Ashneer Grover on Blinkit: 'Problem is not ₹15 for delivery'
Thousands of delivery executives of Blinkit staged a protest at Delhi-NCR following the new payment structure
PremiumBharatPe Co-founder Ashneer Grover has reflected on problems that have bitten delivery firms Blinkit/Zepto.
Thousands of delivery executives of instant delivery startup Blinkit staged a protest at Delhi-NCR following the new payment structure.
Yesterday, Zomato's grocery unit Blinkit became 'temporarily unavailable' as around 50 stores of the food delivery platform remained shut for two days as delivery executives demanded better wages.
Zomato has introduced some changes in the pay structure. As per the revised pay structure of Blinkit employees, its delivery executives would receive a minimum of ₹15 per delivery instead of ₹25 per delivery within 1 km.
And if their travel distance exceeds 1 km, they get an additional per km earning which ranges from ₹10 to ₹14.
Marred by protests, Shark Tank India season 1 judge Ashneer Grover stated that the reason for the protest was not ₹15 against ₹50 for delivery. He added that the problem lay in the "10 minutes delivery" system. Grover said, "Problem is 10Min delivery has no economics - low ticket size and low margin can never be solved through forced low delivery cost".
Zomato last year bought Blinkit for $550 million.
At that time too, Grover stated that Zomato could have acquired arch-rival Swiggy instead of Blinkit to avoid the mayhem in Dalal Street.
When Zomato bought Blinkit, the company's share price tanked over 11% and hit an all-time low of ₹43.05 at that time.
"On the stock market - letsblinkit served piping hot misery to Zomato in 10 minutes! Yeh hi agar Swiggy ko merge kar liya hota to ₹450 ka stock hota!" (Had Zomato merged with Swiggy, its stock price would have been ₹450) tweeted Grover.
Blinkit has around 400 stores in India, of which 50 were shut, mostly in and around New Delhi, on Friday. Videos on social media showed hundreds of Blinkit bike riders protesting and raising slogans against the introduction of a payment structure they say will reduce their per-order earnings.
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