> If pervious economies were so well functioning

An efficient economy doesn't mean you can do anything you can imagine is technically possible; it means that market rates with everything priced in properly will discover whether or not enough people value it enough to pay for it.

50 miles radius? I bet you weren't only not tipping the delivery guy but also complained your food was cold.

Local economies were functioning well before for years, you were getting food from around your area, which is perfectly acceptable and efficient.

There existed many companies/people who would collect whatever you wanted and bring it where ever for a fee with a phone call.

People would not be willing to pay the price however.

Two things can be simultaneously true

- delivery was under-served and over-priced, and taxis charged too much, often because of viciously expensive auctions for limited legal taxicab slots, with the city raking it in and the drivers having to recoup it from fares

- Uber and friends are exploitative dumping schemes that tighten the screws on their gig workers even while they firehose money at customers

Concierge services have always existed.

You weren't willing to pay the unsubsidised price.

Because those economies functioned in a relatively closed system of finance, and the actual cost of delivery was covered within that system. The actual cost of delivery is reflected in the price of getting the delivery. Or, if no delivery was easily available, it was because the cost of keeping such a system up, running, and easily available was higher than could be managed profitably.

Doordash works today because venture capitalists are throwing millions of dollars at it, and dramatically subsidizing the cost of the delivery.

In other words, you can do that today because someone else is willing to pay. The VC's money won't last forever though. The question is if the economies of scale it creates will be enough to reduce the cost of delivery such that it is a sustainable business.

Most available data says "Probably not."

You absolutely could do that before. The average person just couldn't afford the prices until it became heavily subsidized by VC money.

Because most people weren’t willing to pay more for the delivery than their meal, so nobody bothered.

One could always just call