This is obviously part of Amazon's effort to build out their own delivery network in order to muscle out fedex, ups, usps, etc. If their drivers aren't delivering packages they can be delivering food. That makes their whole delivery network stronger because it allows them to have more drivers employed driving around town all the time. It's the same reason Uber got into food delivery.

This is kind of terrifying after hearing so many life-ruining stories about the rash decisions Amazon makes when dealing with 3rd party sellers ([1] from last week, for example).

Everyone always says "Don't stake your livelihood on platforms you don't control" (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but what happens when one of those platforms suddenly forces its way into your business? How can a restaurant owner turn them down when all the short-sighted owners nearby are happily signing up?

I'm imagining a day in the future where a restaurant goes broke because Amazon had become a significant portion of their orders, but they suddenly got kicked off the service after X number of complaints (happens to FBA sellers all the time). By the time other restaurant owners realize how easily Amazon can destroy their livelihood, they might be too dependent to voluntarily leave. And then all the smug commenters from the last thread will be grateful for another opportunity to say "Well the restaurants should've known better than to sign up in the first place!"

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/amazon/comments/5gvgdl/using_a_amaz...

I received a free $20 to Amazon Restaurants for buying something on cyber Wednesday, didn't know that was a thing until I received the email. I used it to order pizza from a local joint, because who doesn't like free pizza.

Ordering was interesting, they didn't have the pizza I wanted listed under the pre-made options, so I had to make my own, but there was no option to do half and half and adding additional topping had a confusing interface. The menus do not seem to be optimized for each restaurant the way Doordash is, and you must click on an item to see the price.

Also the food wasn't kept in a thermal bag, like pizza delivery does, so it wasn't piping hot when I received it and the delivery members don't have distinct shirts. I probably won't use it ever again since I prefer Doordash, and one of my friends brother in laws is a cofounder/CTO so I feel a false tie to it.

When I first saw amazon restaurants (almost a year ago) I thought... meh! Why would I use this... order via phone and then wait an hour. I could order by phone call and go pick it up faster.

Turns out now we use it so much and I've found that the value is that I can order by phone when I leave work and by the time I get home the food will be arriving at my door.

The real value to me is that I can order dinner! They've had a few hiccups in the early days but now its pretty solid!

Interesting that I'm seeing this for the first time on the same day that local food delivery company SkipTheDishes was sold to Just Eat for $110M (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/skip-the-dishes-sold...).

Skip is very popular here in Winnipeg since this is where they're headquartered, but always seemed like the underdog in the overall market. Wondering what will become of Skip, and how Just Eat and the others will keep duking it out from here now that Amazon is in the ring too.

Amazon restaurants is hardly new. My first order was over a year ago. Is there something else new that I'm missing?

So far, Amazon is just delivering for others. But perhaps they'll get into preparing food as well. Unlike Google, Facebook, GrubHub, Postmates, and Doordash, Amazon is willing to build physical infrastructure and hire people. Amazon could set up a large scale centralized catering operation like LSG Sky Chefs, which makes airline meals. For high-density metro areas, this could work quite well.

Amazon could probably beat out the low-end guys simply by using vehicles and containers capable of keeping the hot stuff hot and the cold stuff cold.

Interesting - it appears that Amazon handles the delivery part, theoretically freeing restaurants up from having to worry about that side of the business. Makes sense, though I wonder what % of costs delivery drivers really are (and, of course, what % Amazon is charging)

Either way, Seamless/Grubhub have turned to utter garbage since their merger. I'm happily using Delivery, but much like Uber/Lyft, these are commodity businesses that I can switch between at zero cost to myself. So I'll give Amazon a try too.

Amazon Prime Now has a $10 minimum, free delivery, and no markup allowed on the restaurant menus in New York. For me, that makes it the best service available hands down, and actually starts to change my behavior as a customer.

If it doesn't cost any more than what I'd pay in person schlepping to the restaurant, the psychological barrier to ordering on a whim is virtually eliminated. It also has that Uber-esque impersonality to it: the delivery guy doesn't wait around after dropping of your food in your typical managed NY apartment building (literally racing down when I get the call, I've never been able to spot them), since they're tipped up front. In fact, the last service I can remember that was such a no-brainer improvement when introduced, was Uber X.

That's not sustainable you might say. But members do pay $99/year for Prime, which isn't a whole lot since it does so much, but is increasingly a larger part where Amazon makes their margin from.

