Zomato's CEO, Deepinder Goyal, was intrigued by a social media user's feedback regarding the new 'Food Rescue' feature, prompting Goyal to extend a job offer to the individual. The user's insights included recommendations such as disallowing cancellations for orders near the delivery location and limiting the number of cancellations per month. Goyal expressed interest in collaborating further, leading to a flood of additional suggestions from users.
The user who garnered Goyal's attention is a product manager at a startup in Bengaluru and a frequent user of BlinkIt. This individual expressed a desire to enhance service delivery and reduce negative impacts, aligning with the ethos behind Zomato's Food Rescue feature. Following Goyal's invitation to connect, the floodgate of feedback included ideas like scheduling orders, introducing penalties for frequent cancellations, and proposing the concept of a 'wall of kindness' or a 'food bank'.
Zomato's Food Rescue feature aims to minimize food wastage by offering cancelled orders at a discounted rate to nearby customers within a 3 km radius of the delivery partner. This limited-time offer ensures food freshness and provides an opportunity for orders to be utilized rather than discarded. Despite existing policies like a no-refund rule, Zomato witnesses over 4 lakh cancellations of 'perfectly good orders' monthly, prompting initiatives like the Food Rescue feature to mitigate wastage.