Nope.com. Here, watch the sleight of hand: This will happen a maximum of once in every person's life because they'll quickly figure out that they just signed over their freedom and jeopardized their friendship with their neighbor for less than ten dollars. Never mind the fact that grubhub will deliver the cupcakes for $5 within an hour; you've just lost the ability to stay late or you'll be docked. You've lost the ability to tell Stella "sorry your cupcakes got a little squished" because she paid you. You're no longer doing a friend a favor - you're performing a customer service for a not-very-good rate. Let's flip it around - you're mowing your lawn. your neighbor, Stella, comes out holding her back and asks you if you'd mind mowing around her azaleas as her sciatica is acting up again. No problem right? What if she instead says "I'll give you ten bucks." Now instead of mowing her lawn you tell her "Sorry, I'm not your gardner" and go inside and tell your spouse or boyfriend what a lot of nerve Stella has. This dichotomy is why Amway still makes money yet why they're among the most loathed organizations on the planet - trading on friendship is one of the biggest social taboos we have. Yet the Forbes article sweeps it completely under the rug, because a rational participant in the market would take the money. Never mind the fact that Uber is illegal. Lyft is illegal. AirBnB is illegal. That the prosecution threshold hasn't crossed into profit-damaging territory is just a matter of time; Uber exists because Taxi medallions are stupid expensive and they were willing to make a shit ton of money on an illegal company while the sun shines. Worked for Aereo, works for Uber. But speaking as someone who moderates /r/realestate, I see posts like this all the time. Fedex has a legal business model designed to insure the product they sell to their customers. Uber has an illegal business model designed to pass along the liability for their services to their "partners." They're one scandal from annihilation - and while they're back in India for now, their app includes a "panic button" in case your driver decides to get all rapey. So on the one hand: massive infrastructure firm with a reputation for guaranteed service at a price. On the other hand: internet startup that has to include a "panic button" because they can't screen their drivers for rapists. This is kind of like asking if Pets.com can put the Westminster Kennel Association out of business. The answer to that is also "no."Imagine you’re about to leave your office for the day and your phone vibrates with a text from Uber: “Your next door neighbor Stella has ordered a dozen cupcakes from the Courageous Cupcakes shop next to your office. Would you mind dropping them off at her house? We’ll credit your account $7.50.”
You’re happy to drop off the cupcakes. You’d do it for Stella for free. She’s your neighbor, and you’re driving home anyway, but, hey, a $7.50 credit is a $7.50 credit. You click the “Accept” button.
I learned from inside sources at FedEx Kinko's that the majority of their money comes from people shipping illegal drugs. They're like Tor nodes for smuggling. I'm wondering how Uber would adapt to that: "We see that you are at the mall. Your neighbor is expecting a package from the creepy lookin' dude at the muscle mass kiosk. So hey, we'll give you a $300 credit. C'mon, ramen breath!" Yeah, this'll go well.
I'm guessing this will work better for those hardware store pickups and cupcake deliveries than prewraoped packages between two people. There are services dedicated to running errands already (I think it was called task rabbit?) and combining a service like uber with an errand boy seems like a good next step. There will hurdles to overcome of course but it may work out. /cc mk