memes @lemmy.world

2w ago

what I think of the apps

201 comments

Walk 10 mins...? What bull shit magic fantasy land do you hail form that ANYTHING is a 10 min walk away. The nearest fast food to me would be like just shy of a 2 hour walk at an avg pace.
For most people getting anywhere is like 8-12 miles here in America if not further.
- Pretty much every country except for the USA seems to be a bull shit magic fantasy land. At least when living in any kind of larger city.
  
  The US is doing very badly. Growing up it was a 3 mile walk to the nearest gas station let alone anywhere that served food.
  Usually was unsafe to walk that since there were no sidewalks and I'd be charged by at least 3 dogs in the way.
  One time I tried to start exercising and decided to walk down my road. I had a cop circle me for 20 minutes, and 3 people offered me a ride which was nice but they were so confused that I was just walking
  
  Canada is the same as USA in that regard. The only restaurant in 10 minutes walking distance to my place is Wendy's. Anything good is 30 to 60 minutes walk or 5-10 minutes drive.
  
  I can walk to a spot, but it's 15 Minutes there and then again back, plus getting dressed, plus waiting for my order. I could order pick-up of course, but at that point I would have to use the same app I can use to get it delivered. Can I spare an hour for dinner? When I'm meeting someone, of course. Several even. But when I just need to eat something, I'm not going to.
  
  As an European, this is bullshit. 10 minutes walking (5km/h) is 830m, living at 415m in walking distance (not air) from a restaurant is statistically unlikely for anyone not living in a city center. Let alone actually having more than one choice.
- Hi, yes, that's a very USian issue. We here don't believe in the separation of residential and commercial areas.
  
  Sim City taught me that causes something called “congestion “ and the sims get pretty pissed about it.
  
  The UK separates like this, but residential are dotted with small stores, and industrial areas are strictly business warehouses and factories and such. Large stores are near the commercial/town centres and occasionally by the industrial.
- What bull shit magic fantasy land do you hail form that ANYTHING is a 10 min walk away.
  The American mind literally cannot comprehend the default state of being in Europe
  
  Yes we are so used to living in hell
  Plus this meme is literally an example of European brain being unable to comprehend American City planning (or lack thereof)
- My lazy as SIL and her boyfriend will doordash food that's a block away from the house.
- I am so glad to be living in Seattle. I have at least 2 food trucks at breweries a 2 min walk away, sometimes 4 trucks. There’s also a Chinese place we love going to once a month for their to go boxes that’s about 6 mins away. But don’t live downtown or apartments all around (not that it would be bad, just making a point). It’s great to be walkable without all the noise.
  Other cities need this but we gotta get rid of suburbia and most lawns really.
- Ok, just replace the word "walk" with "drive" and the point still stands for most of the rest of america. In fact it shows even more laziness as driving is much easier.
- This was the biggest culture shock I saw moving to NORAM, and other is MRP(maximum retail price). Back home, nearest convenience store sells an item at same price as any other place except for bulk grocery.
- well I have like 10 restaurants within 10 mins walk...
  
  One of the "perks" of living in poor parts of a city is having fast food within walking distance.
  
  Then you're a privileged person who shouldn't be shitting on people who don't have it as good as you.
- I'm in New York City. There's maybe a dozen food places within ten minutes. There's more, but some of them may be in the 15-20 minute range. Several million people live here.
  What hell do you live in that's so remote?
  
  Literally any suburb.
  
  Anywhere that is not a city? Each time these things come up, I become more and more convinced that city dwellers have no clue what it is like to live anywhere else.
  
  Man, I grew up in the country and I feel like it took practically no time to get what city living is like (currently live in one). You really are proud of having no idea what other ways of life are like? It's supposed to be rural people that are the ignorant ones.
  
  Almost literally anywhere other than where you live.
  
  You're a privileged person who has no idea what you're talking about. You need to get out of you think that is the norm.

