Me, I think 'the future' is resource-intensive delivery services predicated on blowing 10x the resources to deliver someone else's product to 1/100th the customer base winking out like so many candles when the venture oxygen tank runs empty.
But in the meantime bring me the biggest cup of lemur turd latté you can transport on your Scoot, millennial.
Millennial here, it's a lot more cost-efficient to brew and enjoy my own coffee. Coffee snobbery is rampant these days.
It's an excuse to call others 'casuals' and 'plebs' while at the same time it's a masturbatory jerkfest to show off their brand new iCoffee. It's all I see out of my generation. People one-upping others to make themselves feel good.
It's pointless. You can call these people 'yuppies' or 'hipsters' but to me they're all the same regurgitated ignorant loaded trash in the end.
There's people who realize this and next thing you know you have outrageous business ventures like this. I can't see this lasting long at all.
Coffee shops? Sure, OK, it's a social event. Coffee delivery? Ignorance may be bliss but it sure is expensive.
Let's add a question: why?
The bubble... which one? the IT one, the startup one.
I still don't see why it hasn't come to an end.
For example, remind me again why twitter is so valuable? this kind of companies use to be rolled out as a side service of bigger companies with a business model.
-Yahoo Messenger (Ads on search engine)
-Gtalk (Ads on search engine)
..
..
How it was decided the initial price of Twitter? on the basis of how much people are willing to pay.
So why are we rolling these services? Because there is cheap money to invest on them...
Q: Why is that money cheap and where it comes from?
A: Others people money, savings, anything where you receive an interest, they take your money and invest it again under the premise of getting more money.... in the most shiny thing you can find... the most promising.... "The Future"
until things break, you loose your money and to pay the banks to back up your savings devaluate the money again so you loose twice....
A company responding to customer demands, and the delivery of a restaurant's product? I get that it's a first world problem because it's "fancy" coffee, but perhaps I'm missing what's so terribly wrong about this.
Can't speak for the original poster, but my issues with services like this isn't that it's delivering fancy coffee to lazy people, but the economics surrounding it.
There are three broad categories for these types of services:
- High pricing targeted at wealthy people, paying sustainable wages to the laborers who provide the actual service.
- Low-mid pricing targeted at the mass market, paying sustainable wages to the laborers who provide the actual service. These companies end up dead.
- Low-mid pricing targeted at the mass market, paying unsustainably low wages (a small fraction of minimum wage) to the laborers who provide the actual service.
My problem is with companies in the third category, and there are many of them. Silicon Valley may not have invented the hollowing of the American middle class, but it seems to really enjoy building businesses that rely on an endless supply of desperate laborers to exist. Businesses in the third category simply cannot exist without extreme inequality, extreme desperation in the lower classes, and a seemingly inexhaustible low-skilled labor pool, and in this way they are IMO representative of the worst tendencies of American culture/society.
Desperate laborers, the fact that we are so unequal that we are becoming like countries such as India where high earners have "servants" bringing them trivial things.
Coffee is to be enjoyed and savored, a moment to stop and sense, not to be quickly "crushed" for the caffeine hit, and cafes are for catching up with friends or colleagues, talking socially or business.
That we are all so busy (or just pretending to be busy) that coffee/tea breaks aren't a thing in the workplace here.
How people waste money so recklessly on useless things in this country, not only a daily coffee from a retail outlet but paying for a person to bring it to them, when they could just make a French Press in the office or get an espresso machine or what not, and then we wonder why even high earners live paycheck to paycheck, why median retirement savings are incredibly low and express surprise that Americans can't handle a surprise $500 bill.
> That we are all so busy (or just pretending to be busy)
I see this in two different contexts:
1. Urban area: Some people are genuinely busy, while some are busy doing "busy" work (useless meetings, facebook, twitter, <insert any app>, et al.). Heavily populated East and West Coast regions fall in this category. I can see this kind of niche service being popular.
2. Suburban area: People who work a fixed schedule (usually 9-5) which is most of the US. I just don't see why such a delivery service would be popular (and I'm probably wrong) other than small pockets (which would not make it economically viable).
On a larger note, I wonder if everyone wants on-demand service (food and drink, packages, groceries, drivers, etc.) what would a person need to earn to be able to afford these services? And what is job function of this person that he/she is unable to run these small errands? Also, if everyone is "ordering in" and hardly going out, what would it do to the social fabric of society?
Quite the opposite. In countries with cheap labor, it's quite common to get coffee/tea delivered to offices (for zero additional cost). You wouldn't even have to walk that two long blocks to Starbucks.
The economics of this are really difficult to add up at scale. You can't pay sustainable wages on a model like this unless the delivery costs are prohibitively high for an average consumer.
Well, coffee is certainly in the future of ordering for delivery, but why wouldn't it be? The article only describes a partnership between Starbucks/Postmates and Dunkin' Donuts/Postmates/DoorDash. Postmates and DoorDash provide delivery for things that traditionally aren't delivered (ie, fast food and coffee).
