Who Is Paying For My Food?

Mini Idlis, Best They Can Get
Mini Idlis were a visual delight and delicious
Mini Idlis, Best They Can Get
Mini Idlis were a visual delight and delicious

Someone is surely paying for my food. Is it the rider who is delivering? Is it the restaurant that is serving? Is is the aggregator that is putting together menus for me to choose from and taking care of logistics? Is it the venture capitalist (VC) that is looking at a 20x exit and pumping in huge sums to influence my eating habits? Someone is paying.

It was time one did a case study to decode who is paying and how much. Over the last few weeks, a deep dive was done that culminated in a series of orders which were definitely a financial disaster in the short run for both Swiggy & the restaurant.

It was actually the above Idlis and the following photograph of Set Dosa from the order, which for both put together cost Rs 121, that got me wondering. Yes, 121 for both put together.

Ultimate in taste - Set Dosa
No way you can get better Set Dosa than this

Now the issue is who paid for this.

In my opinion, both the restaurant and the aggregator took the hit. The restaurant to make sure the boys were busy in the kitchen and the aggregator to make sure commitments to VCs were honored and 100% month over sale multiplier could be shown. The restaurant recovered the raw materIal and the packaging cost and may be some amount on account of packaging and skipped the labor and margin part. And for aggregator, aggregator paid the rider who delivered from their pocket.

I am not complaining, I did get to see this kind of race to client base when Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon decided to take it head on with each other. In that case also venture capitalists were bankrolling the expansion, just like they  seem to be doing in this case.

I am not sure about how the VC is going to get his 20X exit from this one, but I am sure one should not leave the money on the table.

So folks, order max till the fun lasts.