PUTTING THE ‘FAST’ in fast food is the flavour of the season. Recently, food aggregator giant Zomato launched a 10-minute food delivery service. For now, it is confined to Zomato’s affluent home base of Gurugram, but it plans to scale it to other cities soon.
“Nobody in the world has so far delivered hot and fresh food in under 10 minutes at scale and we were eager to be the first to create this category, globally,” said Deepinder Goyal, cofounder & CEO of Zomato.
The move to inject the white-hot business model of quick commerce into food delivery seems to have shaken up India’s burgeoning e-commerce space. Delivery of grocery and essential items within 10 minutes or so is already a thing, pioneered by startups like Zepto and Blinkit (formerly Grofers) and also by the likes of Reliance’s JioMart and Tata-owned big basket. Meanwhile, Zomato’s rival Swiggy, which already has a thriving instant grocery delivery model, is reportedly planning to extend it to food as well. And, Bhavish Aggarwal has also turned his attention to the model with Ola Dash.
But as one analyst quipped: are we counting our chicken biryanis even before the eggs are hatched?
“Is there a demand for food delivered within 10 minutes? I don’t think thousands of people wrote in saying that if you don’t deliver in 10 minutes, we will stop ordering,” said Rashmi Daga, founder of cloud kitchen chain FreshMenu. “Consumers need to be educated on the costs associated with demanding speed. We are just creating undue pressure on everyone around us.”
When Goyal announced Zomato’s 10-minute delivery model in a blog in March, it was criticised for putting delivery agents under undue stress and causing traffic problems.
Denne historien er fra May 08, 2022-utgaven av THE WEEK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra May 08, 2022-utgaven av THE WEEK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI
