Re:Americans Love Ordering Pizza on Facebook
by tyingq on Tuesday August 15, 2017 @11:39AM
(#15019214)
It not arguing that their model is cheaper. Just that they have an established process and tech that could be used for other things. Passenger airlines, for example, sell cargo services. (Yes, I get that's not the best comparison as "excess capacity" is less clear)
Instacart, on the other hand, likely doesn't have any margins to play with at all, considering the fact that they are paying people to shop and check out at grocery stores. And the stores already have low margins (~1%) which means they likely don't have much in the way of sweetheart deals with the stores. They are likely in the red before the goods even leave the store.
Some restaurant foods might come close to breaking even, but few restaurants approach the margins of pizza-making at high volumes.
But don't worry. There isn't any indication that VC's have figured out math yet, so we aren't in any danger of these services going away.