One differentiation with amazon restaurants is at least in my market they don't mark up food prices (like door dash and kindof postmates) and they don't charge for delivery.

Uber eats is the best of these I've found, but it's a pain meeting at the curb.

Amazon restaurants has by far the worst drivers though, I think compounded by tipping before they deliver, and no ratings system

A few years ago when I began to use Grubhub more exclusively to order food, I realized that I was effectively being shut out from other establishments that weren't on Grubhub, simply because I hadn't checked to look at what was nearby, and because the options on Grubhub were usually good enough on their own. It was "post-Google," in a way.

I imagine this effect would be even more pronounced with "the everything store" encompassing an ever-larger portion of total commerce.

Meh. I have prime and keep getting $10 off coupons but here in Minneapolis I don't see anywhere I want to order from. Bitesquad has places that I order from every now and then. If Amazon had a decent network they might entice me in to becoming a restaurants customer... but as it is, it is like the crappy prime video selection.

This is a great opportunity for some restaurants to outsource cooking. Just provide a place for people to sit, eat and chat with some alcohol options. One can order food an hour before arriving and eat at the restaurant. The advantage is that folks can order from any number of cuisines. This can still be cost effective in the long run when kitchens can be bigger and in the outskirts and the premium place in the city is reserved only to sit customers.

So how much longer till they combine this with drone delivery?

The thrill of having a pizza arrive by drone could justify a hefty premium for a kids birthday party.

While my first order was close to a year ago, what I have to say about this and all the other food delivery services (Postmates, UberEats, Grubhub) is that I typically have a hard time meeting delivery minimums or straight up find the delivery fee too expensive to justify an order.

So far, I've only ever used Amazon when I have a coupon. It would be cool if I could accumulate Amazon restaurant credit as an option when I choose No Rush Shipping or have some form of loyalty/rewards system. Else, I'm just going to choose whatever is cheapest, even if slightly less convenient. And that's just me. Other users' loyalty could be even more elusive I'm sure.

So far it looks to have a better web and mobile interface than postmates and grubhub.

So, Amazon is having some issues with retailers trying to sell you some gadget that really isn't what you thought you were going to get. Like a USB stick that says it's 256GB, but is actual 2 Mb. The 'reviews' of these shadier products are shilled out or just 'bots and amazon is trying to get these types of things off their market.

So, what happens when this happens to these restaurants? Like, say I 'open' up a restaurant inside of my apartment. Maybe I list the address as some other place, or I just risk the local health inspector showing up unannounced. But I only sell via Amazon, and I get some friends and family to write reviews of my kitchen, or maybe I just pay some 'bots to do it too. Amazon has problems already with that fly-by-night operation, how are they going to combat it?

For reference, this was an issue with GrubHub last year:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Seamless-Restaurant-Gru...

http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/11/grubhub-seamless-ghost-res...

Assume that on average,

* delivery time = 30 minutes

* minimum wage + minor benefits = $10/hr

* cost of vehicle, gas and other logistics = $5/hr

...then they must charge $10 per delivery. If you squeeze and wiggle may be you can bring this down to $7 or so likely not considering downtimes in between peak hours. I thought this was the reason why most door-to-door delivery services eventually failed or switched to catering. What is the new business innovation here?

Amazon is moving forward with a GREAT momentum to dominate consumer market and extends its monopoly. It is not Amazon vs small businesses anymore. Amazon is in a ferocious battle right now with big players in various domains (Google, Walmart, Apple etc). So far it is turning out to be beneficial for an average middle-class consumer who conveniently gets to purchase cheap products and services. The way Amazon has extended its tentacles deep into TV content (Netflix vs Prime Video), produce (FreshDirect vs Amazon Fresh), Amazon Basics and Amazon elements, Alexa in home automation, e-readers, Spotify vs Amazon Prime Music, Rackspace vs AWS cloud, (failed) cellphones venture, and now Seamless vs Amazon Restaurants. Is it becoming more possible for Amazon to either acquire FedEx/UPS or create its own shipping company? I mean why not? This seems like a missing piece of puzzle.

Amazon Restaurants is a great service which has been around for some time now, at least here in Seattle. I use it pretty much exclusively now instead of other similar services I've used in the past. The minimum order is much lower ($20 instead of $30 or $40 a lot of other services add), there's no delivery fees, and your driver is tracked via GPS with guaranteed delivery windows, so you have a much better idea of when you're order will actually arrive. There's also a better selection of restaurants than other services.

