I and many of my friends are of an age that we regularly find ourselves saying the sort of things that our parents said when we were young. You know, stuff like ‘it wasn’t like that when we were growing up’, or ‘there is no hope for this young generation,’ blah, blah, blah. And I am sure that anyone of the ‘young generation’ reading this will say, ‘yer, yer, yer, silly old bag. What does she know?’.
But, there are things that we know and they don’t, since however much we study and learn about stuff, experience is generally the best guide to what the likely outcome of something will be, and in the last few years, I think that anyone over the age of about 25 would feel pretty confident about placing a bet on the idea that life is going to get more and more difficult for anyone under that age, as our own experience over the last 30 or so years has shown us. The thing is that we grew up before the days of the internet, social media, mobile phones and all sorts of other apps and so on, and we know, having experienced life without such things, that it was often a lot more enjoyable.
Right now, I think that us old ‘uns’ doubt that very many young ’uns’ read books, are able to call on their own general knowledge to answer a question, can hold a decent conversation, or even add two numbers together, let alone build a friendship or a potential partnership or marriage, other than online or through WattsApp or social media. I’m happy to be put right on this, but in my experience (there’s that word again) and from talking to other ‘old’ guys like me, I think we are not that wrong…
Just the other day, I spotted yet another new and potentially awful phenomenon, and that is the invasion of the Bolt Food, Foodora, Uber Eats, Wolt and other food delivery firms, whose scooters, bikes and cars used to be seen occasionally around town but who now appear to have completely invaded us (and not just in Prague, but in Marbella too, now I come to think of it, to a lesser degree).
Sitting outside a restaurant on a lovely leafy avenue close to where we live in Prague, my partner and I gradually became aware that barely a minute went by without the noise of a scooter or electric bike puttering past us at some speed, with an anxious-looking rider onboard, usually loaded up with a big blue sack on his or her back, and studying their mobile phone whilst looking around to check where they were going. In the space of about an hour, I think I counted about 30 scooters, 5 or 6 cars, and 3 bikes, all moving at speed in order to make as many deliveries as they could before heading off to stock up again. And, since this was at around 4.00 pm on a warm Saturday afternoon, it begged the question (well questions), ‘who are all the people ordering this food at this time of day’ and ‘what is stopping them from getting up off their potentially fat bottoms and going to get it themselves?’.
It seems that it’s not just speciality food from far flung restaurants that is being ordered (I do know that I have occasionally thought to send out for something from our favourite restaurant some distance away on a rainy or cold Prague evening, but then decided not to). My partner, who finally admitted to occasionally visiting KFC (as if I didn’t know, and him a ‘sportsman’) said that whenever he is there, he sees a constant stream of couriers stocking up and whizzing off to deliver ‘buckets for one’ or whatever all over town. Presumably these are being ordered by people who are sitting at their desks or sofas, and have simply gone on-line whenever they have the urge, and then paid with their credit card before receiving their order. All of this without speaking to another human being or moving far from their seat.
When I was first in Prague, knowing no-one and unable to speak the language, I survived by buying a hot dog in a kiosk on the Old Town Square for my dinner after doing a ridiculously long day in the office. It was more or less impossible for me to buy food anywhere else as restaurants were soulless places where the waiters would tell us that they were full when there was no-one else there, there were only a few small supermarkets with very little produce, and pubs were not places that young English ladies could go to on their own. But then I made a friend who introduced me to a few other expats, and we would meet each night in a ghastly bar and tuck into a couple of very dubious looking dishes. But we didn’t care. We were making friends, drinking a lot, and coming up with business ideas. The need to eat was what brought us together (oh Ok, plus a bit of booze), and if it hadn’t been for that, the loneliness of sitting in my hotel room each night would have definitely sent me back home even sooner than I had originally planned.
Funnily enough, during our endless conversations about the type of business we might start-up, the one that always got us talking the most was the idea of opening a sandwich shop, as no such thing existed at that time. We even tried to talk to Pret a Manger in London to see if they would be up for having a franchise in Prague, but thankfully they said no, since getting the produce would probably have been impossible. But one of our group, a young American who eventually went back to the US and became something very important, decided that he was going to give it a go and he started up what, really, was the first ever ‘Deliveroo’ or whatever service; making sandwiches to order from his flat, and then delivering them to our offices every morning, where we then placed our orders for the following day. How we loved him! Eventually, of course, it became unsustainable – the amount of work involved in sourcing just about anything worthy of a sandwich and the time it took for him to then make and deliver the orders all over town (by tram and walking) made it a business that could never make a profit, but we didn’t really understand that kind of thing in those days.
Now we do. And I have to wonder whether these food delivery companies really are sustainable. Will it always be possible to find enough people who are prepared to work endless hours for very little money by whizzing about town all day long? Will there always be enough business for them or will the novelty of calling out for a takeaway every day wear off for a lot of people? And will the restaurants, in particular, who, let’s face it, have always made their biggest profits through the sale of booze not food, want to continue to provide take out meals when the profit margins are quite low? I am not sure.
What I am sure about, is that the ongoing talk of ‘doing something about the level of obesity in the Czech Republic’, (apparently the second highest in Europe) is definitely not being helped by making the purchase and delivery of food without lifting even a finger, so to speak, quite so easy. And that, I feel, might just be a topic for my next blog….!
You can read more of my Prague anecdotes in my book – Charge of the Brit Brigade (go to www.jwapress.com to find out more).
You are reading my mind you perceptive you! Keep it up … Ps have you mentioned the boring fact that most of these whizzing food angels have no driving licences or a faintest idea about the rules of the road. (says one who was knocked down twice….) What amaizes me is, that the restaurants and pubs ARE full of people esp young ones and one cannot get into the popular ones EVER without booking . Who actually eats all this Deliveroo, Just eat etc food…. is it perhaps us – the “ oldies”????????