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DoorDash is a Glovo-like company that allows its users to order food delivered to restaurants that do not offer this option. The problem is that, as the owner of a New York pizzeria discovered, he can do it without regard to the establishment itself . Of course, in this case he discovered a system that allowed him to take advantage of the DoorDash business model to earn money at his expense.

The story happened to a friend of Ranjan Roy and he told it in his newsletter to criticize the way the company operated and, by the way, the foundations of the collaborative economy, more focused on acquiring clients than on caring for entrepreneurs, workers and their own scalability.

The problem, Roy explains, is that the pizzeria appeared on DoorDash without the company contacting its owner. Thus, when searching for their name on Google, they could see a button that allowed them to place orders at home -a service that has only begun to offer after confinement- in which the client paid through the app and one of their 'riders' personally appeared. at the establishment to pick up a pizza to go, which, in turn, was paid with the company card.

Then, of course, the complaints came, since as they were not specialized delivery men, they lacked the appropriate bags and the food arrived cold . This was what alerted the restaurant, which received negative calls and ratings for a service that, to the best of their knowledge, was not offered.

As if the equation was not complicated, there was an error that, curiously, would end up solving the problem: the pizzas cost $ 16, while their real price was 24. This, as they would discover later, is a strategy they use to get partners: after doing the test, they can offer real numbers of orders placed and income and start talking about the commission they would take. The company's money, in this case, doesn't matter; the only relevant thing is to grow .

Thus, Roy and his friend did the test with an order for 10 pizzas - which they sent to another friend - for which they paid $ 160 and which, when the delivery man arrived, meant an immediate income of $ 240.

The $ 80 profit was down to little after discounting what it costs to make each pizza (about $ 6.5 and an additional 50 cents a box), so they took the next logical step in this math problem: removing a variable. In this case, the pizza.

Thus, the next order of 10 pizzas cost the same $ 160 and also reported $ 240, but in this case they only paid the $ 5 packaging. As the slogan says, the secret is in the dough, which for a restaurant is practically free and for a delivery person it is the weight, heat and aroma necessary to not suspect anything. The boxes were traveling with something that just looked like pizza and this time the $ 75 profit was exactly that.

They did the experiment several times, motivated, among other things, by a feeling as beautiful as "Fuck DoorDash", in Roy's words. "Fooling businesses into entering your platform and creating additional headaches for small business owners looking for 'softbank' growth" (referring to the bank that had invested in the company) is the worst there can be. ", summarizes.

Another anecdote from Roy serves as a closing and summary: a delivery man without a thermal bag to whom the restaurant manager will leave one in exchange for some type of identification to ensure that it will be returned. Without it, the pizza will be cold, but if the 'rider' has to return to the establishment, he will not be able to reach his quota and will not earn enough to make up for the journey. It's the collaborative economy: it doesn't matter the workers and their rights , the restaurants and their reputation or the customers and their satisfaction. Not to matter, pizzas don't matter. Just grow up.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

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