Who First Had the Business Idea of On-Demand Food Delivery?

There's no denying that the on-demand food delivery business has become big business. There are a lot of companies in the game, but there are four major players that have dominated the industry. Uber Eats, Grub Hub, Postmates and Doordash have become household names for many and are the major food delivery apps that people use.

The on-demand food delivery business is a beast and will most likely never go away. Even though Assembly Bill 5 was passed in California, I'm sure that these companies will most likely figure out a way to continue business as usual. What is their answer to the passing of AB5? I have no idea, and I am just as curious as the next guy as to what these companies are going to do but we shall all soon find out.

The on-demand food delivery business idea in 1990

There was no on-demand food delivery business back in 20th century, but I will tell you that the idea of delivering food from a multitude of restaurants goes back to at least 1990. How do I know that? Because I had the idea back in 1990. It baffles my mind when I think about it. I remember thinking about a food delivery business that would deliver food to customers from any restaurant that they wanted.

These thoughts and ideas always went through my head while I was riding on the public bus going home from school. I used to wonder why we could only have pizza delivered. Why couldn't we have McDonald's, Jack-in-the Box or Taco Bell delivered? You have to remember that I was just a kid and in the beginning stages of my teenage years, but this business idea frequently went through my head.

The on-demand food delivery thoughts would always end up leaving my mind when I would convince myself that it probably was not a very good idea. I figured that if it was a good money making idea, some grown up business people would have already done it. My thinking was that some business people with the money and resources would have already started an on-demand food delivery business. Surely it had been looked in to and after careful consideration it was determined that a business like this would be a loser.

My idea had nothing to do with the Internet as there was still some years to go before people started going on the what ended up calling the world-wide web. Instead, my thoughts were that customers would call up my company on the telephone to place their orders and, we would pick up the food and deliver it. Remember, I am talking about a regular landline phone here. Like the Internet, cell phones were not a thing of our world yet.

You have to remember that I was just a kid. I still had many years of high school that I had not completed yet. It was an idea that in my mind was impossible. I was a big thinker, and it was basically a dream business of mine. I didn't even think a company delivering food could ever make it. Not one ran by me or anybody else. I was just assuming all of this. I knew nothing about business. Again, remember I was just a kid wet behind the ears that had never even driven a car yet.

I never forgot about this business idea of mine, but as a grown up I never initiated it either. Don't get me wrong or think that I was obsessed with it. It was an idea that would pop into my head about two or three times a year. The idea would come in one ear and go right out the other and be forgotten about until the next time I thought about it again. This went on well in to adulthood.

When on-demand food delivery became a reality

Although they had already been around for some time, I first started hearing about on-demand food delivery companies around 2014. They were not nearly as big and successful as they are today, but they did have a place. With the Internet a part of our everyday life, cell phones along with the Internet became two major tools that on-demand food delivery companies would use as valuable tools for their business. The whole on-demand food delivery business concept really took advantage of technology.

These delivery businesses were basically a high-tech concept of an idea that I had nearly 25 years ago. In my original idea I pictured taking orders over the telephone and having a bunch of delivery drivers using their Thomas Guides. For those too young to know, this is how people found their way around town before GPS became the norm..

I honestly don't think that an on-demand delivery service would have made it back in the days. Even if you were to get some sophisticated business people to run things, I don't think a business like this could have ever succeeded. Technology is what made it all possible.

My Uber style type transportation business idea in 1990

Not only was an on-demand food delivery business an early idea that I had in 1990, but I also remember thinking about an Uber type business that would transport people around. Of course the word Uber was not in our vocabulary back then, but you get the idea. For some reason I would always think about it while riding the RTD public buses in the Los Angeles area. I would sometimes have to take two or three buses to my destination, and I remember having to get what was called transfers. I believe I had to pay a quarter for a transfer to take the next bus. If you didn't have a transfer you would have to pay full price for the next bus.

Getting back to my point here, I would think about how much money I could make by driving people where they needed to go in a regular car. Yep, strange ideas for a kid that had not ever driven before. I just thought that it could make a lot people's lives so much easier. Of course I knew about the Taxi business and all, but my idea had nothing to do with all of that.

I remember thinking that once I turned 16 years old that I would buy a car and start doing this. I had thoughts in my head that my phone would be constantly ringing. Yep, I would constantly be giving rides to strangers and racking in the cash. Again, all of this was just a kid's idea, and when I actually turned 16 this business idea was the last thing on my mind as I was preoccupied with other things that 16 year old kids do.

 

I remember mentioning my idea to a few adults, and they warned me about how picking up strangers and giving them rides in exchange for cash would be illegal. They told me to become a Taxi driver which was not something that I had ever had any ambition of doing. I wanted to work for myself, and although the Taxi business was a similar thing it was just so different of what my idea was. In my mind my business idea was never going to ever happen anyways with it being an illegal thing to do and all.

Even if it was legal to pick up strangers and drive them to their destination, I had thought to myself that nobody in their right mind would jump in a car with a stranger. That just seemed like a very dangerous thing to do. I mean I would have never had a problem doing so, and I knew a lot of other people who would use a service like this. It just seemed like the majority of every day people would never even consider getting in a car with a stranger. It would just be a very dangerous thing to do.

Thank goodness that we can have food delivered or get a ride whenever we want

I am not officially making a claim here and saying that I was the first one to think about Uber style transportation or on-demand food delivery, but I know for certain that I had thought of these business ideas back in 1990 when I was a kid. I actually never thought that companies providing these services would become a reality, but as we all know I was wrong. Both of these services are in high-demand by customers and we have to give all the credit in the world to the companies that provide these services.

It takes more than just a few dollars when starting a business such as Uber, Doordash, Postmates, etc. There were many investors that put up a lot of money in to these companies because they believed in the business concept. They believed in them because these companies had the know how when it comes to technology. As I have already said, without technology and those that understand it, these companies would not exist.

The purpose of this article was not to state that I deserve some kind of credit for the on-demand food delivery business or the people mover transportation business. I just wanted to share what I once thought of as silly childish thoughts and ideas. As we all know somewhere down the line there were those that took this idea and turned it in to a billion dollar industry. We have to thank these movers and shakers for bringing these services to our everyday lives.