[Talk-us] Food delivery services: Move-fast-and-break-trust

Jack Armstrong Dancer@sprynet.com jacknstacy at sprynet.com
Tue Aug 21 17:18:06 UTC 2018


After mapping for years in the way you described, I've never been approached by anyone. I try to be very discreet and I try to look like I'm just texting with someone. Sitting on a bench nearby is ideal - if available. I decided long ago that if anyone ever did approach me I'd just say I'm taking down info from a business I may need to use in the future - which is actually a possibility. Not that it's anyone's business what I'm doing.

I prefer to avoid long explanations that people have little interest in.

>From my perspective, if a business owner posts signs on a store front with information in plain view of the street, the information in the public domain and they have no room for complaint.

www.theaveragenomad.com


-----Original Message-----
>From: Jmapb <jmapb at gmx.com>
>Sent: Aug 21, 2018 10:39 AM
>To: talk-us at openstreetmap.org
>Subject: [Talk-us] Food delivery services: Move-fast-and-break-trust
>
>Hi USA, just wanted to bring up an issue that I've run into recently 
>while mapping businesses in NYC.
>
>Whenever I'm walking through the city, I tend to whip out the phone and 
>check for anything missing, incorrect, or incomplete. Often this means 
>pausing in front of a restaurant and keying in contact info or opening 
>hours. Sometimes I also take pictures with the intention of adding tags 
>later.
>
>There have always been a few who treat this sort of thing with suspicion 
>-- especially taking pictures. But a couple times lately I've met with 
>outright hostility from restaurant staff when taking down their data. 
>One owner complained he was sick of "people from websites posting his 
>information." Turns out the culprits were food delivery services, who 
>had been offering delivery from his place without authorization. I plead 
>my innocence, but this guy was in no mood to appreciate the differences 
>between a crowdsourced map project and a move-fast-and-break-things 
>delivery startup.
>
>I discussed this with a friend of mine who owns a restaurant, and he 
>recounted a similar story -- an angry customer calling the restaurant to 
>complain about a late delivery. This restaurant doesn't do delivery, and 
>has never partnered with any third parties for delivery. But a food 
>delivery startup (I'm not naming names... actually I can't even keep 
>them straight) apparently scouted their location, imported the menu 
>(which changes often and is not posted on the web), and listed the 
>restaurant as a delivery client -- all without even informing the 
>restaurant, much less attempting to make any sort of agreement. They  
>wouldn't even take down the listing when confronted -- figured they 
>could just bully their way into a business relationship. And they were 
>listing dishes that weren't even on the menu anymore! Though they took 
>them all down quickly when the restaurant's lawyer called.
>
>Don't know how common these sort of predatory tactics are outside NYC, 
>but fair warning, there may be businesses out there who are no longer 
>delighted at the thought of someone "from the internet" taking notice of 
>their publicly-posted information.
>
>Happy mapping, Jason
>
>
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