Another Bad Idea Dies

[Julian Macassey]

There is this continuing belief that if you create a web
site to peddle something people will flock to it and it will make
money.

There are great examples of this folly including web van.
Another one has just bitten the dust. Will this accelerate the
demise of web 2.0 and send the Bros back home to the Midwest
Burbs leaving San Francisco to the freaks and weidos that helped
make Frisco worth living in and visiting? We can only hope.

Here is a recent casualty:

http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/03/food-delivery-startup-spoonrocket-which-raised-13-5m-shuts-down/

+ On Tuesday, San Francisco-based on-demand food delivery
+ SpoonRocket told customers that it had closed its doors over the
+ weekend. The company’s closure is one of the latest signs that
+ there’s been a financial slowdown in Silicon Valley. The startup
+ offered a short list of relatively inexpensive food options
+ (under $10) and could deliver them in under 10 minutes in many
+ parts of the Bay Area.
+
+ "Despite our efforts, unfortunately, the downturn of market and
+ lack of interest in on-demand companies like SpoonRocket from the
+ venture community has forced us to shut down prematurely before
+ we are able to grow into a viable business," SpoonRocket wrote.
+
+ TechCrunch reported that the company had raised $13.5 million in
+ venture capital through Y Combinator and other angel funds, as
+ well as some Series A funding.
+
+ SpoonRocket recommended that customers switch to its more
+ expensive competitor, Sprig.

Like much of the excitement of the Tech Wealth
Dsitriution game, you wonder if anyone ever pulled out a napkin
and did a quick calculation on whether the business could ever
make a profit. It seems in the scam that is venture capital, is
not concerned with making a real old school profit. It seems the
"new economy" is still with us.

I understand food delivery for shut-ins, but these
services seem to be more for the lazy and entitled rather than
the handicapped.

It's bad enough that people are too lazy or inept to
cook, but when they are then too lazy to go out and buy ready
made food either to take home or eat on the premeises.

--
"He that wishes to see his country robbed of its rights cannot be a
patriot. - Samuel Johnson: The Patriot

[Julian Macassey]

On Wed, 16 Mar 2016 14:35:04 -0000 (UTC), Julian Macassey
<jul...@tele.com> wrote:

To follow up on myself:

> +
> + "Despite our efforts, unfortunately, the downturn of market and
> + lack of interest in on-demand companies like SpoonRocket from the
> + venture community has forced us to shut down prematurely before
> + we are able to grow into a viable business," SpoonRocket wrote.
>

...

> I understand food delivery for shut-ins, but these
> services seem to be more for the lazy and entitled rather than
> the handicapped.
>
> It's bad enough that people are too lazy or inept to
> cook, but when they are then too lazy to go out and buy ready
> made food either to take home or eat on the premeises.

An observer of the Bro entitlement culture has come up
with a solution. It's the sharing economy!


http://www.herecomestheairplane.co/

+ How it Works
+
+ You sign up.
+
+ We have an initial visit where we assess the size of the silver
+ spoon in your mouth.
+
+ You never have to worry about feeding yourself again.
+ Introductory Pricing
+
+ Tea Spoon
+
+ 1-3 Meals
+
+ $10 per week
+
+ $30 per month (with a one year committment)
+
+ Table Spoon
+
+ 3-6 Meals
+
+ $20 per week
+
+ $70 per month (with a one year committment)
+
+ Soup Spoon
+
+ 6-10 Meals
+
+ $30 per week
+
+ $100 per month (with a one year committment)
+ Trust and Security
+
+ This team of mavericks has created a roomba for your mouth.
+
+ -TechCrunch
+
+ Background Checked
+
+ All of our carefully trained helpers pass strict background
+ checks to ensure they won't put anything other than food into
+ your mouth.
+
+ Security
+
+ We use advances in mobile and GPS technology to keep tabs on our
+ helpers 24/7.
+
+ Reliable
+
+ All of our helpers are community rated. If they fall below 4.7
+ stars we give them the boot without warning.


--
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
- George Orwell

[sms]

On 3/16/2016 7:35 AM, Julian Macassey wrote:
> There is this continuing belief that if you create a web
> site to peddle something people will flock to it and it will make
> money.
>
> There are great examples of this folly including web van.
> Another one has just bitten the dust. Will this accelerate the
> demise of web 2.0 and send the Bros back home to the Midwest
> Burbs leaving San Francisco to the freaks and weidos that helped
> make Frisco worth living in and visiting? We can only hope.

And now Uber is getting into food delivery. At least their service
doesn't require any big investment from them.

People like to go out to restaurants and like to go shopping, even food
shopping.

