Food Delivery - An Innovative Journey Towards Happy Tummies

Food is one of the primary centerpieces in a human being's life. It provides the power to survive, sustain and feel good throughout the day. Today the world has gone global with the variety of food that is available for everyone to consume. Some delicious chicken biryani can be found in a restaurant in the UK while sushi is a favorite of a majority of the population in Australia. Basically, food is the universal source of happiness and comfort, just like a warm hug. There may have been multiple times, where one may have had the urge to consume all things delicious in the comfort of his own house. So what does he do? He picks up his cellphone, taps on an app, adds his choice of food into the card and in the next hour or two, the food comes straight to him. It’s become so easy today to have things that were previously eaten occasionally, to end up at one’s doorsteps almost instantly. This process of delivering food began ages ago, and it set off a butterfly effect that continues to stir flavors into the palettes of food enthusiasts.

Glimpse into the Historic Moments

Imagine a time where the streets were filled with people, just out on a leisurely walk through the market. You stop by a local food seller offering maybe a kebab or just roasted dry fruits and nuts. You munch on them as you walk around and go home a happy person. That was one of the first origin stories of food delivery, a bit different compared to food coming to the person himself, yet serving the same purpose. This was the case with ancient Rome where open kitchens called thermopoliums used to be built to cater to those people who couldn’t find the opportunity to have a healthy and warm meal in their day. This is how the rough concept of takeout came through. Around the same era, a popular event occurred which changed the food industry immensely. King Umberto and Queen Margherita expressed their desire to have a pizza pie delivered to them made by Faraele Esposito from Pizzeria di Pietro e Basta Cosi. This now historical as the first ever pizza was home delivered, and the chef named the pizza after the Queen, Margherita.

It’s been centuries since this occurrence, and soon this concept was soon taken into consideration by an extremely popular group of people who changed the food delivery scene in India. A little closer home, Mumbai has been an epicenter for this idea for generations. The dabbawalas are a group of men clad in white, who carry thousands of lunch boxes to their respective owners. Their efforts have helped bridge the gap between fresh home cooked food and the other hard-working individuals busy at their table in the office. Here’s how it works. The dabbawalas go from one house to the other collecting lunch boxes made by the recipients’ family members or from other sources. These boxes upon collection are carefully loaded up on cycles, hand pulled carts, or event crates that they carry on their heads. Each one of them is assigned a location to which he needs to deliver the lunch boxes to right on time. They also travel or transport the boxes via the popular Mumbai local trains. They then reach the destination, deliver the boxes to the individual who receives a piping hot box of good food. There has never been a single mixup and their efficiency is unquestionable. So much so, that many universities overseas have adapted this topic as a part of their business studies.

Somewhere in the 1900s, a popular pizza place decided to take things to the next level and bring technology into the picture. Pizza Hut was one of the first places to create Pizzanet, a separate website where people could place their orders online and receive cheesy pizzas from the comfort of their couches.

Bringing Forth a Food Evolution with Internet and Technology

With the internet put into place and network surging at full power, humans had unlocked the ultimate level of happiness coupled with a hint of flavors. Also, information technology, coding and other such complicated processes have resulted in a plethora of applications that are easy and convenient to use. Some of the most popular ones abroad are GrubHub, Postmates, Uber Eats, and Doordash along with the personal apps every restaurant and cafes tend to have today.

The Indian market first experienced online food delivery via an app called Tiny Owl. Founded in 2014, the application quickly gained popularity and was found on the phone of every bored person or someone who stayed alone. Eventually, the market produced a few more popular pioneers -

• Food Panda
• Zomato
• Swiggy
• Uber Eats (who slowly made its way into the Indian market)

Ever since, various food businesses flourished as people were able to find something for themselves with just their phones.  But, in 2020, the widespread pandemic caused chaos within the market and resulted in a lot of people losing out on their businesses. As time went by, the fact that good food can be found without stepping out became a saving grace at a time of complete uncertainty where staying home was the only option people had and still do. This also led to many people finding employment as home cooks started registering on these apps as sellers of food, especially for those affected by COVID-19. The apps also added features where the delivery men and women started picking up groceries adding to the convenience.

Innovations and Revolutions

The food delivery sector has been undergoing constant innovations where people have been trying to use other technological inventions to get food across to people. Back in 2016, Dominos decided to break through and delivered two pizzas in under 15 minutes using a drone. The airborne device was able to avoid every trace of traffic, reducing the delivery time and the operational amounts borne by the company. Similarly, in the UK, with the use of AI and self-driven cars, droids were created to help with food delivery. These robots, invented by Starship Technologies had all the hi-tech features necessary such as GPS, Ethernet as well as cameras to keep a track of its whereabouts. As mentioned before, during the pandemic, many companies also experimented with using remote control cars to deliver food and other essential supplies to people.

Food deliveries have been a saving grace for many people in both times of uncertainty and comfort which has led to it being one of the most sought-after options for people.

About the Author(s)

   

Aishwarya Korgaonkar

Aishwarya Korgaonkar holds a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from the esteemed Mumbai University. Being creative and artistic, she leaped into the field of digital marketing and content writing. Her love for words makes her write creative, and her spellbinding content adds colors to the world.