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In Lucknow, home delivery a tall order
The city’s grocery stores and supermarkets remained flooded with online and phone-call orders on Thursday when the district administration made home delivery arrangements
The city’s grocery stores and supermarkets remained flooded with online and phone-call orders on Thursday when the district administration made home delivery arrangements to maintain supply of essential items to people during the 21-day-long lockdown over the coronavirus outbreak.
Though the stop-gap arrangements, to curtail the mad-rush for essential goods, brought the much needed relief to the people, but placing, and catering to, orders was no less than a struggle for both – the people and grocery stores/supermarkets staffers.
Orders for goods began from Thursday morning itself. Some people, who managed to place orders, said it took about 50 minutes to get the call through, while some who couldn’t place an order, said the numbers either remained not-reachable or busy most of the time.
STREAMLINING NEEDED
“Things are yet to be streamlined. After trying continuously for around 50 minutes I managed to place an order,” said Raju Pal, a resident of Gomti Nagar.
Some other people who managed to place an order said the stores are only accepting orders of essential goods and are not entertaining orders for other household goods.
A majority of people said “placing an order is no less than calling for ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati,’ which rarely connects due to heavy rush.
“I tried several stores in my locality, the numbers of which were shared by the district administration, a day before but couldn’t get through. I understand that the flow of orders must be high, but before assuring people, the administration should have made proper arrangements to meet out the increased demand,” said Manav Shukla, a resident of Indira Nagar.
He said, “I was trying continuously since morning to get some household stuff. But despite trying for almost an hour, my phone didn’t get connected.”
The situation was no different for people in other areas, who also blamed the grocery stores and supermarkets for not taking up the calls.
LITTLE STAFF, BIG DEMAND
Not only for the people, but things were equally tough for the grocery stores and supermarkets as they are struggling with skeleton staff and have to deal with swollen demand. “We don’t have the staff to cater to the increase demand of the people. Against the total strength of 175, only 12 employees managed to reach the mall on Thursday. Though we are trying hard but the demand is so high that it’s almost impossible to meet it fully with so little employees,” said an employee with Spencer’s at Fun Mall.
An official said taking order over phone is also a time taking process. “Half of our staff is taking orders while rest take care of home deliveries. And perhaps this is the reason why most of the times the phone remains busy,” the official added.
The official said since the store was closed for the past three days, most of the employees have left for their respective homes in neighbouring districts and now it is becoming difficult for them to make come back. “We are in talks with the administration, asking them to permit them to come back in order to cater to more home deliveries,” he added.
Some grocery store owners and supermarkets also said the administration never thought of reviving the whole chain. “Though, presently we have enough stock of essential food to cater to the need, but we are running short of perishable goods like veggies, eggs, milk etc that we get from the local farmers. The administration should revive the entire supply chain to ensure regular supply of food,” an official with a supermarket said.
Bilal Arshad, owner of Online Kaka Nature, the e-commerce site that deals in the supply of raw materials from the city’s prime markets and farmers to the customers, said, “Though we have got permission to maintain the supply chain, but in this chain there are other people also. None of the farmers, associated with us, are ready to supply us the food material as they fear coming out of their houses. In that case, it’s becoming tough to meet the orders. Presently, we have a two-day wait as we are flooded with orders,” said Arshad.
On Wednesday, district administration announced that grocery stores and supermarkets, including Big Bazaar, Spencers, Family Bazaar and others, would remain open and ensure home delivery of essential food items.
The announcement was made by Abhishek Prakash, district magistrate, to curtail the mad rush for food items, which began on Tuesday/Wednesday midnight, soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day pan-India lockdown.
The administration had also given permission to more than 40 provisional stores that are capable of catering to home deliveries in different areas. However, the arrangements failed to check people from thronging to nearby general merchant shops during the morning hours of Thursday.
The district administration, however, assured that the entire supply chain was likely to get smoother in days to come. “We are in talks with the supermarkets and grocery stores to smoothen up the entire home delivery system, which started from Thursday onwards in order to meet the exigencies,” said Prakash, who added that around 8,000 home delivery staffers had been pressed into service to cater to the needs of the people during the lockdown.