I did use Von's (Safeway) delivery service two weeks ago to send some
stuff to my son in a dorm at college. He was sick, he doesn't have a car
at school, and was in no condition to take the bus to the store to buy
OTC medicine, honey, lemons, tea, soup, etc.

It was painful for me to spend Von's/Safeway prices on these items since
each item was 2-3x the price I normally pay at Costco, Trader Joe's,
Sprouts, Oakmont, etc. $20 worth of groceries for $60. And that was with
free delivery because it was my first order with them.

Maybe these services believe that all their customers will pay any
amount to get stuff delivered.

Google Shopping Express is a concept I like because they deliver from
stores that are not total ripoffs.

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <slrnneiruk...@adeed.tele.com>,

Julian Macassey <jul...@tele.com> wrote:
>I understand food delivery for shut-ins, but these services seem
>to be more for the lazy and entitled rather than the handicapped.

Aka. "tech workers"

[David Arnstein]

Here is an article about Spoon Rocket and similar businesses:
https://pando.com/2016/03/16/food-pacalypse-starting-or-was-spoonrocket-just-horrible-take-it/80dbbc4ce14261ca40b4aa4d4af0cb4a6fa5a897/

This link will work for 48 hours.

I feel a cold wind blowing through here. Tangible products like chips
and disk drives have given way to systems like Facebook and Spoon
Rocket. I feel like a lot of these intangibles are about to get a
reality check. Tim will be chortling, most everyone else will be
looking over their shoulders.
--
David Arnstein (00)
arnstei...@pobox.com {{ }}
^^

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <nccbad$s2g$1...@reader1.panix.com>,

David Arnstein <arnstei...@pobox.com> wrote:
>I feel like a lot of these intangibles are about to get a reality
>check.

Maybe, but there were more than a dozen internet food delivery
startups. Of course, most were going away. The real issue for
them is whether it's a viable business outside of a small handful
of markets such as Silicon Valley.

[Peter Lawrence]

On 3/16/16 9:20 AM, sms wrote:
>
> I did use Von's (Safeway) delivery service two weeks ago to send some stuff
> to my son in a dorm at college. He was sick, he doesn't have a car at
> school, and was in no condition to take the bus to the store to buy OTC
> medicine, honey, lemons, tea, soup, etc.
>
> It was painful for me to spend Von's/Safeway prices on these items since
> each item was 2-3x the price I normally pay at Costco, Trader Joe's,
> Sprouts, Oakmont, etc. $20 worth of groceries for $60. And that was with
> free delivery because it was my first order with them.

He doesn't have any friends or roommates that could have bought the supplies
for him? When I went to college in L.A., I didn't have a car either for my
first two years, but I coordinated with a friend who did have a car when I
needed to go grocery shopping. And if one of us got sick, an other would go
to the store to purchase any medicine or food that he/she needed.


- Peter

[evergene]

Julian Macassey wrote:

>...send the Bros back home to the Midwest

>Burbs leaving San Francisco to the freaks and weidos that helped
>make Frisco worth living in and visiting? We can only hope.

If you haven't been to SF in a while, let me assure you it's gotten
much worse in the past couple of years. You can't walk down Valencia
without tripping over some hipster's untrimmed beard.

>+ On Tuesday, San Francisco-based on-demand food delivery
>+ SpoonRocket told customers that it had closed its doors over the

>+ weekend...

>+ SpoonRocket recommended that customers switch to its more
>+ expensive competitor, Sprig.

Sprig is the food delivery service I posted about a couple of months
ago. The guy who founded Sprig, Gagan Biyani, is described (or
describes himself) on Wikipedia as "serial entrepreneur, marketer, and
journalist." Earlier, he founded an "online learning marketplace"
called udemy, and for six months he was head of marketing at Lyft.

Sprig's website tells us that they've got three new menu categories
from which you can select your dinner: "Clean," "Balanced," and
"Fuel." They also have "intentionally-chosen suppliers," who use
ingredients that, as I ranted about in January, are "curated,"
"paleo," "gluten-free," "crafted," and "honest." And "sustainable."

I bet the employees of SpoonRocket and Sprig are so busy, they only
have time to eat Soylent (soy protein, algal oil, isomaltulose, and a
long shelf life).

[Al Eisner]

On Wed, 16 Mar 2016, sms wrote:

> Google Shopping Express is a concept I like because they deliver from stores
> that are not total ripoffs.

