A slave brought my groceries today

[I am Groot]

Couldn't get to the grocery store so ordered online and a slave brought it to my door this morning. You know what it costs to have him drive to the store, get my groceries, and drive here? Five bucks. And I'm pretty sure Doordash takes a hunk of that. Of course, since a lot of us don't like slaves parking in our pristine, perfectly plowed driveways he parked at the end of the driveway and made multiple trips up it to my door. But hey, that's what slaves are for. Mind you, the plastic covering on a 12 pack of drinks broke so I did have to call his masters and have him whipped for his incompetence.

What do their drivers get? Four bucks? Of course, he couldn't speak English very well so I wasn't able to engage him in any deep, philosophical discussions. But anyway, if we're going to import slaves shouldn't they be young, attractive females (Yes, I'm male and irredeemably sexist and straight)?

But should we actually be importing slave workers?

[CdnFox]

Excuse me, that's not slavery. That's indentured servitude. It's like slavery lite.  You know, like the irish. All the repression of regular slavery but half the right to demand restitution later. 

[eyeball]

1 hour ago, I am Groot said:

But should we actually be importing slave workers?

Not if you're willing to pay a Canadian citizen $50 to deliver a load of groceries that cost you $500.

I'd rather get my own groceries and tax the snot out of Doordash.

Edited December 20, 2024 by eyeball

[herbie]

The supermarket did the actual picking and packing of your order and worked the cost of doing so into all of our grocery prices. The rest of us are subsidizing your convenience.
You could save the $5 if you drove down there, parked in the marked off Pickup Only spots and got it yourself.

As for the sucker working for that whole $4 or $5, there's plenty of people who have to or like to demean themselves for pittance. Even the CRA allows 57¢/km mileage last I looked. 9 km trip and the guy's already losing money.

[I am Groot]

1 hour ago, eyeball said:

Not if you're willing to pay a Canadian citizen $50 to deliver a load of groceries that cost you $500.

I'd rather get my own groceries and tax the snot out of Doordash.

About 15 or 16 years ago I had no car, so I regularly had my groceries delivered by an actual Canadian with a truck and a hand cart. It couldn't have cost much because we didn't have that much money back then.

See, if you go to the grocery store and pick up dozens of boxes for people around the area, then you can make some money driving around and delivering them. But if you just go for one person's groceries and drive them to their home you make nothing. It's not quite as convenient for the customer since he only makes one or two trips while now you can pick what hour of the day you want your groceries delivered. But it works.

19 minutes ago, herbie said:

The supermarket did the actual picking and packing of your order and worked the cost of doing so into all of our grocery prices. The rest of us are subsidizing your convenience.

Gee, thanks! 

19 minutes ago, herbie said:

You could save the $5 if you drove down there, parked in the marked off Pickup Only spots and got it yourself.

Yes, but I didn't WANT to. Besides, you're subsidizing me!

 

[herbie]

My buddy ran a delivery outfit before they had these online outfits. Like $5 to deliver your groceries. Like 10 years ago, when his drivers made $10/hr and hour and he owned, maintained and gassed up the vehicles and the delivery area was small. He made some money.
And the grocery stores always offered shop for you.

Welcome to 2024 when at $20/hr plus there are measurable costs to shop for you, the drivers want $20/hr, $ thousands in book and record keeping costs, $ hundreds for a business bank account, gas & vehicle costs and maintenance are absurdly expensive and don't mention insurance costs to let employees drive your vehicles.
Next to impossible these days short of some central super-agency all online that relies on ripping off employees, scams an other revenue sources. Tack on that no matter how small your town is, how word of mouth is absolutely glowing, 2024 customers are all gonna Google delivery and use the online guy instead of your local company..

Yeah I totally agree with you that driver is a wage slave.
It is 2024 however. My buddy's delivery service 10 years ago, no matter of having ten times the customer base, earned him less than I made fixing computers at home back then.
And I see the same things. People who'll Google and call a site or drive two hours to the Geek Squad and pay triple the repair costs even though they live on the same block. I mean anyone who can afford national tv ads and SEO fees for Google slots must be better at what they do, right? Why pay the local mechanic $20 to change a tire when the dealership can change a tire so much better for $100?

Keep using that grocery service. My wife used to fill those orders one shift per cycle. We know if the stores stop doing that, they won't lower prices even a penny. We have a gas station here that still offers full serve for the same price and I'd be a fool to pump my own gas at -20 degrees.

[Moonlight Graham]

7 hours ago, herbie said:

Yeah I totally agree with you that driver is a wage slave.

There's no such thing as wage slavery.  Nobody is forcing you to voluntarily sign an employment contract as an employee.  Go clean people's houses and be your own boss.

 

Edited December 21, 2024 by Moonlight Graham

[Moonlight Graham]

10 hours ago, I am Groot said:

Couldn't get to the grocery store so ordered online and a slave brought it to my door this morning. You know what it costs to have him drive to the store, get my groceries, and drive here? Five bucks. And I'm pretty sure Doordash takes a hunk of that. Of course, since a lot of us don't like slaves parking in our pristine, perfectly plowed driveways he parked at the end of the driveway and made multiple trips up it to my door. But hey, that's what slaves are for. Mind you, the plastic covering on a 12 pack of drinks broke so I did have to call his masters and have him whipped for his incompetence.

What do their drivers get? Four bucks? Of course, he couldn't speak English very well so I wasn't able to engage him in any deep, philosophical discussions. But anyway, if we're going to import slaves shouldn't they be young, attractive females (Yes, I'm male and irredeemably sexist and straight)?

But should we actually be importing slave workers?

What's their wage?  4 bucks an hour?  That's illegal so I doubt it.

Slaves are forced into labour by someone else with no choice and no compensation and owned by the people they work for as property.  This isn't happening.