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Postmates Lays Off All Its City Managers (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the expanding-and-contracting dept.

According to TechCrunch, Postmates has let go of all of its city managers, as it centralizes some of its operations at its headquarters in San Francisco. "The total number of people affected by the move is 15 across markets like Boston, Denver, Las Vegas, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, St Louis, San Diego, and Washington, DC," reports TechCrunch. From the report: In a statement, Postmates said that general managers will take on city managers' responsibilities. "Postmates has grown rapidly over the last six years -- and continues to grow in more than 200 cities across the U.S. As part of that growth, we've decided to centralize some of our regional marketing efforts within our San Francisco headquarters," a spokesperson said in the emailed statement. "Centralizing these functions will enable us to execute more quickly -- and ultimately help us be more nimble and effective as we continue to aggressively scale the company. Our general managers will remain in place and continue to help lead our local efforts. We are thankful to our city managers for all their hard work, and we're confident that they will be successful in their future endeavors."

One of the tipsters, an ex-city manager, said that employees were taken by surprise: Postmates had just earlier this month organized a retreat for the city managers, which they saw as a team building exercise. The tipster also added that the murmurs were that the cost-cutting was being done "as a precursor to an acquisition," but Postmates' spokesperson denied that this is the case, and also ruled out a merger and fundraising as reasons for the cuts.

25 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Whats a postmates? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, wtf is this?

    1. Re:Whats a postmates? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      A Post-It Note that appeared nude in Postboy Magazine.

    2. Re:Whats a postmates? by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Sounds like porn through the mail to me. For sure the USPS won't stand for it!

  2. 15 people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why did this deserve a post on /. god this place has gone way down hill

  3. Breaking News! by MachineShedFred · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So a company that nobody has heard of, who makes / performs a product or service that nobody here can identify, laid off 15 people and that rates the front page of Slashdot now?

    Seriously?

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    1. Re:Breaking News! by msauve · · Score: 2

      Firehose: Dog bites man!

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re:Breaking News! by Luthair · · Score: 1

      We tech blog now.

    3. Re:Breaking News! by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 1

      So a company that nobody has heard of, who makes / performs a product or service that nobody here can identify, laid off 15 people and that rates the front page of Slashdot now?

      Seriously?

      Well said. I actually had to RTFA to a) see what it was and b) acknowledge that I didn't care.

    4. Re:Breaking News! by x_t0ken_407 · · Score: 1

      It's basically an alternative to Uber Eats -- food delivery (or grocery, etc. depending on which stores they server in the area). I use them on occasion.

    5. Re:Breaking News! by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      With all the references to "city managers", it sounds like a firm that provides outsourcing for local governments.

      I hope I've not just given someone an idea...

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      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    6. Re: Breaking News! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I thought it was hookers by mail. I'm disappointed.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  4. City Managers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That's good because most cities already have city managers that work for the city.

  5. How could they miss the obvious clues? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Postmates had just earlier this month organized a retreat for the city managers, which they saw as a team building exercise.

    Those city managers should have seen this coming. During the retreat, they did a "trust fall" exercise... but Postmates made a point of not catching the managers when they fell.

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  6. eh. by supernova87a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you think about what makes a sustainable business, part of it is barriers to entry and loyalty that lead to pricing power. There are few barriers to entry for the delivery world (given so much surplus labor and vehicles compared to the demand), and I would say practically zero loyalty.

    I know friends (and I myself) who churn between Blue Apron, HelloFresh, Postmates, Taskrabbit, Doordash, Munchery, Safeway, every possible food, delivery, and prep service -- whatever service offers the lowest price or the flavor-of-the-week signup bonus. What do I care if one is named something silly and I change to the other one next week for a lower price?

    There's a shakeout happening in this industry, and it's not pretty.

    1. Re:eh. by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 2

      Well, according to the article:

      Founded just over six years ago, Postmates has shaped up to be one of the more prominent of the startups leading the challenge against Amazon and others in the world of on-demand deliveries.

      Hm. And I've never heard of them. Granted, I don't go for food delivery, but I've heard of Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and Doordash.

