[_trampeltier]

This story comes to my mind.

A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas from DoorDash for $16

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/18/21262316/doordash-pizza-p...

[mhink]

Note: the Verge article links to this blog post, describing the situation in more detail: https://www.readmargins.com/p/doordash-and-pizza-arbitrage

[sprinkly-dust]

Thank you, this was a fun rabbit hole to dive down. That blog also has a well-argued article about Zero Interest Rate Policy which relates to the doordash story: https://www.readmargins.com/p/zirp-explains-the-world

[ryanjshaw]

They could have made another $5 per 10 pizzas after order #1 by just delivering the pizza to themselves and sending the same boxes back out in the next delivery, and so on.

[xg15]

Maybe that's my EU mindset, but I'm baffled how it's even legal to add a company to your public listing - complete with fake phone number - and just declare they're taking deliveries, all against the explicit wishes of the company.

(Complete with "chill bro, I was just <s>joking</s>demand testing you" at the end)

The blogger calls this being "tricked" to sign up for DoorDash. Seems to me, this is the same way a burglar "tricks" you into giving them your valuables.

[cortesoft]

The pizza owner from that article is my wife’s cousin!

[wizzwizz4]

If you want to fight the VCs, you have to pull stunts like this. If they want to destroy local infrastructure because "free market", in an attempt to secure monopolies for themselves, then let them operate in a free market.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

> then let them operate in a free market.

I think you meant to say "operate in a market that is regulated in precisely the way they want it to be".

[mattmaroon]

But why do you think they’re harming “local infrastructure”? The food delivery services didn’t hurt anything but their investors in the end. And they kept the restaurant industry alive during the pandemic, the fallout would have been so much worse. I work in the industry and know several bar/restaurant owners who will tell you DoorDash and competitors are the only reason they made it through 2020-21.

Early on they stopped prohibiting restaurants from upcharging, so restaurants all did. They ended up with some extra sales and profits. The customer got VC funded free delivery.

Enough alternatives kept the market place efficient. DoorDash can’t get too abusive when UberEats and Instacart are competing, restaurants have no switching cost.

The whole thing worked for basically everyone involved except maybe the investors (DoorDash has significantly underperformed the S&P since it debuted on the market.)

[supertrope]

VC Fund My Life!

[rhplus]

Ha! It’s the trick Richard used in Silicon Valley season 5 episode 1 (2 years before the blog post) to bankrupt “SliceLine” and buy out their devs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_season_5

[caminanteblanco]

Thanks for sharing, i enjoyed reading it, although it is paywalled: http://archive.today/H5FRo

[Spooky23]

A friend of mine did this, and had the food delivered to himself.

They banned him eventually.