Restaurants launch #Logout campaign, food delivery not affected yet

Restaurants in CyberHub, Sohna Road, Sector 29 and Golf Course Road pasted posters on their premises in a show of support to the campaign. “We have no option but to #LOGOUT as a mark of protest,” the poster read.

The National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) on Thursday said that 300 restaurants in Gurugram logged out from the mobile applications of food aggregators to cut the losses incurred, allegedly due to discounts and privileges offered by these online platforms.

The National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) on Thursday said that 300 restaurants in the city logged out from the mobile applications of food aggregators to cut the losses incurred, allegedly due to discounts and privileges offered by these online platforms. (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Restaurants in CyberHub, Sohna Road, Sector 29 and Golf Course Road pasted posters on their premises in a show of support to the campaign. “We have no option but to #LOGOUT as a mark of protest,” the poster read.

The association, however, said that the delivery of food through these apps has remained unaffected.

Lalit Ahalawat, NRAI member, said the impact was visible only in dine-in offers, which ensure unlimited food and drinks and other discounts to the members of privilege programmes launched by an aggregator.

“The restaurants did not entertain any customer who was connected to the food aggregators. The deliveries were not affected though. But by the next week, the restaurants will also opt-out of the applications delivering food from these outlets,” he said.

NRAI president Rahul Singh said that discount and freebies create a negative consumer perception. “The restaurateurs have, therefore, come together to detox consumers from discount addiction. It will have some withdrawal symptoms for a short term, but one has to look to a healthier lifetime cycle,” he said.

Food aggregators, however, said they are in touch with the restaurants and the movement started on Thursday might be short-lived. “We do not see any impact to our Gold subscribers due to the #Logout campaign. Most restaurants owners in these cities are in touch with us and are not planning to join this campaign. We are told that #Logout is being instigated by a few restaurant owners and is not the voice of the restaurant industry at large. For the industry, Gold has been a key business driver for the last 18 months and they don’t want to be driven by interests of a few restaurant owners,” a spokesperson from Zomato said.