If I want coffee, I want it now; I don't want to wait 15 mins. Also, if I am in my own office, I probably will have better quality coffee available than the one that can be delivered by a chain (Nespresso, AeroPress with freshly ground beans, etc.)
I was thinking the same thing. Also, how hot can they keep it during the delivery period? A pizza is one thing but coffee has got to be tough to keep warm.
Agreed. Also, this seems like it wouldn't work at all for some espresso based drinks, I can't imagine frothed milk of a cappuccino holding up well for a ~15 minute bumpy delivery.
If I want coffee, I want it now; I don't want to wait 15 mins.
Then you're not the market because you wouldn't go to Starbucks anyway. For Starbucks customers in the Empire State Building, it's going to take 15 minutes to ride the elevator and stand in line.
Besides the dubious economics of it in places that aren't saturated with coffeeshops, I don't think I'd want delivery coffee. I always use a run to the coffeeshop (if I'm coming back to the office) as a way to clear my head and stretch my legs. Maybe for rainy days?
Yep, coffee has very little to do with actual "coffee" as a product.
Coffee is a ritual, and often, a social activity. You go somewhere sooth your mind on some coffee sipping, people watching, chatting with others, or just daydreaming, and then get on with your day.
This kind of delivery of a small cheap product is never going to work until the delivery part can be automated. Be that drones or something else. When the product itself costs $3, you can't afford to add much for delivery.
Of course, people with lots of money could pay for it, but "people with lots of money" isn't what makes Starbucks popular. Their drinks, while expensive for coffee, are cheap. Make the drinks $6 and there's just not enough demand there.
I don't think there's much of a market for a single cup of coffee (though inside the Empire State Building may be the exception that proves the rule), but there are a lot of workplaces where someone makes a coffee run once or twice per day for $20+ each run. Depending on the geography that is a reasonable amount per order to support delivery services. Don't know about the "Future of On-Demand Ordering" though.
At that rate you can buy a really nice superautomatic coffee machine, say a Jura Impressa J9 OneTouch, and break even in less than one year. The ROI would be huge; not only are you saving money after just 9 months, you're saving the time of the person doing the coffee run, and people get fresher and better tasting coffee. Whenever they want.
If a single person can average 30+ delivery's an hour then the numbers change. For a classic example of this think newspaper delivery by a paper boy. I don't think intra building office delivery's rise to that scale, but they are probably fairly low labor when you consider someone can drop off more than one cup on a trip.
Seriously? It takes me 1 minute to make a great cup of coffee. In the excruciating 4 minutes that it takes to brew, I check my email. Or just contemplate.
Perhaps the next "world changing" delivery startup should just start delivering bags of bubbles on demand? Or just get straight to the point and deliver unmarked VC cash in duffle bags?
I don't think the article properly conveys who is really going to use this. Nobody's going to get a single cup of coffee with a $6 delivery fee.
But, have you guys worked in coffee shops? Every day, there's at least a handful of people who come in to order 20 coffees, or (more commonly) a few big containers of coffee for a meeting. Having a delivery service means the admin assistant doesn't need to take 30 minutes to pick up an order and bring it back. Essentially, this is just lite breakfast catering.
Maybe I'm in the minority, because coffee to me is something I drink when I'm taking a break from work, or enjoying extended leisure time. The idea of never leaving my desk and having some lukewarm Starbucks drip delivered to me isn't exactly appealing.
Exactly. Grabbing coffee is my excuse/reminder to stand up and stretch my legs for a few minutes at work. If I had everything delivered to my desk I wouldn't like it.
> I find (black) coffee starts going bitter/sour if not drunk soon enough.
The litmus test of good coffee: is it still nice to drink once it's cooled down to room temperature? If it's undrinkable when lukewarm, it's bad coffee hidden by the fact that your taste buds don't work very well at 85°C. Same goes for people who drink vodka chilled to -15°C, it's to avoid actually tasting the vodka.
48 comments
[ 0.24 ms ] story [ 90.1 ms ] threadBut in the meantime bring me the biggest cup of lemur turd latté you can transport on your Scoot, millennial.
It's an excuse to call others 'casuals' and 'plebs' while at the same time it's a masturbatory jerkfest to show off their brand new iCoffee. It's all I see out of my generation. People one-upping others to make themselves feel good.
It's pointless. You can call these people 'yuppies' or 'hipsters' but to me they're all the same regurgitated ignorant loaded trash in the end.
There's people who realize this and next thing you know you have outrageous business ventures like this. I can't see this lasting long at all.
Coffee shops? Sure, OK, it's a social event. Coffee delivery? Ignorance may be bliss but it sure is expensive.
I still don't see why it hasn't come to an end.
