Bengaluru has been in news for various reasons, its amazing weather and its extraordinary nightlife. But this time its something else! – something out of the box, an innovation for the millennium. Gone are the days when every other youngster and young adult in the city ordered food via Zomato and Swiggy. It seems like WhatsApp is the new boss in the game.
The joy of home-made food!
Think about it this way, working professional travel early in the morning, faces the painful Bengaluru traffic and then comes back home, after working all day. The desire and the energy to cook, both are very low but the want for good home food stays high.
In these cases, if one has the option to not pay the restaurants and cafes and wait for a long delivery time and get home cooked food from the neighborhood, why won’t one?
Whatsapp in in the game now!
There have been various WhatsApp groups that are part of the Bengaluru residential areas. They are hyperlocal and usually contain residents of one complex or of one area. The purpose of these groups is to link various home cooks who make small quantities of food, ready for consumption and look to earn some extra money in the process.
What is posted in these groups?
So, every cook posts details about the food being cooked, the number of portions available, the price and the delivery time range. Sometimes, food menus are also posted along with deadlines for order placement. People usually respond in less than 24 hours about their orders, either mentioning their flat numbers and names for delivery or offering to pick the good themselves by coming home from work.
Considering how the Bengaluru food market consists of around 32% of the overall online delivery market of India, it wasn’t surprising that order was rolling in almost instantly.
Why are these groups a faster success as compared to other food delivery apps?
1) Home cooked food: These deliveries usually don’t have any preservatives and are warm when delivered.
2) Low cost: Since there is usually no overhead transport costs or delivery charges. Moreover, taxes are also usually not charged.
3) Convenience of location and familiarity: It’s easy to pick up the order yourself or communicate directly with the cook.
4) Health and fitness: Since ordering continuously from restaurants increase weight due to high oil and sugar consumption, work professionals prefer having roti-sabzi cooked by homemakers.
5) Reliability: As you know you would get something similar to what you would eat at home, the flavor and smell would be right. Moreover, weather changes or any middlemen delivery problems won’t influence your dinner time.
6) Know the people: This not only allows new residents to get to know their neighbors and interact with them but also allows sellers, who are usually ladies or mom’s who spend the day alone at home to make some new friends.
Many Bengaluru groups like Sugarkiss and Snacks in Mahadevpura locality or Homely Khana in Sarjapur have been making the news due to these reasons.
Whatsapp to the rescue!
Imagine being a North Indian and struggling to find good parathas in Bengaluru? Well, not anymore, thanks to these groups. In fact, sometimes, as young adults, a working professional might be unwilling to cook those difficult traditional regional dishes that were cooked at home by our grandma’s. All you need to do is now post on WhatsApp and wait for a seller to reply.
Cravings for snacks or Delhi ki kachori for dinner, all are ending in the Silicon Valley of India. Swiggy and Zomato are worrying about their sales and are figuring out how to make things work. It’s difficult to keep up the memory of home in a place which is far away from home, and these WhatsApp groups are allowing just that to happen.
