Experiencing food and dining from restaurants and hotels had become a part of our lives; classified as a necessity, perhaps. Eating out and indulging in fancy dining experiences had become a rage and it acted as a surviving force against a mundane work life. Weekend celebrations or boredom called for an indulgence outdoors; out of our kitchens. Why am I addressing it as a thing of the past? The time I am writing this is in an infamous ‘Covid-era’, which mandates me to refer to fun activities as non-existent. The focus is on how alternative options have emerged for an experience that was thrilling: in the comfort of our homes.
Home delivery is the safest and best option for any day when you need food but not the dining experience. It’s proven to be our best companion during our ‘work from home’ lives and otherwise. If you feel tired and blue or happy and cool, all you have to do is to pick the phone and make the order. From your regular options, you choose what you like and wait for it to arrive. In this ‘covid’ time, a major chunk of restaurant businesses is through home deliveries, which means that the scope for customization and fresh ideas is through the same medium.
When apprehensions of virus spreading through food was predominant during the nascent stage of lockdown, people restrained from ordering in. They slowly shed this misconception but wished there was a mid-point for the setup; in came, ‘food kits.’ A food kit consisted of all the ingredients in the right proportions necessary for preparing a dish. It came with preparation instructions for cooking it at home. While this did not eliminate the process of cooking (kitchen break was not feasible), it gave a balance of hygiene satisfaction and restaurant quality; restaurant quality exclusively prepared from your kitchen. Sounded like a good deal, except that, this idea fizzed out eventually. People preferred outside food for the main reason of taking a break from their kitchens. Food kits that don’t involve tedious preparation techniques (Pizza kits) still exist, but the majority of such offerings have become redundant.
Plenty of restaurants pulled down their shutters during this time and whatever fought for survival, found demand through home deliveries. It became evident that even high-end restaurants that catered to only dine-in experiences, offered options to receive food from home. This included five-star restaurants that offered their signature dishes to be ordered from home. In order to compete with restaurants, they had to slash their prices to make it desirable. The slashed prices made us realize that almost 75% of the original cost of the dish was for the dining experience alone. So, hell yeah, order me some!
Restaurants and hotels are constantly adopting methods to reach their customers. Discounts and offers that were not predominant in the earlier stages of lockdown, due to business uncertainties, are being heavily promoted after. While all these allowed the food industry to thrive sparsely, there were few services that concentrated on fulfilling customer experience through specialized delivery of home food. Few of the food delivery apps offered special services on occasional days. One such service allowed customers to send their home-made dishes to friends and families that lived away. Though this service did not boost any restaurant sales, it allowed customer engagement that probably furthered the customer base for future orders.
It’s worthy to note how food delivery patterns and innovations are in a constant struggle to evolve based on the market. It had always been competitive and dynamic; it remains to be the same even now.
At the end of the day, all I need is great food. It can be either from my kitchen or from any clean one! So, “Dear restaurants, keep it going!”
