Mystical land pirates (with pizza)

I did this before cellphone and any sort of digital maps. It was hell. I memorized my city, that wasn't the hard part. The hard part was the people who didn't have their houses properly labeled with their address. Bonus points if they left their porch light off, as well.

"Why is my pizza cold?"

"Because I had to use complex mathematics to derive your house number among all of the unnumbered houses on your street."

In the before times, I was uniquely blessed with the ability to decipher these paper maps. I was seen as a god among men.

Alas, with the advent of GPS and navigation I am but a mere relic of days gone by, regaling my days of glory to whomever should have the ears to listen.

Yeah i never looked into getting any kind of delivery job solely due to the idea I'd need to be able to find my way around the town I've lived in my entire life. I could get lost going to the grocery store and it hasn't moved in, like, two decades.

And now they use door dash and it takes two hours to arrive cold and spit on.

They were distant allies to the masters ..... Taxi cab drivers ... who literally hold mental maps of the entire city they worked in and they could figure out how to get to where in ten different ways without the help of any paper map or digital system.

London and Tokyo taxi drivers are the apex... the map apex... the mapex (pronounced MAY-pex)?

"Take me to that hotel that's in front of a pub, I think it's called The Fox & Hounds... I think it's between a park and a Tube station", and the crazy bastard could figure out exactly where you meant, even though there are multiple pubs named The Fox & Hounds in London.

The 30 minutes or it's free deal really became dangerous and was discontinued. Still, learning the city map by heart and combing through unlabeled houses was impressive.

We had a map of our delivery area on the wall. Maps like this have an index of street names on one side, with XY coordinates to find them on the map. Before leaving with the pizza, you look at the map (if you weren't familiar with the area) and get an idea how to get there. The longer you work there, the less you need to look at the map.

The thing to keep in mind here is that each such pizzeria had a specific territory it staked out. There was an effective radius from every location, and the drivers were often very experienced with that chunk of town. I also recall wall-mounted maps near the phone so they could easily tell the customer to call a closer Domino's or Pizza Hut over if they were out of range. So after a while, you just learn the region, memorize the street names, and off you go. Finding a house number was the only real risk.

Advertising was also typically done door-to-door with flyers and fridge magnets, along with phone numbers for YOUR local franchise. As a franchise owner you'd have your family or hire some kids to canvas every so often. I suppose that helped with any confusion, but there was nothing keeping you from getting a hold of the wrong number from the phone book or a friend.

With GPS navigation everywhere, I'm betting that drivers can range further than ever before. The calculus is probably more like "google says you're 40 minutes out right now, so no", than "you're not one of our customers."

So long as they could "Avoid the Noid."

Did that job for a summer. We had a huge map on the wall of our district. Holy shit, what a change.

And these days the waiting time is 45 mins. minimum.

Why is Nicolas Maduro working at an old time Domino's Pizza franchise?

I did this for more than ten years ask me anything

Worked pharmacy delivery for years starting in high school, just before smartphones, and I still don't use GPS. Basically just map to nearest main intersection and remember their street name and the one before it.

You also had fewer issues with incorrect orders and not actually having your order delivered wasn't even a thing.

Technology is supposed to make things better, but this is one area it definitely has made worse.

It's literally the same but now the phone sometimes messes up the delivery too, not just the guy

Big Hiro Protagonist vibes

They still do that here. Not every Dönerladen has an app, only chains have dedicated apps. Some shops have websites with an online order possibility, but it's mostly calling.

I did this not too long ago in 2011. Lol

Deliverators!!

Oblig Thomas Guide comment

Fat shits.