[HN Gopher] I made an app to find great food trucks near you
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I made an app to find great food trucks near you
Author : nate_rw
Score : 62 points
Date : 2022-05-07 14:16 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sizzzle.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sizzzle.app)
| notdang wrote:
| Tried to use the app but the only thing I see is a Google form.
| So cannot give my opinion on it.
|
| I went through the FAQ and could not find aanything about where
| this will be available available. Is it US only?
| nate_rw wrote:
| I just updated the website, so now supported locations are on
| our FAQ.
| nate_rw wrote:
| Thanks for your comment; Sizzzle has not yet been released to
| the public. Interested users can join our beta and provide
| feedback on the app - hence the Google form.
| superkuh wrote:
| What would be really useful to me is the ability to sort by if
| the food truck accepts cash. Over the last handful of years I've
| noticed that many food trucks have stopped even taking orders
| unless you can prove a corporation will pay for you by
| swiping/etc a payment card.
| vmception wrote:
| You really want that? I love that every tiny operation accepts
| credit cards and apple pay now.
|
| > unless you can prove a corporation will pay for you by
| swiping your payment card
|
| and I don't want the state's unsanitary and cocaine-laced notes
| for payment. see we can frame all options any way we want
| superkuh wrote:
| Oh, sure. Accepting credit cards is great. But _only_
| accepting credit cards is literal evil and against the law in
| the USA. To get around this they make you swipe the card to
| be able to order. That way there is no debt you can chose to
| pay in cash. It 's obviously a loophole in the current laws.
| Some large cities have local regulations to prevent this
| evil.
|
| They started doing this long before the pandemic. It's not
| about that.
| vmception wrote:
| Retailer payment method acceptance is regulated at the
| municipal and state level. There is no federal or
| constitutional requirement to take cash or retain the
| option of cash payment.
|
| So for the loophole experience, I would need you to show if
| thats a viable loophole _in the areas where cash payment is
| mandated_
| Fernicia wrote:
| If you want to not appear unhinged, I recommend avoiding
| calling obviously innocuous things evil unless you've
| already given your reasons for doing so.
|
| There are very real risks a food truck faces in accepting
| cash: fomite diseases, counterfits, armed robbery. I'm
| guessing you're fine enforcing the truck owners bear these
| risks.
| logifail wrote:
| > There are very real risks a food truck faces in
| accepting cash: fomite diseases, counterfits, armed
| robbery
|
| For balance we all know that there are [other] risks
| associated in accepting card payments.
|
| We should also note that the card payment system is not
| "free", not available to everyone, and does not operate
| without collateral damage, not least that it excludes
| vulnerable groups in society.
|
| > I'm guessing you're fine enforcing the truck owners
| bear these risks
|
| Enforcing following the rules (particular not wriggling
| around them using legal loopholes) should - one might
| think - be a fairly mainstream view?
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| I agree that "evil" is maybe a step too far, but
| "innocuous" is too short, imo. I don't think it's fair or
| reasonable to block sections of society -- people without
| a credit card -- from making purchases like this.
| bumby wrote:
| Is your position that it should be mandated by law or
| just the right thing for a business to do at their
| discretion?
|
| I grew up in an area where Canadian currency often made
| it into the money supply and most vendors would just
| accept Canadian quarters at the US rate without a fuss. I
| remember the weird looks I got the first time I tried to
| do the same in a state further south. I feel like both
| are reasonable approaches but I would hesitate to legally
| mandate one approach because they are context dependent.
| bumby wrote:
| > _only accepting credit cards is literal evil and against
| the law in the USA._
|
| "There is no federal statute mandating that a private
| business, a person, or an organization must accept currency
| or coins as payment for goods or services. Private
| businesses are free to develop their own policies on
| whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that
| says otherwise"[1]
|
| [1]https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm
| gedy wrote:
| That's convenient, but I'd rather not have my eating habits
| data mined for use against me later. (Especially not food
| truck food)
| vmception wrote:
| yeah..... that's going to happen though
|
| that ship has long sailed
|
| we're at the bottom of the slippery slope
|
| try to enjoy yourself
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| The conversation got derailed, but whether you want all
| businesses to only accept cash, to only accept card, or to
| accept both, put that aside for a minute -- surely the option
| to filter based on that criteria is harmless? That's all OP
| was asking for.
| woodruffw wrote:
| > I love that every tiny operation accepts credit cards and
| apple pay now.
|
| At least in NYC, it's standard for street vendors and smaller
| businesses (like delis) to take only cash (or to have a
| purchase minimum for a credit charge, usually $10 or higher).
|
| I've heard lots of reasons for this, all of which I find
| plausible: it's more profitable (credit processing fees are
| effectively a regressive tax), it allows vendors to pass on
| savings to their customers (my local coffee shop gives me a
| discount if I pay in cash), and it allows them to dodge their
| local sales tax.
| vmception wrote:
| _whenever you want_ you can always throw the credit card
| merchant agreement at any of those vendors just because you
| feel mildly inconvenienced.