I wasn't aware of this, but it looks interesting. It costs $10/month,
plus what seem to be modest delivary charges (I only checked one case).
In my area the grocery stores for which overnight delivery is offered
include Target, Costco, Nob Hill and Whole Foods, not a bad selection.
Of course this only works for non-perishables, non-refrigerated items,
but if for some reason I can't go shopping that helps.
--
Al Eisner
San Mateo Co., CA

[Julian Macassey]

Do you mean tech workers are lazy and entitled, or tech
workers are (intellectually) handicapped.

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <slrnnek1gp...@adeed.tele.com>,

Julian Macassey <jul...@tele.com> wrote:
>Do you mean tech workers are lazy and entitled, or tech workers
>are (intellectually) handicapped.

Well both, in plenty of cases.

[Julian Macassey]

On Wed, 16 Mar 2016 14:50:39 -0700, evergene <ge...@geeaitcheekaygee.com> wrote:
> Julian Macassey wrote:
>
>>...send the Bros back home to the Midwest
>>Burbs leaving San Francisco to the freaks and weidos that helped
>>make Frisco worth living in and visiting? We can only hope.
>
> If you haven't been to SF in a while, let me assure you it's gotten
> much worse in the past couple of years. You can't walk down Valencia
> without tripping over some hipster's untrimmed beard.

I refer to the Bros as the San Francisco Taliban.


--
"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them
to choose from." - Andrew S. Tanenbaum
~

[Tim May]

We come from a different era. An era where students either worked their
way through colllege or excelled enough to get real schoarships.

(I was accepted at MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, but transferred by Berkeley
acceptance to UC Santa Barbar, College of Creative Studies, Class of
1974, where I got a good academic deal and a very reasonable price for
the ride. I graduated in '74 with no debt and a new job at a little
compnay called Intel.)

When I was sick a few times, my roommates provided sustenance.

What has happened to the Gen Y Millennials today? If the helicopter
parents can't helicicopter supplies in, so the kids racking up $80K a
year debts just use these delivery services?

I know that over my dead body--and .50 BMG Barretts and the like--will
I be paying these studuent debts.

Most of these students with $200K student debts need to just keep
working as barristas and "Forvever 21" clerks for the rest of their
terrible lives.

Maybe some of them will tell their children that a degree in
"Multigender Studies" is not worth anything, let alone $200K in debt
that they are paying off in their $9.37 an hour job selling drinks to
joclks and their fucks for the night.


--
Tim May

[Tim May]

I'm chortling for a lot of reasons.

Even when I lived in the heart of Silicon Valley, literally walking
distance to restaurants, I usually cooked simply at home. It was both
more convenient, more tasty, and vastly less-expensive. For special
occasions (visitors, date) a trip a few miles ECR gave me many options.

Even way back in 1974 the high housing prices in Si Valley were a
topic. There were many books about bulding and buying "dome houses" in
the nearby mountains. Some folks did.

I had a few chances to buy places in Los Gatos and the like that
would've turned out well. ( A girlfriend lived in a shared place on
Shannon Lane in Los Gatos that came on the market for $110K in 1979.
Not atypical. But I listened to the siren call of twice as much
property for half the price in Oregon, and then spent two miserable
years in the rain.)

No more history.

But now a new gerneration is faced with enormous debt they cannot
plausibly repay and with housing vastly less accessible to them than
even we our generation faced in 1975.

They are, basically, fucked. Time to learn the tune "Suicide is Painless..."

--
Tim May

[Steve Pope]

Tim May <tc...@att.net> wrote:

>But now a new gerneration is faced with enormous debt they cannot
>plausibly repay and with housing vastly less accessible to them than
>even we our generation faced in 1975.
>
>They are, basically, fucked.

Rent-seeking 1%'ers want it this way, of course.

Steve

[sms]

In California, and especially San Francisco, laws have been passed that
make housing less available and less affordable.

Rent control and vacancy control in San Francisco have resulted in a
great many properties being taken out of the rental market. They used to
be converted to TICs (Tenants In Common) for-sale housing, which at
least kept the building in the housing pool, and helped drive up rents.
Now you are seeing AirBNB type rentals. Darn. My wife's family sold
their four unit building too soon. But it was unsustainable since the
rent was too low to cover the mortgage, taxes, and upkeep, and they
could never raise the rent, even when the tenants changed.

Proposition 13, sold to voters as a way to keep seniors from losing
their homes due to skyrocketing assessments, has been totally abused. It
should apply to owner-occupied housing only. It should not be able to be
inherited. We are just beginning to see the impact of a second
generation of owners paying Prop 13 limited property taxes while sending
their children to public schools, and using other services that their
property taxes don't nearly pay for.

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <ncev6p$i0b$1...@blue-new.rahul.net>,

I think it's nice that Tim is concerned about young people.

