The new food ecosystem of the Indian metro
With his right hand placed under the pillow and the other stretched out like a pointer, God knows which direction, Rohan lay on his bed or should I say sprawled. What else would he rather be doing, it was late on a Saturday morning in Mumbai, can’t blame the roosters too, they aren’t around! Squinting at the intermittent light flashing on his face from the flapping window screen, he gets slightly disgruntled. Without bothering to open his eyes, he begins to pat the mattress, probably looking for something; and what else could it be? The morning ritual, the necessary glance at the smart phone screen. Through the barely open chinks he, almost mechanically, skates his fingers across the screen and tada! – A smorgasbord of food items lie under his finger tip, ready to be served. It hardly takes him a minute, of course barring the serious decision making time behind the food selection, and within seconds the screen portrays a popup – Aalu parantha and chanch, your order has been received. ETA 30 minutes! The regal life of Rohan. Classic!
Well this is something that most of the denizens of Mumbai, Bangalore etc. can relate to. Gone are those dreadful days when missing the ‘time slot’ of a meal meant hunting for any open outlets around the neighbourhood, or rushing to that saviour friend’s flat to gobble anything that is vaguely food. It’s a passé that waking up late or odd-hour hunger pangs or not wanting to cook for that matter can disrupt the tone of the day anymore. We no more are obliged to haul ourselves through the traffic, under the sweltering heat to finally have a good quality meal. Even the way we celebrate a casual friends -reunion or a surprise party has drastically changed, let’s order food online Mumbai yaar is in the buzz. Thanks to the online food ordering platforms, we now live in a world where the wells come running at the call of the thirsty.
The lifestyle changes brought in by lucrative IT or consulting jobs, burgeoning numbers of dual income families and the growing component of women in the corporate pie, to name a few have provided the necessary impetus for the online food ecosystem in the metros. And this is just the beginning, according to a report by a leading financial firm, the total food delivery and takeaway market in India has been pegged at $ 12.8 Billion as of 2014, out of which the online food delivery market is levelled at $ 95 million, a market penetration of just 0.7%. This reflects the huge potential and the share of the market that is yet to be tapped. This clearly hints at the fact that this is going to stay.
Time crunch has revolutionised the way the urban masses eat. The possibility of ordering on-the-go-food services at a finger’s touch from a myriad of gustatory delights and the convenience of devouring them at the comfort of one’s home is the ultimate respite that the Mumbaikars and the likes of other metros can enjoy, the consumer gets to be the king.
