One of the reasons GasBuddy took off was that it wasn't just based on community reports; there was an incentive for gas stations themselves to accurately report their prices and keep them up to date.
It seems like you're trying to discourage businesses from participating (e.g. by not accepting sponsored placements), and that will have implications for your growth rate. I think you should look for ways to give businesses an active role, without eroding user trust in the recommendations, of course.
Think of the possibilities:
- Business can add coupons to its listing, making cheap food even cheaper
- Business can confirm a reported deal, adding to its credibility
- Business can provide full menu and a link to order takeout
I don't think any of those features would make users feel like the business is "buying" a listing it didn't earn.
GasBuddy has a standard: price per gallon
But this is just a map of the lower-priced items, which are available everywhere. You can find a cheap sandwich, bowl of soup, slice of pizza, or taco virtually anywhere. There is no corresponding standard point of comparison (no "gallon").
Otherwise, great job. I like it.
It is really amazing to get such a great response and feedback from this group.
That said, kneejerk after using it is: price is a challenging anchor, because food is not uniform. I’d be curious if users are more interested in “under $10, ignoring all else” or “a better deal than comparable” - though, there’s a lot of subjectivity in that.
Gasbuddy works because 1 gallon of gas = 1 gallon of gas, so price is a useful anchor.
$5 for sushi at one place could be a bad deal, while a great deal at another place.
An $8 steak would be cheap. An $8 hot dog would be a ripoff.
I’d be skeptical of restaurants luring people with a single cheap item, or about quality/portion changes.
All this said, Ikea is known for designing furniture _around_ the price their target customer thinks a table should cost. Restaurants are likely (hopefully!) aware of where these price thresholds are for their customers … and your site could be an interesting way of sending them a different type of customer than they’d historically targeted. Or, allow them to refine an offering to maximize profit at the $10 price point.
As others have said, engage restaurants and make them part of the equation. They’re not your adversary.
In short: cool! Do lots of experiments and research!
You know, my dream is to have some kind of movement where people rally to fight inflation and tipflation. Last few years, we seen some crazy food price increases and it seems like its gonna get worse.
If enough people find value in affortable prices, and people go to those restaurants that offer good deals, either as lunch special or weekly promotion, more restaurant will try to offer these kind of deals. Win for customers, win for restuarant.
Might be getting a head of myself there.. but that's the vision. (If you check "About" page, I put another dream which is to make this website turn non-profit later down the road if we make money lol)
it'd be nice to be able to actually just click on a restaurant listing in the map rather than having to search for it.
also, happy hour options might make sense -- maybe some way to filter out (or see) results that are only available during a happy hour. Users could check "happy hour item" and enter the times for the happy hour.
finally, if people enter cheap items that aren't large enough to be a "meal" (like one taco for $3.50) this might become less useful.
Happy Hour filter option will be added soon! Thank you for your suggestion!
Upgraded server so it should work now
Bahn Bi at Miss Saigon in BNZ Centre, Christchurch if anyone is looking!
Have you thought about either some guidance, or even a filter, for meal size?
It’s a fair point that generally it’s focused on single items rather than say a main, side, and drink for $10.
I hope this app can help share these hidden gems.
Maybe I should just delete bad data and just put few legit places only?
Thank you again for suggestion!
Basic rules were no franchise, actual meals only. I was filtering manually in DFW area for now, but should actually add more features and guidance in general.
This is actually critical point. Thank you for pointing that out.
Food bank commitment is built in from start. I plan to display transparent donation amount if we ever make money. (fingers crossed!)
I don't like giving my location, zip code should be good enough. I think if I tap List it kind of works but not really. I'm in SoCal for what it's worth.
I'd prefer to sort by location or filter more closely.
But honestly... not fulfilling all the requirement just yet >_<
But it's somewhat difficult to find some that have over 500 reviews, even for places that have been there for quite a long time.
I agree that barriers are necessary, but might there be a way to soften them?
As it is, it looks like my choices will remain pretty limited even if the website does gain popularity, unless I'm willing to drive further out to a "real" city where places have more traffic. (And by that point: It's not cheap anymore.)
So all that artificial food is off the menu, yet Americans consider this stuff to be food. Nothing in any of those fast food places is food to anyone from the old world, unless they are under five.
Hence an 'actual food map' would be useful, not least to people not from the U.S. and wanting more than this nonsense Americans call 'food'. In short, a cheap burger is of no use to my nutritional needs and is neither 'food' nor 'cheap', just a waste of money on a non-food item.
It would be great to somehow either
- Get to the map from a city list
- refine the city to a neighborhood level
A full service restaurant where you are directed to a table, someone takes your order, then brings food to you, and then you pay would require a tip, because that is considered service.
A counter service restaurant or cafe where you walk up to a counter, give your order, pay, then pick up your food and find your own table would not require a tip.
We added tip + tax calculation on the page so you know what you are getting into as well =)
- $9.99 (slob food that much cheaper if you bought it from any grocery store)
- $5.99 delivery
- $7.99 tip
- $2.99 service fee
- sales tax on all that
Total: ~$30.
They should add the cost of future open heart surgery to the cheap meal.