[Peter Lawrence]

On 3/16/16 3:14 PM, Al Eisner wrote:
>
> Of course this only works for non-perishables, non-refrigerated items,
> but if for some reason I can't go shopping that helps.

Once upon a time, it was de rigueur to have perishable refrigerated items
(dairy and eggs) to be delivered to one's home on a regular basis. I
remember being bummed out when our local dairy stopped providing home
delivery. It meant we had now to start going to the grocery store to
purchase milk and eggs! It was an odd feeling doing that at first.

Considering how inexpensive yet efficient Styrofoam coolers are at keeping
food and drinks cold, home delivery of perishables should still be very
doable, especially if one can schedule the deliver for early morning or the
evening.


- Peter

[Aahz Maruch]

In article <ncf0sn$teo$1...@dont-email.me>,

sms <scharf...@geemail.com> wrote:
>
>Proposition 13, sold to voters as a way to keep seniors from losing
>their homes due to skyrocketing assessments, has been totally abused. It
>should apply to owner-occupied housing only. It should not be able to be
>inherited. We are just beginning to see the impact of a second
>generation of owners paying Prop 13 limited property taxes while sending
>their children to public schools, and using other services that their
>property taxes don't nearly pay for.

Also don't forget that businesses get the Prop 13 tax assessment, too.
--
Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/
<*> <*> <*>
I support the RKAB

[Mike D.]

Still happens in "Chicagoland." Oberweis Dairy even gave our friends
a giant Coleman cooler to hold milk, eggs, bacon, etc. when delivered.

[sms]

On 3/17/2016 4:22 PM, Peter Lawrence wrote:
> On 3/16/16 3:14 PM, Al Eisner wrote:
>>
>> Of course this only works for non-perishables, non-refrigerated items,
>> but if for some reason I can't go shopping that helps.
>
> Once upon a time, it was de rigueur to have perishable refrigerated
> items (dairy and eggs) to be delivered to one's home on a regular
> basis. I remember being bummed out when our local dairy stopped
> providing home delivery. It meant we had now to start going to the
> grocery store to purchase milk and eggs! It was an odd feeling doing
> that at first.

Yes, buying that stuff at a supermarket was very strange.

In my area, we moved from home delivery to drive-through stores selling
milk, eggs, bread, ice cream, etc.. These places still exist in Florida,
and they've expanded their offerings <http://www.farmstores.com/>.

There is still a place like that in Pleasanton
<http://www.meadowlarkdairy.com/>.

In college, we had a milk service that sold products produced by the
university's dairy.

[sms]

On 3/17/2016 5:15 PM, Aahz Maruch wrote:
> In article <ncf0sn$teo$1...@dont-email.me>,
> sms <scharf...@geemail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Proposition 13, sold to voters as a way to keep seniors from losing
>> their homes due to skyrocketing assessments, has been totally abused. It
>> should apply to owner-occupied housing only. It should not be able to be
>> inherited. We are just beginning to see the impact of a second
>> generation of owners paying Prop 13 limited property taxes while sending
>> their children to public schools, and using other services that their
>> property taxes don't nearly pay for.
>
> Also don't forget that businesses get the Prop 13 tax assessment, too.

It was businesses that pushed it through. A commercial property can be
sold and not reassessed through some clever means.

<http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article23689426.html>

[Peter Lawrence]

The Milk Pail Market in Mountain View was originally a drive-through daily
store too. (They actually pasteurized and homogenized raw milk on the
premises too.)

http://milkpail.com/years.htm


- Peter

[Julian Macassey]

On Thu, 17 Mar 2016 23:39:22 -0700, Peter Lawrence <humm...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> The Milk Pail Market in Mountain View was originally a drive-through daily
> store too. (They actually pasteurized and homogenized raw milk on the
> premises too.)
>

Oh the joys of real milk and cream. I love un-homogenised
milk and cream. I also like it unpasteurised if possible. Fresh
milk from Jersey cows is rich and delicious.

While I'm at it, ultra-pasteurised milk and cream is just
narsty and tastes nothing like milk or cream.


--
"Their (Microsoft's) products have no spirit to them, sort of no spirit of
enlightenment to them. They are very pedestrian." - Steve Jobs 1995 TV interview

[Mike D.]

I remember noticing a plethora of Alta-Dena drive-through dairies in
the Southland. There was a dtd at Union and Curtner years ago, which was
a bait and tackle shop when we moved to SJ, then a document shredding
facility, then it was torn down to provide yaChase Bank and a McDonald's.