That said, the UI isn't quite as user friendly. It feels bolted on top of Prime Now, so you don't really have a typical menu, a regular shopping cart is used and shared with Prime Now which just feels a bit off. I think it would feel much nicer if they built a website specific to food ordering instead of trying to shoehorn it into Prime Now.

Why does Northern Virginia get coverage, but not D.C.? I don't really understand the logic there.

They advertise Bay Area as one of the regions they deliver, yet it's not available in the South Bay. I wonder what's the logistics overhead to make it available elsewhere in the Bay Area where you already have a Prime Now delivery network.

I like DoorDash and I hoped that they would end up winning in this space but it seems unlikely when their two competitors have other things that the supply side (delivery people) can do if food deliveries aren't needed. Amazon is likely re-using prime instant delivery and Uber is transparently using their drivers to deliver food.

It's kind of like competing with Amazon or Google for cloud infrastructure. Very few companies need all of those machines or that tech, they have no use for it other than renting to people. Amazon and Google on the other hand already needed that tech. They are essentially renting their own excess.

I wanted to order food just for myself. I didn't due to minimal 20.00 USD price.

If I am with a group of people we can go to restaurant anyway. On the other hand, eating out alone is awkward, so ordering online becomes more attractive.

Once you realize that you can't buy shit anymore without some simple platforms get a huge cut/fee in the middle: rental cars, hotel bookings, flights, meals, everything else... oh I forgot: taxi rides!

I am really missing something here. If I click the link it brings me to my Amazon application and I don't see anything new. My first order with Amazon restaurant was at the beginning of September. So I guess that I am missing something? Amazon restaurant is three months old and the useless link that just brings me to their app doesn't really help me to shed any light.

I'm curious...are there restaurants (or I guess kitchens) that are delivery only? If the infrastructure works well you could have strongly automated kitchen in a warehouse type of setups and deliver via Amazon. Guess the branding/word of mouth could be a problem but that might be solvable with money (free stuff, hope people like and recommend it)

As much as I love Uber...I don't feel bullish that they will beat out amazon and their network of vendors/merchants. Uber might go the way of replicating the last mile as a service model that amazon is exploring with their prime now networks, but I'm not sure how Uber will scale this late game since it's not a real core competency.

Interesting. This probably makes a couple of food delivery companies rather nervous.

Are they delivering 24/7 or at least in the evening? A killer feature for normal amazon would be delivery at a time where people are home from work instead of during working hours...not sure why this isn't a thing yet.

This must be worrying for JustEat who just purchased HungryHouse. Amazon getting in on your business is never great.

This is awesome! Interesting to see Amazon is really branching out with drones and all that.

So Amazon now has 5 services to order food from: Prime Now, Prime Pantry, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Restaurants, and regular Amazon. Did I miss anything?

I can't say I'm having an easy time keeping track of which service to use for what.

So, how does this make money? Other than the Prime membership, I don't see any reference to fees on either the customer or restaurant side. Is this a freebie land grab?

Cool, but soon enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU

So this link is just sending me to the amazon restaurants page which has been around for about a year where I live.

Can someone explain the point of this post?

They seem to be pushing this hard here in Seattle. This past week they've sent me two coupons for $20 off my entire order.

This has been around for a while. I wish there was a better integration with the Amazon Echo.

The benefit is that the delivery fee is included into your Amazon Prime plan.

Now, in my opinion, Sprig is a much more affordable everyday meal option when you get the membership. There's also Doordash, GrubHub, EAT24, UberEATS, Postmates... etc. You'll find some restaurants are not available in some apps.

I can imagine the day I will need an Amazon account in order to enter my house :)

As a consumer I couldn't be more then delighted by the Amazon (customer) service.

However, when I read how they threat their employees: it sounds horrible.

Let's hope they never get to the tipping point that they can threat Restaurants, like their employees.

That said: I like it that they try out new things and don't care about failing.

So Deliveroo for the US?

"Amazon is eating the world" gets a new meaning today

Will there just be one company in the future called Amazon?

Question for the HN mods (and community): At what point is a post like this not simply an advertisement? This isn't a link to a press release, an article, a blog post, etc. that discusses the project, and this isn't even new (I've been getting snail mail ads for this for a month or two).

Should big companies just start linking directly to things they want us to buy on HN, with no context? Is that encouraged here?

Oh look, Amazon chases another venture like a dog that smells food. So stupid how everyone's always trying to take over the world...