Customer (over phone): Bhaiyya ek chicken Biryani..
Restaurant: Ok. One Chicken Biryani, and…
Customer: And? Nothing. That’s all.
Restaurant: Sorry mam.. delivery on Rs 300 and above only.
When your trusted neighbourhood restaurant slaps you with a minimum delivery slab, all hell can break lose. Cribbing, begging, pleading and sweet talking wouldn’t melt the hearts of the restaurant bhaiyyas. So what does one do? Resort to Apps, of course. Ask pub crawlers what feeds them when instant noodles were being de-shelved and pat comes the reply: “Intelligent search on post-midnight delivery options ensure you don’t go to bed hungry. The choices may be limited, but the ones who deliver are worth a try. Delivery apps come to my rescue, so my homescreen has more food delivery apps then anything else,” says Sumana Ghosh, a copy writer with an ad agency. If the rate at which food delivery boys swish across the city to meet hunger pangs is anything to go by, food apps seem to be catching up real fast. The latest app to satiate hunger pangs is Faasos which not only delivers food but has its own kitchens and plans to spread to various locations across the twin cities. The outcome of former McKinsey employees Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee’s long-standing annoyance towards “Fanatic Activism Against Substandard Occidental Shit,” Faasos that operate in 14 cities also delivers piping hot tea in special packaging. “We aim to serve people whose fast-paced lives do not let them have four meals a day. We want to solve the everyday meal problems of our customers. Currently, many individuals depend on maids, dabbawalas or daily canteens that offer less variety and are inconsistent. Faasos offers standardized tastes, large variety and consistency, at a nominal costm” say Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee. Faasos isn’t the only one feeding hungry mouths who have a smart phone. Other app driven food deliveries doing brisk business are Swiggy. Hello Curry, Food Panda and Tiny Owl, to name a few. Driven by the business of commission, being the fastest and most accurate to deliver is every team’s goal. Though this comes with some delivery charges, this is quite negligible for hungry souls. Hello Curry which started off as a restaurant now works on the lines of Faasos; they have their own kitchens with a menu which offers combos and signature dishes.
“Our aim is to ‘Change the way India eats’ says Ankita Biyani, one of the founders of Swiggy, a Bengaluru-based food delivery provider, started by her with Harsha and Rahul. Swiggy is inspired by the idea of providing a complete restaurant-food delivery solution to customers, with the entire process well thought out, from start to end. “The aim was to get the choicest of food from the best restaurants in a neighbourhood delivered to customers at their doorsteps, or wherever they chose,” explains Ankita. And indeed it is. These non messy apps do make it possible to get food from eateries of your choice, but But remember food from the neighbourhood eateries only. So, talking of deliveries and needs, is the city really ordering food online in large numbers? Who are food app-friendly people? “Our target group mainly comprises individuals who are extremely mobile and have been living out of homes for variety of reasons such as education, career opportunity etc. This set of customers is also very tech savvy and spend a lot of time on their mobile phones. Thus the bracket that we serve is between 20- 35 years of age, says Jaydeep. Owing to the wide selection of eateries customers can order from, Swiggy caters to mostly “between 18 to 35 years. Our customers love that there's finally a delivery service that works like it should; with no minimum order problems or delayed deliveries. They also tell us that they love that the ordering process is breezy and are able to use our visual guides to discover new restaurants and items,” says Ankita. Then there are healthy eating delivery option too. Try Green Box which has calories counted lunches and dinners, packed and delivered on prior order. Founder Gaurav says, “The young crowd who hardly finds time or the inkling to cook, find it easy to call and order. Our concept is like the bento box, but with healthy options only.”
