Leading restaurant aggregator and food delivery company Zomato recently announced an initiative, ‘Food Rescue’, to limit food wastage because of canceled orders. With this new feature, canceled orders will appear on the app for customers within 3 kilometers of the delivery partner carrying the order. To maintain the quality and freshness of the food, the option will remain open only for a short time.
Zomato boss tweets about Food Rescue
Co-founder Deepinder Goyal tweeted, “We don't encourage order cancellation at Zomato, because it leads to a tremendous amount of food wastage.”
“Inspite of stringent policies, and a no-refund policy for cancellations, more than 4 lakh perfectly good orders get canceled on Zomato, for various reasons by customers,” he added.
Goyal mentioned that over 400,000 orders are canceled monthly, even with the platform’s no-refund policy. He reasoned food wastage is a big concern in the restaurant industry. So, Zomato is trying to save the food from going to waste.
Nearby customers can grab canceled orders at an unbeatable price, in their original untampered packaging in just minutes.
“Zomato will not keep any proceeds (except the required government taxes),” Goyal mentioned. “The amount paid by the new customer will be shared with the original customer (if they made payment online), and with the restaurant partner.”
However, perishable items such as ice creams, shakes, smoothies, etc. will not be eligible for Food Rescue.
Restaurant partners will receive compensation for the original canceled order along with a portion of the amount paid by the new customer if the order is claimed. Most restaurants have opted in for this feature and can opt out of it easily whenever they want, directly from their control panels.
Meanwhile, delivery partners will be compensated fully for the entire trip, from the initial pickup to the final drop-off at the new customer’s location.
Food Rescue will show up on users’ home page automatically if there's a canceled order available for you to grab. Refresh the home page to check for any newly available orders that need to be rescued.
Also read: Deepinder Goyal Responds After ‘Future Dated’ Food Found at Warehouse (startuppedia.in)
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