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."
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.
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."
Why is Nicolas Maduro working at an old time Domino's Pizza franchise?
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.
I did this not too long ago in 2011. Lol
Deliverators!!
at the home I grew up in, they were never able to find me by then. So I almost always got free pizza.
I feel sorry for those teenagers and young adults that lost their jobs over the manager and the maps being stupid. I lived in one of the oldest sections of town, but for some reason none of the maps that pizza place had were up to date on that area.
Oblig Thomas Guide comment
"The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed sub-category. He's got esprit up to here..."
Fat shits.
