Eating Out changes with Delivery Friendly models!!! - SQuare Consulting (INDIA) Case Study

The whole market dynamic changed in 2017-18 with the idea of ordering food from your home or office and a new market segment opened up with delivery aggregators like Zomato, Swiggy and Uber Eats come in handy for the newest generation of consumers that do not like going out to have food but rather stay in and order food.

The question that rises is that to what extent is delivering food going to be a thing? What is the practical implication of ordering a Garlic Naan and Paneer Tikka Masala to your place from a restaurant that will make the order and further deliver it through the delivery personnel of the said agencies. The concept of fresh food is fading away and quick meals that can be consumed after a good 45 - 60 minutes of preparation is the most practical for such platforms.

What consumers fail to understand is that after 15 - 20 minutes of preparation, any food loses its flavor profile and integrity in its original preparation but then it is extremely easy to blame the restaurant about the poor quality of food delivered and a 1 star review or rating can be easily forced on the merchant who sends the food after losing all the base margins on the product while providing with the additional service of delivering the food through the said aggregator who has brought the order and delivers the same for the entire operational margin of the person who makes the food without worrying about the consequences of the employment of the businesses and / or the fixed expenses that the business has to incur in order to maintain the business model.

Restaurant mortality rates (rate of restaurants shutting down operations) has constantly increased and the fickle minded philosophy of the over enthusiastic MBA's that are employed by the sales aggregator apps that food cost is less in the industry and the operational margins for the food businesses are plenty forget the fact that fixed expenses and lack of businesses during the non - peak hours as well as high rental payments to the landlords are also a chronic challenge for businesses.

It is time to understand the point of view of all the parties involved and time to understand the need for consumers to walk in to the restaurants to have good food and make sure that they sustain business in the long run else soon the market will lose the most important aspect of the food business, "Food".

The Food and beverage industry of India holds unprecedented potential and has multiple factors in favor of a good future, it employs a lot of semi skilled and unskilled labor that usually do not get a lot of opportunities elsewhere. This economic paradigm shift will help sustain jobs and bring happiness and progress of millions of families that are run by these tens of thousands employed in the Food and beverage industry.

The reason of me writing this is to showcase the problems faced by the ones who can not say a lot about the things that are happening and if as a consumer one is dissatisfied by the product / service of a particular restaurant, try talking to the people you meet at the restaurant once and not just put up a scathing review.

It is time we come together as a generation of young and convenience seeking individuals to value and cherish those who are trying to get good food on your plates and celebrate good quality and flavors of food rather than the deep discounts.