For the folks who complain about charges by Swiggy/Zomato etc
Now imagine, we did not have Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, Zepto, Dunzo (its pretty much there) What would your next bet be? Well 1. You have some of your local grocery stores who would deliver for you, but it might take a bit of time 1-2 hrs etc. and you need to build a relation, and only some stores do that 2. Restaurants need to have delivery available who if anyone remembers, it was a pain to coordinate, sometimes they dont do beyond 3 kms. You will have to go on your own. Which will also cost you money. Restaurant deliveries usually have a delivery fee, plus the cost of food. There is still a lot of coordination involved to get what you want. Brochures, phone number etc. 3. Having a full time person who will do all of these for you, Building tends to have someone who also delivers ( like a chotu or someone ) So lets take the cost of 3 for now if you needed full time 1. Monthly cost - ~ Rs. 10,000 - 15,000 if you needed full time 2. What are you spending on swiggy etc? 1. No of times you are ordering: lets say twice a day 1. 2 * 30 * 20 = Rs. 1200 2. Lets say total amount you are paying is 10000 in amount 3. Some folks might even argue that you restaurenters are charging 30% extra. ( lets say 30% on 10,000 ). 4. So lets factor in 3000 Rs more, so we have total sum, 4200 now. 5. Time saved = 20 * 15 minutes = 5 hrs a month So we saw three choices You can do things on your own 5 hrs of your own time ( which does not cover your cost to move around, so if anyone does not have a vehicle, they have to either walk more, or pay for auto etc ) Spending on convenience Rs. 4200 Spending if you had a chotu - Rs.10,000. This is debatable, you can argue, this person can also will end up cleaning and doing 3-4 other things. Some will also say restaurants mark to and sell. My request to you is, even with all the markup how much extra are you paying. And then compare to your alternatives before them. If someone has a better math or see any flaws in this. share input
How to tell you work in a fast commerce company without telling me you work in a fast commerce company. But it's just that India has always been a cost centric country or a convenience/time centric country. This tech company started with heavy discounts because of big backings, now their money has dried up so it is going back to showing profit. Though this is common in silicon valley companies to take losses to take market share, India is a different ball game.
thehollowman
Stealth
10 months ago
I don't work in this field. I wrote this out in 10 minutes. Not sure why you assumed that.
I'm not sure what you're trying to explain here.
Even before such a company existed people were either paying it out of their pockets or with time.
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Move to a village and all these will seem bs.
We are consuming chemicals after subscription.
We are shortening our life and buying disease.
What's the benifit of the money which will be spent on diabetes, asthama or other major illness?
thehollowman
Stealth
10 months ago
Let's all go back to farming? And not do anything
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The neighbourhood grocery stores are always at walkable distance which doesn’t necessarily involve transportation cost . Also there used to be credit which shopkeeper used to pass to their loyalists. The change that Q commerce has brought in is a behavioural change where instead of shopping planned grocery for month we are doing adhoc buying which is sometimes resulting into buying more then what is required. Since grocery is MRP regulated category one can say with all promotions that brands offer the customer is saving as of now
Similarly for food delivery it’s again behavioural change wherein food is not prepared at similar intervals inside the kitchen as it used to. The consumer used to budget in for eating out expense at starting of the month which currently again has become adhoc . Also discount over here is necessarily not saving as all prices on platform are inflated.
Both Q commerce and food delivery are about behavioural change and having larger pie out of consumers pocket . Eventually we will become habitual to these platforms similar to cab services and the freebies / discount offered by these platforms would further away
Either ways Mondelez and gang still making bank by selling hoards of sugar filled snacks be it offline or Q commerce.
The OGs have mastered the art of ensuring psyche change which benefits the company, blinkit/zepto are just noobs in that regard.
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People will keep complaining, it's their pass time gossip.
A Lot of folks don't use irct or bms to book tickets, doesn't mean fees charged by them is illegal or these companies shouldn't exist.
it's not like they're forced to use new age services,
Uncles Aunties will happily pay 100₹ for a water bottle in vaishno devi but cry out 50₹ blinkit delivery fee.
If it were not for MRP your friendly neighborhood kirana store would screw you over 10 fold, as of 2023 there are villages not connected by road where shopkeepers sell 5₹ parleG for 10₹ because there's no other alternative.
While it's not strictly quick commerce, here's a simple example how 1 of the grocery delivery company allows us to save some money plus added convenience.
Before milkbasket came to service my area.
We had a neighborhood milkman which delivered 3 packet milk everyday he charged ₹2 over the mrp for this service.
So net = 30* 3 *33 = 2970
And in milkbasket they charge ₹180 monthly subscription.
They give ₹1 discount on milk packet subscription.
So net = 30* 3* 30 +180 = 2880
Plus this gives flexibility to add extra grocery items to be delivered next day without extra overhead.
It's the brain capacity of user to make calculations and use all the available services for personal best outcome, instead of getting sticker shock or crib about fees.
Royalflush
Stealth
10 months ago
Holy shit
What a beautiful post
Thanks for writing down this amazing detail!
customers complain, start-ups solve for it - isn't that how everything works? maths is irrelevant for the customers, expecting them to understand the "pain" is absurd. if existing companies don't solve for it, new ones will (either by burning more money or leveraging the ecosystem due to existing companies).
