"Collin Wallace wanted a snack. Specifically, he wanted one delivered to his classroom during lecture (he had long lectures). This was 2006, when delivery was mostly limited to a few types of food, and it was something you did by talking on the phone and then waiting awhile. Wallace was in engineering school at Georgia Tech, and he figured his problem was one the internet could help solve. He built a way for customers to order online, automatically syncing to food vendors' systems."
"Because today, of course, you can get not just a snack but almost anything you want sent to you just about wherever you are. You can have an ice-cream sundae, a martini, or an expertly seared Wagyu steak delivered to your door, without pausing the TV or finding your shoes. You can have coq au vin from an "extra-charming, French-inspired gastrothèque" long beloved for its perfectly styled shoebox of a space,"
An engineering-student project to let classmates order snacks online became a company acquired by Grubhub, helping launch the modern delivery ecosystem. Delivery platforms expanded so consumers can order almost anything to almost anywhere, shifting restaurants toward pickup-focused operations and commodifying food. Meals travel tightly packaged in paper and plastic to survive transport, losing elements of place-based dining. Couriers often work in precarious conditions, financially incentivized to prioritize speed over safety, making delivery one of the more dangerous jobs in America. The rise of delivery has reorganized commercial relationships among restaurants, platforms, workers, and urban customers.
Read at The Atlantic
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