For example, remind me again why twitter is so valuable? this kind of companies use to be rolled out as a side service of bigger companies with a business model.
-Yahoo Messenger (Ads on search engine) -Gtalk (Ads on search engine) .. ..
How it was decided the initial price of Twitter? on the basis of how much people are willing to pay. So why are we rolling these services? Because there is cheap money to invest on them...
Q: Why is that money cheap and where it comes from? A: Others people money, savings, anything where you receive an interest, they take your money and invest it again under the premise of getting more money.... in the most shiny thing you can find... the most promising.... "The Future" until things break, you loose your money and to pay the banks to back up your savings devaluate the money again so you loose twice....
Thanks Startup Machine!!!! :)
Mind explaining the down votes?
Edit: clarity
Your reply talks about chat apps, which are pretty much the opposite of that.
You actually seem to be agreeing, but it is very hard to tell due to the grammatical errors and formatting, which make it hard to understand.
So your post, for those who read through it, turns out to be pretty much the same thought as the GP, but with a harder to understand message.
I don't have much to add, but this almost made me spit out my coffee. Coffee that I made in my own kitchen like a savage.
There are three broad categories for these types of services:
- High pricing targeted at wealthy people, paying sustainable wages to the laborers who provide the actual service.
- Low-mid pricing targeted at the mass market, paying sustainable wages to the laborers who provide the actual service. These companies end up dead.
- Low-mid pricing targeted at the mass market, paying unsustainably low wages (a small fraction of minimum wage) to the laborers who provide the actual service.
My problem is with companies in the third category, and there are many of them. Silicon Valley may not have invented the hollowing of the American middle class, but it seems to really enjoy building businesses that rely on an endless supply of desperate laborers to exist. Businesses in the third category simply cannot exist without extreme inequality, extreme desperation in the lower classes, and a seemingly inexhaustible low-skilled labor pool, and in this way they are IMO representative of the worst tendencies of American culture/society.
Coffee is to be enjoyed and savored, a moment to stop and sense, not to be quickly "crushed" for the caffeine hit, and cafes are for catching up with friends or colleagues, talking socially or business.
That we are all so busy (or just pretending to be busy) that coffee/tea breaks aren't a thing in the workplace here.
How people waste money so recklessly on useless things in this country, not only a daily coffee from a retail outlet but paying for a person to bring it to them, when they could just make a French Press in the office or get an espresso machine or what not, and then we wonder why even high earners live paycheck to paycheck, why median retirement savings are incredibly low and express surprise that Americans can't handle a surprise $500 bill.
I see this in two different contexts: 1. Urban area: Some people are genuinely busy, while some are busy doing "busy" work (useless meetings, facebook, twitter, <insert any app>, et al.). Heavily populated East and West Coast regions fall in this category. I can see this kind of niche service being popular.
2. Suburban area: People who work a fixed schedule (usually 9-5) which is most of the US. I just don't see why such a delivery service would be popular (and I'm probably wrong) other than small pockets (which would not make it economically viable).
On a larger note, I wonder if everyone wants on-demand service (food and drink, packages, groceries, drivers, etc.) what would a person need to earn to be able to afford these services? And what is job function of this person that he/she is unable to run these small errands? Also, if everyone is "ordering in" and hardly going out, what would it do to the social fabric of society?
Frankly it's right up their alley to try this.
Or they're delivering drip coffee which will have even less demand and cost less.
Then you're not the market because you wouldn't go to Starbucks anyway. For Starbucks customers in the Empire State Building, it's going to take 15 minutes to ride the elevator and stand in line.
Coffee is a ritual, and often, a social activity. You go somewhere sooth your mind on some coffee sipping, people watching, chatting with others, or just daydreaming, and then get on with your day.
Of course, people with lots of money could pay for it, but "people with lots of money" isn't what makes Starbucks popular. Their drinks, while expensive for coffee, are cheap. Make the drinks $6 and there's just not enough demand there.
Citations needed.
The best Coffee is always made by yourself.
Coffee on the Go: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_tl?ie=UTF... src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=stratoptio09-20&l=u...
Coffee at home: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_tl?ie=UTF...
But, have you guys worked in coffee shops? Every day, there's at least a handful of people who come in to order 20 coffees, or (more commonly) a few big containers of coffee for a meeting. Having a delivery service means the admin assistant doesn't need to take 30 minutes to pick up an order and bring it back. Essentially, this is just lite breakfast catering.
First world problem.
It's a business model and it works well in some places. It doesn't print money, but it gives the chains a competitive advantage.
I find (black) coffee starts going bitter/sour if not drunk soon enough.
The litmus test of good coffee: is it still nice to drink once it's cooled down to room temperature? If it's undrinkable when lukewarm, it's bad coffee hidden by the fact that your taste buds don't work very well at 85°C. Same goes for people who drink vodka chilled to -15°C, it's to avoid actually tasting the vodka.
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