Grofers is a Gurgaon-based online grocery delivery service company that was founded in 2013. Recently, the grocery delivery startup faced backlash online for being able to make deliveries within 10 minutes. Albinder Dhindsa, the founder of Grofers, released a statement on Twitter in this matter. In his statement, Albinder Dhindsa said, “Hello India - I want to chime in about the hate we are getting for delivering groceries in 10 minutes.” Addressing the criticism that alleged Grofers was pushing its employees to drive fast and break traffic rules to meet delivery deadlines, Dhindsa's statement read, “Some people think that we are pushing our riders to drive fast and break traffic rules to deliver groceries in 10 minutes, that we are an inhuman valuation seeking corporation which puts lives at risk to deliver groceries in 10 minutes.”
“Our partner stores are located within 2 kilometres of our customers. We have 60+ stores in Delhi, and 30+ stores in Gurgaon already. Our stores are so densely located that we can deliver 90% of the orders within 15 minutes even if our riders drove under 10kmph. Our in-store planning and tech are now so good that we pack most orders in under 2.5 minutes. Our riders are not (dis)incentivised to deliver orders fast. They do it at their own pace and rhythm. We've had zero reported rider accidents in the last two months since we launched 10-minute grocery delivery,” the statement further read.
Despite the clarification, several netizens seem not to be convinced. One user said, “Don't think it's true. Most of the time your riders call and say they are on their way and marking the order as delivered, else Grofers will impose a penalty if they don't deliver it under 15 minutes. They arrive in such a hurry and drive rashly.”
Another comment read, “Also, this 2.5min packaging is a bad idea. Your guys pack all the waste and rotten items and just try to deliver without even checking it once. Instead of time, you guys should focus on quality.”
Another questioned the need for a 10-minute delivery.
Responding to the statement that stated people were against innovating, one user tweeted, “1. No one is against innovation. If they were, so many startups wouldn't have made it big in India 2. The math doesn't add up at 10kmph and delivers in 15 min for 2 km. 3. No ones pulling you down sir, as evident from your success. 4. People are genuinely worried.”
Then, there was this user who praised the online delivery service platform's business model and expressed his concerns.
This person's concerns were addressed by Albinder Dhindsa himself.
This clarification comes after a user had tweeted that his Grofers delivery took 13 minutes. To which the company founder subsequently responded in a tweet saying, “That's 3 minutes too long. We will work harder in the future.” This response by Dhindsa led to outrage and criticism and has since been taken down from his Twitter account.