|
| it is against the merchant agreement to have any purchase
| minimum and vendors have absolutely no leverage on this
| reality (as this is _per_ payment network, this can change
| per network at any time, but my understanding is that
| merchants can 't have card minimums - this also applies to
| bars where much higher card purchase minimums are also
| commonplace)
|
| of course, the sympathetic approach is to realize that its
| more profitable for the credit card network to have no
| mininum. but as you don't really experience this concept of
| card minimums outside of NYC, there's no reason to follow
| along with those merchant's rationale just because they
| told you why and you feel sowwy for them.
|
| when I think about every thing that threatens low margin
| businesses, I just notice that a different one will take
| their place and a few owners will have to do something else
| to exchange time for food and shelter just like everyone
| else, so no need to keep them on life support
| woodruffw wrote:
| > whenever you want you can always throw the credit card
| merchant agreement at any of those vendors just because
| you feel mildly inconvenienced.
|
| This is a recurring misconception: merchants have been
| allowed to set a credit card minimum of up to $10 since
| Dodd-Frank[1]. Even before that, entire industries have
| had merchant exemptions (utility and rent collection come
| to mind).
|
| The rest of this response is bizarrely cynical: I don't
| feel "sowwy" for them; I like saving money on my coffee
| and I'm happy knowing that my payment method is _more
| sustainable,_ since it means I don't have to worry about
| changing my routine.
|
| [1]: http://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/new-
| rules-ele...
| robonerd wrote:
| I often pay with credit cards at food trucks and restaurants
| that accept either cash or credit cards. But if they don't
| take cash, then I won't give them either. If they refuse
| cash, I refuse to do business with them at all. Refusing to
| accept cash is antisocial behavior and I will not reward it.
| vmception wrote:
| I agree with you and others that it is easy to fall outside
| the system, and that it is considerate to try to make a
| point to businesses that dont accept cash at all.
| hindsightbias wrote:
| I'd like a food truck app with only one feature: average service
| time. I dont care what the food tastes like, I just want it in 5
| minutes or less.
|
| FT's just do not scale.
| sokoloff wrote:
| I like the idea.
|
| > Remember when you're sharing the domain that there are three
| Zs!
|
| Oh man, that's going to be some trouble I think...
| nate_rw wrote:
| Thanks for the comment, and that's a good point! Branding is
| something I might have to do some experimenting with...
| Urgo wrote:
| How would you say your app will stand out from Street Food
| Finder?
|
| https://streetfoodfinder.com/
|
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.streetfood...
| nate_rw wrote:
| Great question! My goal with Sizzzle is to build a more social,
| user-friendly platform, rather than simply a tool to find food
| trucks. Sizzzle will ask users to review food trucks, and
| unlike Street Food Finder and other alternatives, Sizzzle will
| present vendors from an algorithm, rather than an arbitrary
| ranking. The app will also provide users with personalized
| recommendations.
| memco wrote:
| > Sizzzle will present vendors from an algorithm, rather than
| an arbitrary ranking.
|
| How will you distinguish this for your users and allow their
| input to affect the algorithm? I have a hard time
| distinguishing between "arbitrary ranking" and "algorith"m
| because I have no control over them in almost every case.
| nate_rw wrote:
| Right, I totally understand that. Users will be able to set
| their preferences (Mexican, Acai, etc) and show interest in
| vendors by saving their profiles and writing positive
| reviews. Recommendations will mostly be based on these data
| points - specified preferences and demonstrated interest.
| In most cases, the algorithm will be similarity-based
| (comparing trends between users).
|
| In searches, users will be able to choose the method
| through which vendors are sorted (location, rating, etc),
| and there will be a separate section on the homepage for
| food trucks recommended by our algorithm.
|
| I will note as well that we do not look at nor share any
| information regarding individual users or even trends,
| aside from simple view/visit metrics.
| oliv__ wrote:
| I'd definitely use this if it were live. Don't know that I'd
| download an app for the service though, I'd much prefer a web
| interface.
| nate_rw wrote:
| Thanks for the suggestion! I'm working on building a web
| interface, and I expect to release it soon after the app.
| captn3m0 wrote:
| A friend's similar project using crowd-sourced information for
| Bangalore: https://karthikb351.github.io/notonzomato.in/
| nate_rw wrote:
| Very cool!
| productceo wrote:
| Congrats on launching! What was your tech stack? From app
| development to getting food truck data, what did you find
| difficult?
| nate_rw wrote:
| Great questions! My tech stack is a bit unconventional. For
| example, my primary db is Baserow - basically an open-source
| Airtable. The app was written with a combination of Swift and
| Objective-C, so iOS native, though I also plan to release an
| Android version. For the UI, I prototyped in Figma and
| storyboarded it (not a huge fan of writing interfaces).
|
| Probably one of the biggest challenges has been collecting
| enough data so that users in most locations can log on and see
| food trucks near them.
| productceo wrote:
| Interesting! Haven't heard of Baserow, but will check it out.