While I think these apps are exploitative on both sides (exploiting laziness/convenience and exploiting workers), I think implying that people who use delivery services are racist, classist, or both, is a very "internet" thing to do.
Perhaps it would be healthy if OP went outside for Christmas. A little walk in the real world, as opposed to Lemmy or Twitter or Bluesky, might help rebalance things.
- Consider folks with disabilities or those who don't own cars. I really don't see the problem of a delivery service like DoorDash or UberEats that would pay its workers a living wage.
  The reason those are unethical is that they don't treat their workers as employees, and don't pay enough. If someone started a generic-delivery service that used employed workers that are paid a living/thriving wage, didn't request tips, had set fees, had customer service reps, and maybe had workers wear cams while on the shift as a security measure... would that not be worth supporting?
  
  Hey, I totally agree with you.
  The concept behind these apps is fine, even helpful. I've used these types of apps when I've been unwell and couldn't get to the shops. I'm not forgetting people who are disabled. I don't own a car.
  I agree, an app that provided a similar service that took care of its employees would be fine. An app that provided a similar service without jacking the prices up massively and pushing junk food would be great.
  I know and agree with you that the poor treatment and underpayment of workers is a problem.
  Yes, of course your alternative app would be worth supporting.
  We do not seem to be in any disagreement here.
- If we all stop using the app, does it benefit these gig workers?
  
  No, but the social conditions that allow the gig economy to even exist hurts gig workers. As usual, a systemic issue is being framed as a matter of consumer choice.
  
  No.
- am I at lemmy meme.ml? lol
- Perhaps it would be healthy if OP went outside for Christmas.
  Don't worry I will have to go to my horrible laboring job.
  
  The kind that only lower class minorities work? /s in case it wasn't obvious

Outrage successfully manufactured!
(It’s far more racist to assume only minorities work for Door Dash than it is to imply whatever the fuck this shit tier meme is trying to say)
- It’s far more racist to assume only minorities work for Door Dash
  Yeah agreed. Racial profiling is still racial profiling, using euphemisms like "lower class" and "minority" instead of the usual slurs doesn't make it okay.
  
  Agreed. Granted, it's anecdotal, but everyone bringing my food (though, it's been about 10 years) was (or appeared to be) white and all had a better vehicle than me.
- Not sure where you're from, but it is becoming increasingly common in the West that non-white immigrants from the global south tend to do delivery jobs. It's not necessarily that it's racist, it's just that locals don't want to do these jobs and immigrants do them instead.
  
  I live in the PNW. And most of the time when we get DD, they’re white as the driven snow. So, if we’re using anecdotal experience- I’d say it’s the opposite.
  Maybe it’s best we all start learning that the world isn’t just what happens on our own doorsteps.
  
  I think part of it has to do with the fact that the jobs don't require you to speak English. I've also seen a decent share of deaf food delivery people for the same reason.
  
  Yeah? And who's making them do these jobs?
  Might as as well do a meme about cleaning floors in public buildings. Or working in a fast food restaurant.
- This meme is the exact way outside influences have sabotaged all of our social messaging and desires for a better future.
  A lot of people who think they're progressive are going to latch onto this idea and start saying dumb shit like "Doordash is racist" and they will get scorn and eye-rolling from literally everyone else, ruining the actual thing we should be recognizing, which is the wealth inequality that pushes people to deliver other people's food using their own car and without healthcare or benefits.
  Doordash's problems have nothing to do with race, and everything to do with the wealthy pinching off our lives at every possible avenue.
- Are you saying black people were enslaved? lowkey kinda racist bro 😬
  
  What???

"Make"? Are they not being paid?
I don't use them myself but if someone wants to pay someone else to go pick up food for them who gives a shit?
- I use Krogers delivery sometimes now. Prices are all the same as in store, and I don't have to drive there and back. If I pick a strange time for delivery, say 2-3pm on a Tuesday, shipping is like $1.99. It would cost more in gas for me to do it myself, and if you order $200 worth of groceries, it saves a lot of time.
  There is no way they are saving money doing it, it must just be to scrape up the possibility I don't stop at ALDI because it's closer to me.
  