Things would go on without them. Most probably something better would pop up to fill the space. A lot of the seniors still dont use these apps and are living a very happy life.
sveltetsx
Stealth
10 months ago
By something better you mean another swiggy/Zomato with better discount? Or some other solution to quick commerce?
@sveltetsx he probably meant about the churn in companies offering these services,
Back in 2015 we had few food delivery apps, 1 was foodpanda and some other local alternatives, they all died down and swiggy/zomato took their place.
Mumbai had tinyowl for food delivery, later acquired by bigger ones.
This should be generally true for other cities also.
Even for consumer goods we had IndiaPlaza, yebhi.com, yepme, Overcart, ShopClues, etc many more not to forget ebay india also had packed new item sellers.
All these are defunct and replaced by Amazon/Flipkart/Meesho etc.
I remember ordering micro HDMI to HDMI cable sometime in 2014 the experience was nothing short of magical.
I think what you've essentially pointed out is that a consumer is not a rational thinker.
Swiggy/Zomato or other quick commerce have changed our lives forever in a positive way. And the price we are paying is modest by every means like you pointed out, yet people complain.
Extending on the rationality argument, if a consumer is rational s/he wouldn't want to eat in a restaurant every other day since it's a chore like you pointed out. Swiggy/Zomato has increased our consumption. We could've spent that money elsewhere if swiggy/Zomato doesn't exist.
thehollowman
Stealth
10 months ago
So we do have to eat twice thrice a day. Either at home, or outside. Earlier it was harder and if you don't have any feasibility at home you've to step out to do it.
I just stepped out for lunch right now I didn't easily 30 minutes to go, order, wait and eat and then come back.
Eating is one of those things that won't stop, people need to consume food for energy
DixonButts
Stealth
10 months ago
Classic case of conflating solving customers' problems with whether you can make a viable business from it or not.
Yes, these companies solve a need but sadly lack any moat that you expect to come with scale. Q-commerce lacks pricing power and can't negotiate lower prices from suppliers. Suppliers will never allow q-commerce platforms to become so big that they become dependent on them. Even in the US where there are only 2-3 retail giants suppliers still have some leverage. Amazon is the only platform that has managed to become so powerful that its suppliers (D2C brands largely) are dependent on them for business.
Food delivery does have benefits at scale as it's a tricky business since delivering fresh food requires a certain level of trust/standardization of operations from best restaurant partners and customers. Especially in a low-trust market like India. But again super low margin and now for some reason govt is launching/promoting ONDC to prevent them from becoming a monopoly.
thehollowman
Stealth
10 months ago
You should check out webvan.
We have cheap labor, if we pay enough it can be sustainable
DixonButts
Stealth
10 months ago
I'm not bearish on Q-commerce. In fact India has the most advanced logistics ecosystem in the country now. But it's just a reality in retail that you need to negotiate lower prices with suppliers. D-Mart does that very well. I am certain that Q-commerce has good payment terms with new-age brands.
Qwerty2398
Stealth
10 months ago
very nice writeup. But i dont agree with your logic.
1. You talk about "building relation" as if it is a year long process. We are not recruiting a spy. if you buy from the store two times, third time you ask him to deliver he will. Unless you are looking for blood transfusion, one can wait for 1-2hrs. If people value each and every minute of their time, we wouldn't be staying in the office pretending to work even when there is nothing to do.
2. for the second point and after - I think zomato is ripping people off. But if i was the Zomato promoter, i would simply say, "if you cant move your ass to get your own food, you deserve to be ripped"
thehollowman
Stealth
10 months ago
About 1, you don't have to be rude about it. When i say that, you've to know where to do kt from, I'm not someone who will go out of my way and speak about it. And even if you do it, it will take a few hours for them to deliver. And the back and forth is heavy. Plus limited to a few shops only.
thehollowman
Stealth
10 months ago
Can you tell me more about the ripping off part?
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hellloworld
Stealth
10 months ago
Kabhi itna soch vichar apne daily tasks ke liye kiya hai 😂
MuchosGracias
Stealth
10 months ago
I don’t get why people are so up in arms about Q-com grocery or food delivery. The people who complain the most are the same that end up ordering on these platforms anyway
Even houses with established kitchens and full time cooks order ice cream/food for special occasions, this is typical tier 1 behavior that is now being replicated in tier 2 and 3.
Also if people love walking to their grocery shops so much, tell me what kind of variants/range new brands they stock? Very limited because the average Kirana store owner is risk averse and stocks only what will surely sell. Ask for a discount, not happening unless you’re a regular customer.
Try walking to get grocery/food in the rain? No way. It’s so much better that somebody comes and hands things over in a convenient bag
People should realize we’re living in a golden period of convenience and we should be happy for a while until the free money runs out and everyone pivots to the tried and tested online retail model of stocking your pareto 20% movers with 0 discount and default tacked on delivery fee
So much goddamn complaining Jesus
Livemint
Stealth
10 months ago
Indians don't pay for convenience, they pay for status,
Time bahut hain humaare paas
In India people really care about the value a service/product offers for the money they spend. So today if the service they are getting for Rs 50 is the same they got for Rs 20 some time back, people will obviously outrage because most of them (not all) have limited spending capacity. Not sure why people always miss this point.
Indusplateau
Stealth
10 months ago
Feel like you lost your money in zomato stock. I feel you bro!!