[Al Eisner]

There's now a exception to the limited range of products offered for
delivery: Draeger's has instituted a delivery service within range
of their stores. It covers the full range of products, including
meats, fish produce and dairy. Of course, Draeger's is not cheap,
nor is their delivery charge: an $18 flat rate.

[evergene]

Another day, another food delivery service mailer. Yesterday's came
from Munchery, addressed to "Resident." Seems like we've gotten half a
dozen of these mailers, all from different companies, in the past
month or so.

I made turkey burgers last night, with Trader Joe's ground turkey,
which looks a little like pink slime, but tasted okay after being
doctored with various add-ons.

[Jeffrey Casto]

On 4/23/2016 10:28 AM, evergene wrote:

>
> I made turkey burgers last night, with Trader Joe's ground turkey,
> which looks a little like pink slime, but tasted okay after being
> doctored with various add-ons.

+1 on the pink slime. It tastes ok!

[sf]

On Sat, 23 Apr 2016 10:28:33 -0700, evergene
<ge...@geeaitcheekaygee.com> wrote:
>
> Another day, another food delivery service mailer. Yesterday's came
> from Munchery, addressed to "Resident." Seems like we've gotten half a
> dozen of these mailers, all from different companies, in the past
> month or so.
>
> I made turkey burgers last night, with Trader Joe's ground turkey,
> which looks a little like pink slime, but tasted okay after being
> doctored with various add-ons.

The visual puts me off too. I can't stand those square packages of
finely ground meat for that very reason.

--

sf

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <jnbnhbldsjm5puqfd...@4ax.com>,

evergene <ge...@geeaitcheekaygee.com> wrote:
>I made turkey burgers last night, with Trader Joe's ground turkey,
>which looks a little like pink slime, but tasted okay after being
>doctored with various add-ons.

I make turkey burgers relatively often. Our standard recipe is on
English muffins with spreadable cheese (such as boursin) & arugula,
plenty of white pepper in the turkey. We got this recipe from a
standard source, I thought Gourmet magazine back in the day, but a
brief web search didn't turn it up. Anyway, we aren't fat phobic,
or whatever so-called health reason people try to use to sell ground
turkey, but we eat it because it is sometimes on sale for quite
cheap, and it's a change of pace. (In fact, if the wife buys the
low fat variety, which is ridiculously low in fat, I mix in fat,
because I don't like it otherwise. But usually the "high" fat
version is on sale.)

[Ciccio]

On 4/23/2016 10:28 AM, evergene wrote:

> I made turkey burgers last night, with Trader Joe's ground turkey,
> which looks a little like pink slime, but tasted okay after being
> doctored with various add-ons.

Not much diff than ground chicken in flavor, average price, fat,
calories, etc., so I grab whichever happens to be cheaper at the time
I'm shopping. The visual for either is of no matter to me, especially
since neither when raw resembles when it's cooked and dished up.

Ciccio

[evergene]

I'm with you on the fat question - I always add diced bacon or
pancetta if I've got some. And some diced sauteed onion (sauteed
before mixing with the turkey). This last batch of turkey burgers also
included finely diced shishito pepper ($1.99 for a bag of about 20 at
TJ's).

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <vmrshbdsepkqcj7ka...@4ax.com>,

evergene <ge...@geeaitcheekaygee.com> wrote:
>This last batch of turkey burgers also included finely diced
>shishito pepper ($1.99 for a bag of about 20 at TJ's).

Yeah, I also enjoy diced peppers, of various sorts, in burgers, of
various sorts. That sounds like a good combo.

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <vmrshbdsepkqcj7ka...@4ax.com>,

evergene <ge...@geeaitcheekaygee.com> wrote:
>I'm with you on the fat question - I always add diced bacon or
>pancetta if I've got some. And some diced sauteed onion (sauteed
>before mixing with the turkey).

I regularly use these options with beef, but I think they tend to
overpower turkey. Sometimes just some olive oil will do.

[Jeffrey Casto]

On 4/25/2016 12:24 PM, evergene wrote:

> I'm with you on the fat question - I always add diced bacon or
> pancetta if I've got some. And some diced sauteed onion (sauteed
> before mixing with the turkey). This last batch of turkey burgers also
> included finely diced shishito pepper ($1.99 for a bag of about 20 at
> TJ's).
>

+1

[Jeffrey Casto]

On 4/25/2016 12:08 PM, Ciccio wrote:
> Not much diff than ground chicken in flavor, average price, fat,
> calories, etc., so I grab whichever happens to be cheaper at the time
> I'm shopping. The visual for either is of no matter to me, especially
> since neither when raw resembles when it's cooked and dished up.
>
> Ciccio

+1