pandemic life have created a booming business in the world of food delivery. And just like so many other things, some restaurants have adapted very well to this and others have struggled.
Now, even though a lot of the time everything works as it should, and I get to enjoy a tasty meal, brought straight to my door, I do encounter problems with delivery, and maybe you do too. So one time my driver delivered the food to someone else in another building, and I was like, that's nice, I hope they had a good meal. But meanwhile, I'm going hungry. Another time the opposite happened, I got somebody else's food. And I was like, wow, I get to enjoy what somebody else ordered, except it's not what I wanted to eat, and I probably don't eat it in the first place.
And I really would have liked to have received what I ordered. So lots of challenges with this industry, lots of good things as well. And our caller today is wondering, is there a better way? Might there be some improvement on this process? Is there a better way to do local restaurant delivery?
That question and some analysis is coming up after this brief message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hi, Chris, this is Elizabeth from Fort Collins, and I just recently found your show through a friend. Thanks for all the helpful content. Ever since the world changed in March, we've been ordering a lot more food delivery. In some ways, it's great to get Chipotle, or my favorite Vietnamese place, brought straight to the door.
About a third of the time though, something goes wrong. We can't find the driver, or an item is missing from the order, or it just takes way too long. There has to be a better way to do this, right? I don't want to compete with Uber. I just like to do something like this in my own town, and preferably without being the one who drives around all day.
Any ideas? - Elizabeth, thank you so much for listening. Appreciate you being out there. And I always love hearing about different ideas. I often come up with ideas which, you know, never see the light of day.
Lots of my ideas are not good, you know? And that's just kind of how it works. You just kind of filter through ideas and figure out, okay, what do I do next, et cetera? Is there some advantage here? And so the thing is here, you know, I totally agree with the problems.
I completely agree that there are lots of inefficiencies in this, you know, whole model. Lots of stuff is still being kind of figured out and such. The challenge though, is even though there are some clear problems, you know, these companies, they have a lot of investor money. They're all trying to scale. Uber, DoorDash, you know, whatever else, Postmates, anything I'm forgetting.
In different countries, there are probably some other names as well. And we're already seeing a good amount of consolidation in the industry. So, at DoorDash and Caviar recently merged, or one of them bought the other, I'm not sure. And I think there's probably some other mergers and partnerships that are taking place. So, consolidation because, you know, there's not room for so many of them.
So I don't think the answer is in trying to compete, basically. It's going to be very difficult to compete with what's already out there. In fact, unless this is your one and only idea, like if this is your clear vision, this is your life mission, I got to fix this problem. I would almost say, I wonder if something else might be better. Like, what else is on your mind?
Like, what other problems have you noticed? What other inefficiencies? Maybe there's something different. If you do want to proceed, you know, if it is your clear vision, your life mission, I think one answer could be not trying to be the next DoorDash or Uber Eats, but pushing the local angle as much as possible and partnering with a select few restaurants. In other words, trying to do something that is special and different instead of just something for the masses, which as I said, would be quite difficult.
So, that's my two cents on that. Take it for what it's worth, of course. And I'm so glad to hear from listeners all the time with ideas, questions, updates. Let me know what's on your mind. Just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We're gonna continue to feature them throughout the year. We're also planning ahead. I'll talk more about that at some point, but mostly I am so glad you're out there. Be sure you're subscribed. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
