Delivery apps report curfew impact on orders an end-of-year downer

The night curfew imposed by the Maharashtra government has slowed down the business for delivery platforms, and restaurants thereof, according to Ganesh Shetty,

The night curfew imposed by the Maharashtra government has slowed down the business for delivery platforms, and restaurants thereof, according to Ganesh Shetty, president of Pune Restaurants and Hoteliers Association.

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“The curfew has been a loss to us. We had just picked up business, because in October we were permitted to reopen our restaurants with 50 per cent occupancy. But in reality, it isn’t 50 per cent it is just 35 per cent because, on a table of four or six, we have to accommodate only two, then we can’t make anyone sit near them and we lose that business. We had finally started breaking even after seven months and the government imposed the curfew.” said Ganesh Shetty, president of Pune restaurants and hoteliers association (PRAHA) and the owner of Kalinga restaurant.

The restaurants are struggling even with deliveries increasing marginally. As it seems, there are some limitations on deliveries by restaurants and other delivery apps too.

“The number of deliveries has increased compared to the lockdown and especially in the last week of the curfew. It is slowly coming back to normal,” said Ismail Ansaari who works as a Zomato delivery executive.

“Because of the curfew, not many people have organised big parties as they used to and many are cooking their own food for the small gatherings they have. So, we don’t get much there either,” added Shetty.

“We don’t have a lot of big deliveries coming in. The restaurants are open but not a lot of people are placing orders the way they used to. Last year, I delivered orders for many parties and it used to be all big orders at this time of the year, but now not many,” said Paresh Kale, a 30-year-old a Swiggy delivery agent.

“A lot of our deliveries have been cut short. As there are restrictions on Zomato and Swiggy deliveries and even we cannot send our boys out due to the curfew. We used to get a lot of orders late at night, but now we don’t,” said Aman Aurora, owner of Lovely restaurant.