    2. Re:eh. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

      Never heard of any of them, probably because I'm not too lazy to do my own grocery shopping. I especially wouldn't trust someone else to pick out produce for me.

      Damn straight, mate. My wife or one of our friends? Sure. Some stranger who's main concern is maximising his deliveries made per hour? No way, José.

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    3. Re:eh. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      whose, not who's, dammit. Where's my coffee?

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    4. Re:eh. by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      Well, according to the article:

      Founded just over six years ago, Postmates has shaped up to be one of the more prominent of the startups leading the challenge against Amazon and others in the world of on-demand deliveries.

      Hm. And I've never heard of them. Granted, I don't go for food delivery, but I've heard of Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and Doordash.

      Never heard of any of them, probably because I'm not too lazy to do my own grocery shopping. I especially wouldn't trust someone else to pick out produce for me.

      This is something that has been done for ages (think cooks, maids and errand boys.) It still occurs today as such services exist in other countries (without the glamorous internet or pre-IPO label.)

      It's all about 1) convenience, 2) social/bizness trust (aka fidelity) 3) disposable income, and 4) how much you value your time on an hourly rate.

      I wouldn't trust someone I don't know (or who has no recommendations) to pick my produce back in my 3rd-world country of origin, or say, China or India.

      But in the US, the EU or Japan where quality and contracts are built-in in society, yes, I would (specially if the price is right in my comfort-vs-expense personal equation.)

    5. Re:eh. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      I haven't seen him picking produce, but he did work on the renovation of our apartment building this past year. He's from Perú, BTW.

      Yes, it's the same here in Sweden--the locals get lazy/complacent and perfectly happy to let foreigners (mostly Poles and East/Southeast Asians) do the drudge work. Then the foreigners get blamed for whatever is perceived as the next crisis. The only reason I don't get much of that here is because I'm the same colour as the locals.

      A couple of months ago, I was sitting behind some prat who smelt of beer lecturing his seatmate about those awful foreigners coming to Sweden and taking all the benefits. So I said to the air behind his head, "Yes, I came to Sweden to do a job no Swede would or could do. How much did you make last year?"

      "Oh, I don't have a job right now."

      "So in other words, a foreigner is paying twice the taxes he would at home so you can have rent and beer money."

      "Um..."

      "And you've nothing to do say about THAT, do you, now?"

      "Um..."

      "We're done here, I think. Have a nice day, motherfucker."

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  7. Ban Mergers and buyouts by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    over a certain threshold. Everytime I read about one it means mass layoffs and price hikes in the face of shrinking competition. While we're at it, start taxing the crap out of corporations so they don't have so much cash to sit on and buy out all their competitors with.

    Seriously, there's a reason we used to have a 90% top marginal tax rate and it's crap like this. You let income inequality get out of hand and you get shit like this. Big gov't isn't the threat to freedom, it's oligarchy. I can vote for my government. Unless I'm a billionaire I don't get a vote with the mega corps. And no, nobody reading this is every going to be a billionaire. You're reading /. for Pete's sake. That ship sailed when came here and read my post.

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  8. A company I never heard of by Snotnose · · Score: 1

    lays off a bunch of folks. I care about this because?
    b

  9. Was it too hard? by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    Was it too hard to make even the briefest mention of what the fuck "Postmates" is?

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    1. Re:Was it too hard? by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      No, but it's just SO FUCKING HARD these days to hire editors who can read and write intelligible English AND who actually know something about the subject matter.

      ...AND who'll work for click-throughs...

      I swear, some days coming here is only slightly preferable to getting fucked with a broken broom handle.

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      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  10. Postmates fending NLRB complaint by spinitch · · Score: 1

    https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s... Postmates among those targeted by NLRB challenging employmee classification .

  11. Re:More crap by Slashdot's crap editors by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

    To whoever paid $$$ for Slashdot. Kick your current crap crop of editors out and bring in someone who knows what they are doing.

    I've let them know that I'd be interested, but I won't work for click-throughs. So I'm not hopeful.

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    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.