|
| Yeah, can't imagine how you'd bootstrap data like this.
| Definitely sounds like it'll be the core competency that will
| set you defensible against late followers. Good luck!
| ytdytvhxgydvhh wrote:
| I might not be the target audience because I don't know under
| what circumstances one would search for a food truck rather than
| food in general. If I want, say, a burrito, I don't care if it
| comes from a truck or a takeout window or traditional restaurant,
| etc. I just want a good burrito! I'm curious - do food trucks
| have (real or perceived) association with quality or speed or
| cost or something else that makes people think "I'm not sure what
| I want to eat, let me see what food trucks are nearby"?
| nate_rw wrote:
| That's an interesting point. There are many people who feel
| more inclined to eat at food trucks than traditional
| restaurants, and here are a few reasons why:
|
| - Price: Food trucks are cheaper (startup costs are much
| cheaper than for B&M).
|
| - Convenience: Food trucks are often faster. In areas where
| there are fewer restaurants, and in food deserts, mobile
| businesses are sometimes the only good ones around.
|
| - Pop Culture: In the past few years, food trucks have become
| more and more ingrained in our culture, and they have developed
| dedicated followings of repeat customers. It's cool to eat at
| food trucks, especially in areas where there are many! There
| are people who have specific food trucks they love - it's the
| same idea as having a favorite restaurant - except they want to
| know where their favorite trucks will be next. There are people
| who prefer specific food trucks over local restaurants.
|
| So yes, there are a lot of perceived benefits. This article has
| more reasons: https://prestigefoodtrucks.com/2016/01/8-reasons-
| why-food-tr...
| coastflow wrote:
| Food trucks can plausibly provide healthier options for food
| than in convenience stores, which often only sell junk food,
| according to a research paper that is a literature review [0].
| This is especially true for low-income areas where there are
| fewer supermarkets (which sell fruits and vegetables) as due to
| the "risk of crime and theft, and [lack of] land for parking."
| However, the author writes that this hypothesis is not yet
| conclusive due to a lack of published studies.
|
| Anecdotally, on university campuses, food trucks were the main
| option for food due to a lack of supermarkets and restaurants
| nearby. An app specialized for food trucks could also fix the
| problem where the availability and opening hours of food trucks
| are less known, especially for certain trucks that occasionally
| switch locations, are absent on certain days, or change their
| hours (making them hard to track via an entry on Google Maps).
|
| In short, food trucks could plausibly be seen as a step up for
| finding fresh food instead of defaulting to a convenience store
| that may typically just serve junk food, in areas where there
| are no restaurants or supermarkets.
|
| [0] Journal of Public Health Policy, 2021:
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7874560/
| andybak wrote:
| If it's US-only (as I presume it is) then it's be worth
| mentioning that a bit more prominently. Us Brits are used to
| disappointment but it's mildly annoying to have to install
| something to find out what countries it's usable in.
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| Agreed. I frequently get burned by that, so it's now the first
| thing I try to find out. And I would definitely expect it to be
| answered by the FAQ.
| nate_rw wrote:
| Just updated the website. You can now find supported
| locations on our FAQ!
| nate_rw wrote:
| That's a good point, and I will clarify our locations on the
| website. While Sizzzle is based in the US and most of our food
| trucks are in North America, my goal is to grow our selection
| so people from anywhere can see vendors near them. If you live
| in London, there are over 60 vendors on Sizzzle, and I'm
| working hard to expand across the UK.
| [deleted]
| gunapologist99 wrote:
| This looks great!
|
| Could you make it a web app? I don't want to install apps on my
| phone for security/privacy reasons.
|
| Since your domain has an extra (and a little hard-to-see) Z in
| it, you have to find some way to make people very aware of that.
| Perhaps you could make your logo that makes the middle z
| capitalized and in a contrasting color (I had to do italics here
| instead):
|
| sizzzle.app vs si _zZz_ le.app vs siz _Z_ zle.app
|
| Or just pick a different name if you're not already all-in on
| this one, especially since it's not a .com.. for example,
| zizzle.app seems to be available, but always check USPTO's TESS
| to make sure you're not stepping on a federally registered
| trademark, too.
|
| Here was a quickie logo I made using
| https://www.adobe.com/express/create/logo:
| https://www.imgpaste.net/image/KvJX64
| nate_rw wrote:
| Thanks for the comment! I have a web version in production, and
| I expect to release it shortly after the mobile app.
|
| I'll admit that the extra z is a challenge for users; branding
| is something that I'll need to evaluate.
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| Maybe pronounce it Sizzizzle or make the lazy sleeping
| snoring 'zzz' sound in Sizzzle?
| vmception wrote:
| Or just sizzleapp.com and im usually the last person to
| suggest a .com is relevant
|
| I've built high revenue moderate traffic businesses on any
| tld
|
| But I can recognize that its not 2012 anymore and mispelled
| startup names are not in vogue, while normal names + app
| suffixes are
| FinnKuhn wrote:
| I think someone already got that domain...
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