  Kroger also for the time being uses hourly paid workers for their delivery and I hope they stay that way. I really dislike the whole independent contractor crap that most of these delivery apps do and ends up just hurting the workers at the end of the day fighting over what little tips and etc.
  
  I think that service is still subsidized by the stores. Also it's very different from having a single meal delivered instantly. Grocery deliveries can be made by a whole truck for many houses.

white poor people work door dash all the time….
btw, MLK Jr started the poor people’s campaign shortly before he was assassinated:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People's_Campaign
- white poor people work door dash all the time….
  sure and it's a shitty job for them as well
  
  Two things can be true. It's a shitty job, but a job nonetheless, and we can also want those jobs to be less shitty.
  
  Have you ever actually spoken to a gig worker? Because this comes off as some really strange white knighting.

If the middle man app wasn't so exploitative, I don't see what the issue is.
We've had delivery as a middle class job for decades with milkmen and paperboys, the issue is that those jobs aren't paying living wages anymore.

Well look at Mr(s) Fancy Pants living somewhere walkable!

Who ask for delivery from a store that's 10 minutes walking?
More like one hour walking, any food would be long cold before I come home. And I don't own a car. The delivery comes usually by motorcycle in something like 5 minutes in an specialized bag that keeps warm.
- Who ask for delivery from a store that's 10 minutes walking?
  Me when I am way too sick to cook let alone move
- I've got friends that work on the corporate side of DD, and they tell me it's super common for people to order things from places even closer than this. We figure it's likely people that are high, but disabled is another possibility. Oh, and people in hotels ordering from places they can see from their room lol
- I recently did that due to a leg injury and the fees hurt more than the leg. (I'm getting better)
- Who ask for delivery from a store that's 10 minutes walking?
  A lot of tech workers in San Francisco. They get paid enough that the $20 in fees doesn't mean much and lazy / overworked enough to not go and get it themselves.
  I assume door dash makes most of there money of those customers, rich / upper middle class people in big cities, as those people are the ones willing to pay the outrageous fees they charge.

Okay, that's just plain ol', made up non-sense. No one in the USA walks
Duh

Two semi disabled folks here, the services are a godsend but I always tip. People don't tip here, our last rider said we were the first tip in 3 days. :(
- Tipping is communism, comrade.
  
  It would be if the food service weren't double-dipping. It's like two layers of capitalism here.
  Would be really cool if some craigslist style co-op popped up where people could just fulfill taskrabbit style stuff on their own, but there are lots of legal and safety concerns with that.
- How often do you use delivery?
  
  Once or twice per week, give or take, mostly for small supplemental grocery orders. I have a shop that's close but sometimes I just can't.
  
  Every three days if I had to guess

Cute you still think they’re a lower class than you.
- the system thrives in creating subclasses so everyone can feel superior and want to preserve the system, less they become like "them", because they are better than "then".
- I am on the side of every single working class person. Be that person without papers or a white male doctor. As long as they both have to work to subsist.
  
  That fine but unless you own capital we’re all in the same class. We gotta trade our time or health to survive.
  
  Unless the doctor orders DoorDash, of course.

Nothing wrong with a service existing.
Racist to assume that only people belonging to a certain race use these apps.
The apps are exploitative, sure. Advocate for better labor regulations here.
This is the equivalent of saying "don't wanna make your own coffee? Go to Tim Hortons to be served by lower class Indians". Same message, but with the racism highlighted.

And send a billionaire a third of your dinner money while you're at it!
- B bb but my parents haven't taught me how to cook 50 cent of pasta with homebrand sauce :(

Self righteous internet person:
“You should not be able to voluntarily work for some extra income because I find it distasteful.”
- Yes instead of assigning blame where it belongs (who keeps wages so low necessitating the gig economy?), they decided to blame the consumer.
  People that are stuck being reliant on gig jobs like doordash would be rather unhappy and become rapidly poorer if people decided to stop using these apps. But that's what always happens. If buisness collapses the worker suffers and the CEO walks away rich.
  OP really decided to make a class issue all about race
  
  This is the redo of the rich person with all the cookies and two poor people fighting over one at the table. Except this person fell for being one of the poor people.
  
