by Until a few years back I used to walk/drive around for several miles in search of food at night and settle for even the smallest of food stalls or “mess”, as we used to call it back in Chennai. You dont get to choose the menu and you are given what’s available. You cant demand for an extra portion nor expect any accompaniments to the main course. You dont get to review the food nor complain about its quantity or quantity. In the end you just stuff down what was available and come back home
Home Deliveries were usually referred to as party orders . They delivered home only when it was meant for 15 people or more. Else you had to go down yourself , wait for an hour atleast and pick up the food and pay any extra charges for packing. Again like the above example, most of the items in the menu werent available and forced to choose some alternative. You didnt have the luxury of choosing multiple restaurants at go and ended up ordering everything at the same place, though it tasted bad
Pizzas were the only one that began the process of home delivery . Dominos, Pizza Hut and Pizza Corner started this trend of delivering withing 39 minutes or less. They had a minimum order amount and usually had a good delivery process across the country. But overall this delivery system was restricted to only pizzas and other hotel chains never ventured into it, primarily because of lack of resources available to deliver
The recent emergence of food startups like FoodPanda, TinyOwl, Zomato Order, Faasos and Swiggy has caused a huge impact in the overall food market. Apart from being a hotel aggregator , they have their own delivery system to facilitate consumers to try out food options from multiple hotels. So even if the hotel doesnt have a vehicle of their own, FoodPanda or Zomato Order will ensure that their own guy is sent to the hotel, wait till the food is packed properly and deliver it at your doorstep
This has caused a huge seismic shift in the hotel industry as many hoteliers have now been able to report brisk business thanks to this new found visibility. Even when some hotels are not known to people, they are being known through these food apps and people start to try their cuisine as well . This also adds increased revenue when people usually prefer to eat indoors during odd hours than visiting restaurants.
Impact of food delivery startups is also on the consumers as they are now confident to get food at any given time of the day from any restaurant of their choosing and have it delivered within the hour. This is a win-win for both consumers as well as hoteliers who have managed to benefit from this.
Both TinyOwl and FoodPanda have reported several issues in their operations and management but hope that doesn’t impact the food startup technology business
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
While talking about food delivery startups, do check out my post on Food Industry IOT and Train food Delivery app, Khanagadi
