all 30 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 42 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Startup doesn't understand that it's not the hot dog that's the selling point.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 24 points 10 hours ago (7 children)

    Everything sucks but Costco. Costco is a beacon of light shining over the vast churning sea of excrement that corporate America has birthed anally upon the consumer.

    Don’t be a fucking chump and order a hot dog delivered.

    Aldi can hang too.

  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 10 hours ago* (2 children)

    i can't imagine ordering a fucking hot dog delivery from anywhere, costco or not. what's next PB&J?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

    I wish we had Aldi in my area.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [+] 8 points 10 hours ago* (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 9 hours ago

    That's originally what I thought as well, but at least as far as I got into their actual website (linked in the article) it doesn't seem to be the case.

    They were charging $18 for 1 hot dog, $36 for 2, and all the way up to 10 at least it was $180. Absolutely no discount that I could find for ordering in bulk (and to get any further it required me to verify an address and that was more effort than my curiousity was worth).

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 14 points 11 hours ago (9 children)

    The company is called NoTip, which would have me hope that the business pays its drivers a good wage so they don't rely on tips. Without knowing more than this one side, I can't tell if the prices really are outrageous, or if this article is trying to draw people away from a business trying to get rid of tipping culture by wrapping it into the price of the items and paying well directly, the way it should be done.

  • source
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • [–] 17 points 11 hours ago (6 children)

    You can't tell whether $18 is too much for a hot dog and a drink?

    It is.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

    No Tip founder Jack Chen told SFGate that the numbers make sense, given that No Tip is intended to be a catering program, rather than a way for one person to order lunch.

    I'd need to see the full pricing to make any more judgements but $15-20 per journey plus 25% surcharge seems to be about what delivery platforms charge (in areas where tips aren't common/legal).

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 11 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

    A "catering program" that operates by scooping up Costco's promotional loss leaders. This is why we can't have nice things.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

    Yeah exactly, this is some person with a car and a membership, right? Probably vibe coded an app to order hotdogs and then picks up a bunch and resells…

    I haven’t looked into it at all, but…

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 9 hours ago (1 child)

    You don't need a membership to buy food court items, I'm pretty sure. You do need it to get into the store though, hmm. Anyway yeah. And the $10 Costco pizza really is as good as the $30 Domino's pizza.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 10 hours ago*

    Well, its $18 for a hot dog and a drink, and also the cost of labour and transport to get them to your door, and little bit for admin costs.

    So if, say, the delivery person can do one every 20 minutes, that's $54 of revenue an hour for the company, minus, say, $10 for the actual food/drink items, $20/hr to employ the person, plus 3 x trips at, say, 5 miles per trip at like, 25 cents/mile for fuel and maintenance, so $3.75 for that.... so about a 80-100% markup on cost for basic labour and expenses, which is where businesses generally need to be on markup to keep afloat.

    The other option is to go get one yourself I guess, but if you value your time the costs end up being approximately the same.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 6 points 11 hours ago

    The problem is that booking a private cab for your hotdog without exploiting workers and paying a fair wage to the drivers ends up being very expensive. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for drivers getting a living wage, but IMO the Doordash / UberEats business model only works if you exploit the drivers, and the best thing we can do is to not use those services (or use services that pay a fair wage and don't complain about inflated prices).

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 10 hours ago

    Can I create a startup to eliminate people who enshittify tech ? How many investors would invest ?

  • source
  • [–] 3 points 10 hours ago

    I can already bring the hotdog to my door by buying the big ass pack of kirkland signature hotdogs and hotdog buns while I'm at the Costco.

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 10 hours ago

    No Tip founder Jack Chen told SFGate that the numbers make sense, given that No Tip is intended to be a catering program, rather than a way for one person to order lunch.

    The startup is meant to be a time-saver for businesses looking to cater lunches or parties. The company’s website says it can handle orders of up to 200 people at a time — and delivery comes with plates and forks.

  • source
  • [–] 1 point 8 hours ago

    Costco pizza isn’t good. Fight me.

  • source
  • [–] 1 point 10 hours ago

    “A lot of offices are ordering from me,” Chen told SFGate. “It’s the company’s money. As long as you’re not too expensive, I mean, they’ve got the money to blow.”

  • source
  • [–] 1 point 9 hours ago

    While I understand arbitrage, this is the stupidest fucking arbitrage play I've ever heard.

  • source