  People that are stuck being reliant on gig jobs like doordash would be rather unhappy and become rapidly poorer if people decided to stop using these apps.
  Sounds like one of those pro sweatshop arguments. The kids wouldn't have jobs!!!
  OP really decided to make a class issue all about race
  I just copied this meme from reddit, I actually didn't want to make it about race. Buuuut, there's a lot of minorities doing the shit jobs, right? Curious
- op was punching up, you changed it to punching down.
  Criticizing the old fart who cheats on his wife with a prostitute isn't the same as criticizing the prostitute for trying to pay rent.
  
  OP was always trying to punch down. The blame is on the wealthy not the average person ordering door dash.
  I can promise you the door dasher and the consumer are both much more close economically than either are to the shareholders or CEO of doordash

I don't mind the worker. It's the exploitative employer I take issue with.

Fuck off.

I wish that jobs like this were higher paid.
I'm disabled, and thus sometimes when I order food in this way, it's because it's literally the only way for me to access food. That means that in a sense, delivery workers are important components of the complex network of social care infrastructure, and that makes me all the more angry at how exploited these workers are.
I tip generously when I'm able to, but often that's not something I can afford. There's not very much that an individual can do to improve the working conditions for exploited workers, and that's true regardless of whether the person ordering the food is disabled or has some other need for delivery or someone who is just doing it for the convenience. It is possible for people to be able to order food for delivery at relatively affordable prices, and for the delivery workers to be sufficiently compensated for their labour, but that will require political change to counter the systems of oppression. Systemic problems can't be solved through individual action

I don't understand how anyone can afford fast food now days, let alone paying delivery fees and tips.
- The entire concept of DoorDash in a car centric part of the world is mysterious to me. If I’m too drunk or stoned to drive I just go to sleep. I’m not spending $50 on a cold Big Mac.
  
  Not to mention it made pizza delivery infinitely worse
  
  If I’m too drunk or stoned to drive I just go to sleep.
  Also just buy a freezer meal or whatever a week before. That fast food craving can be satisfied in other ways. Frozen pizza or whatever.
  
  Then you aren't drunk or stoned enough!
  
  Pretty sure $50 is an extreme exaggeration. I would barely be spending $60 on sushi for two after delivery fee and tip.
- Rich people can, the top 10% currently account for nearly half of consumer spending in the US. The economy is increasingly revolving around catering to that top 10% and absurd door dash delivery charges are part of that.
- Many people are way better off than I often think. That's Germany though, dunno about the US. But here so many people are crazy well off while a also large chunk of the population does live off homebrand stuff not eating out ever.

Who's walking for fast food delivery?
- people in walkable cities
  
  To be clear, pay for a delivery to be walked to you?
  This seems so strange, I understand bicycle delivery, but walking delivery...
  That exists? Like do people really pay for someone to walk food to them?

op basically just screamed "I am 19!" In the town square.
- op assumes there is a town square

You could've made this 'meme' with, literally, any service or product, couldn't you?
- No? A delivery truck is a 100x more efficient way of delivery.
  
  Yes but that delivery truck driver is being just as exploited. They make less than their labor produces.
  In your view that's the fault of the consumer apparently
- and?
  the meaning doesn't change if you replace the brand for another.

Nice bigotry, only "minorities" door dash?
The racism is in your head
- Relax. Everyone knows plenty of white males do it. Plenty of white males are very poor.
  
  So why did you post a meme that singles minorities out?
  What exactly is the message you’re trying to send?
  
  Oh now you're sexist too?

They can cook my food all day, but only racists have it delivered 😡😡

We prefer the term "hard-working individual entrepreneur" - those apps, probably

I have mobility issues, and neurological ones as well. It was a mistake for me to use DoorDash because it's convenient and for someone who suffers from being a shut in an expensive but perfect tool. I'd like food delivery though that wasn't explotive.

