The owner of Ambience Mall, Gurugram, took corrective action after Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal shared his experience of picking up food from restaurants at the mall, where he alleged that he was stopped from using the lift while picking up the order since it was not “meant for delivery agents”.

Mr Goyal, along with his wife Grecia Munoz took on the role of delivery partner to get a first-hand experience of their challenges, said he was told to take the stairs when he went to the Ambience Mall to collect an order. 

Read more: Zomato CEO Says He Was Stopped From Using Mall’s Lift While Collecting Order

In the latest update, Mr Goyal said, “Ambience Mall has already responded to the situation, and created a comfortable online food delivery pick-up point for all delivery partners. Thanks Arjun (owner of Ambience) for noticing my post and taking quick action.”

Ambience Mall has already responded to the situation, and created a comfortable online food delivery pick up point for all delivery partners. Thanks Arjun (owner of Ambience) for noticing my post and taking quick action. He’s also agreed to let us deploy some “walkers” inside the… https://t.co/3aWlZzMADd

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 7, 2024

Mr Goyal asked malls “to be more humane to delivery partners”. Mr Goyal said he took the stairs to the third floor to realise that delivery partners cannot enter the mall and have to wait at the stairs to receive orders.

Mr Goyal said the director of the mall “Also agreed to let us deploy some “walkers” inside the mall to quickly shuttle the food from the restaurant to these pickup points to hand over the food to delivery partners.”

Read more: “Went Out To Deliver…”: Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, Wife Turn Delivery Agents For A Day

“I urge all the other mall owners to please do the same, or come up with other innovative solutions which can help our collective customers, our delivery partners, restaurants, delivery aggregators, as well as malls themselves,” the Zomato CEO said. 

Reacting to his post, many users said that not just malls but various societies also don’t allow delivery partners to take the main lift.

“Every society, every mall and every office should make it mandatory for delivery partners to use normal regular lifts and entrances/exits. There shouldn’t be any divide,” a user said.

Deepinder Goyal, the co-founder and CEO of Zomato, swapped his executive chair for a delivery bike for a day. He stepped into the role of a delivery agent to gain a deeper insight into how Zomato operated. Goyal, in a Zomato uniform, was joined by his wife, Grecia Munoz, who recently changed her name to Gia Goyal.

Sharing this experience on Instagram, Mr Goyal wrote, “Went out to deliver orders a couple of days ago, teaming up with Grecia Munoz.” The accompanying photos depict various moments from their day out as delivery agents, including the couple riding together, looking at their mobile phones, presumably to find delivery locations, and interacting with customers along the way.

Here’s the post:

Mr Goyal also shared a short reel in which he was seen riding on the streets of Gurugram. “Loving delivering food to our customers, and enjoying the ride,” read the caption.

While the post featuring the photos garnered over 28,000 likes, the reel received nearly 12,000 likes. While many expressed admiration for Goyal and his wife’s hands-on approach, others offered criticism.

One user stated, “Down-to-earth.”

Another user light-heartedly suggested, “Bro deliver to Old Gurugram area too rather than Cyber city areas,” hinting that while areas like Cyber City may be bustling and high-profile, the Old Gurugram area also deserved attention.

“Peak founder mode!” read a comment.

Expressing scepticism about Goyal’s action, one user wrote, “Not sure about this. But you definitely love the whooping platform fee you charge from your loving customers. Nice PR stunt.”

Another user, too, criticised the initiative as a “PR stunt,” suggesting that if Goyal truly wanted to understand the challenges faced by delivery executives, he would spend an entire month doing their job. The user wrote, “Just a PR stunt, try doing it for the entire month; you will understand the pain of dust and traffic your delivery executives face.”

Deepinder Goyal co-founded Zomato in 2008, and over the years the company has become a major player in the food delivery industry. Zomato’s IPO in 2021 generated a lot of interest, being oversubscribed 35 times, and it debuted with a valuation of $12 billion.

According to Forbes, as of October 5, 2024, Goyal’s net worth stands at $1.7 billion.

Zomato’s top team was on a Zoom call for over 20 hours to find a way out of the massive row over its announcement of a ‘pure veg’ food delivery service, CEO Deepinder Goyal told NDTV today. Mr Goyal today received the Entrepreneur Of The Year award from Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and NDTV Executive Director Senthil Chengalvarayan at the NDTV Indian Of The Year awards.

Asked what would be his message to a young India that wants to be as successful as him, he said, “I come from a very small town in Punjab. The only message is no matter where you are born, no matter what background you come from, you can actually make it.”

Mr Goyal was then asked questions about the massive row over Zomato’s announcement of a ‘pure veg’ fleet earlier this week. Under this service, Zomato will rope in restaurants serving only vegetarian food and delivery partners in this service won’t handle non-vegetarian food packets. Initially, Zomato had also announced a green uniform for its ‘pure veg’ delivery partners.

The announcement triggered an outcry on social media. While some equated to a form of modern-day casteism, others pointed to practical problems. Some users pointed out how a different colour scheme for vegetarian food orders may create trouble for those ordering non-vegetarian items. They said tenants may then be questioned by landlords about their food habits and residential complexes dominated by vegetarians may bar red-uniformed Zomato partners altogether on certain days.

Mr Goyal and his team responded swiftly and scrapped the separate uniform plan. He said Zomato will have a ‘pure veg’ fleet and it will show on the app that it is delivering orders that opt for this service. But all delivery partners will continue to wear the red uniform.

The Zomato CEO thanked the social media for the feedback. “You made us understand the unintended consequences of this rollout. All the love, and all the brickbats were all so useful – and helped us get to this optimal point. We are always listening, without unnecessary ego, or pride.,” he posted on X.

Speaking to NDTV, Mr Goyal shared what prompted them to introduce the ‘pure veg’ fleet. “We did a large survey saying ‘what will make you order from Zomato more’. And this came up,” he said.

“The way we grew up, we don’t know the meanings of these words, what is the historical context and none of our team (members) know this. We are indifferent to this. I think that’s the purest form of letting go of any casteism, any religion, any biases. We went on and did the change. But when we got the feedback, we actually understood. And we were on a Zoom call for the next 20 hours, just trying to fix anything that we needed to fix,” he added, describing what went behind the scenes as Zomato trended on the social media.

In his social media posts, Mr Goyal had earlier stressed that the ‘pure veg’ service strictly serves a dietary preference, irrespective of a person’s religion or caste.

“Please note that this Pure Veg Mode, or the Pure Veg Fleet doesn’t serve or alienate any religious, or political preference,” he had said.

In a lighter vein, NDTV also asked Mr Goyal if he had ever ordered food through Swiggy, Zomato’s top competitor in the food delivery aggregator space. “Never,” he replied with a smile.