My work has a DoorDash account and uses it exclusively. When management decides to order food for us, it has to go through DoorDash.
The other week I was told they'd buy lunch for my team. Thing is, we all have different dietary needs. I was told to pick something for lunch, and when I did I was told, "Oh that restaurant doesn't use DoorDash. Pick somewhere else. Also it's a $10 limit."
Oookay. My lunch being at an earlier time than many in my team, a lot of places that I would order from aren't open yet. I don't do fast food, which limits my choices further. Then you can't put custom information in your order (like, "the #14 sandwich, but with no cheese") which right out of the gate means a lot of options are out of reach. The $10 limit was also ridiculous, as food prices have been rising higher and now even the most basic things will be around $12 minimum. Navigating the site alone was a headache on top of it all, as it isn't intuitive for someone with dietary restrictions. I eventually gave up and told my manager, "I know this was intended as a treat for us, but this is too stressful for me to try to do while I'm also working."
Thankfully, someone else already knew of an option that would work for me, so I went with that. It sucks that although my work place is trying to be inclusive, being limited to DoorDash (and a $10 price ceiling) makes that incredibly difficult. I'd rather just be given the $10 and be done with it.
- A $10 limit on DoorDash? Will that even get you a drink?

Conservatives would say that without this exploitation they wouldn't have a job so you should keep paying these companies.
- "Exploitation"? I hope you mean specifically the money these people are making, not the service instead - as the meme seems to suggest?
  
  I'm not sure what you mean, I don't think an immigrant making minimum wage is exploitative on the immigrant side, if that is what you mean. I believe the exploitation is of immigrants/lower class from big companies by paying them America's absurdly low minimum wage.
  The service is alright I guess, if the person doing the work for you gets a living wage. But I'm not sure I understand you.

Don't forget the extra charges and price increases along the way which fund the tech billionaires who own these apps.
Previously we had Capitalism (and that already wasn't great). Where a buyer and a seller met and then freely determined the price transaction.
Now via many of these market place apps (ebay, Amazon, AliExpress) we have markets where a third party (the platforms owner) can algorithmically control who sees what prices, and when, acting as a means to promote whatever prices benefit the platforms profitability the most.
That's why the VC tech guru "disruptors" business model is often to run at a massive loss for years then basically owning a whole market.
This new system is called Techno-Feudalism.

It made sense during covid as a lifeline to use things like doordash, but it's really metastasized into a blight on food service.
The pizza and chinese food joints I used to have delivered because it was traditionally the foods that delivered, just use those apps now. So even ordering a pizza is jammed up with inflated prices, hidden fees, and tips for corporate.
- And if you do walk, the apps get priority over you.

They just call them "poors"

But I am le tired

One time I ordered lunch fron Doordash and it never came, I checked the food tracker and it was somehow in AUSTRALIA.
- I don't believe that.
  
  I mean no shit, the food didn't REALLY end up in Australia. Burger King would've had to SEVERELY mess up for it to end up 9,496 miles away from my house.

How dare you (gesturing at the meme itself)

Jokes on you, my neighborhood is so gentrified minorities don't dare enter.
God bless poor white people!
- I don't believe you
  
  Good job? Wasn't meant to be believable.
  
  I mean, these places exist, especially in the rural midwest. If I had to guess, my town is probably more than 99% white? Maybe 98%.

I live in a food desert, so I have no choice but to buy restaurant food and have it hand delivered to me.
It doesn't occur to me to take a cab to the supermarket and stock up. Actually it does but I don't want to, because that takes time and effort. Cooking takes time and effort as well and I'm too lazy to learn or try.
But let me underscore again that really the problem is I live in a food desert. Also fast food is so expensive can't someone do something about it? Don't I have rights?
- Well don't live there! - Jackass
- That's what this thread feels like to me
  
  Also I'm disabled and it's le terally the only way I can access food.
  All disabled people prior to door delivery service died of starvation. All of them, because it's the only way to access food when disabled. There are ZERO other methods of accessing food.
  Did I mention I'm disabled?

what would marx do?

Gee...can't walk a block to get food I'm too lazy to prepare. Good thing Doordash will deliver ozempic soon.
- You are aware people with disabilities exist, right?

201 comments