A day after food delivery app Zomato launched its 'Pure Veg Mode' service, it faced considerable backlash on social media from a section of consumers.
The backlash on the newly introduced green dress code for vegetarian food delivery persons, led Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal to say that company will "roll it back in a heartbeat" in case there is a negative social repercussions.
Goyal and the company decided to take the green-dress-code back, and the former said in his X handle said that there will be no on-ground segregation of 'Pure Veg Mode' fleet, and both regular as well as the vegetarian fleet will wear the colour red.
"We understand our social responsibility due to this change, and we will not back down from solving it when the need arises," he said in the tweet.
I have received an overwhelmingly positive response on this launch from so many people. A lot of comments from young people who eat non-veg food saying “now my parents can also use zomato”.
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 19, 2024
I would like to repeat that this feature strictly serves a dietary preference. And I know…
"Please note that this Pure Veg Mode, or the Pure Veg Fleet doesn't serve or alienate any religious, or political preference,"
"But why did we need to separate the fleets? Because despite everyone's best efforts, sometimes the food spills into the delivery boxes. In those cases, the smell of the previous order travels to the next order, and may lead to the next order smelling of the previous order. For this reason, we had to separate the fleet for veg orders," the Zomato CEO said.
He emphasised that the new service strictly serves a dietary preference irrespective of a person's religion or caste and delivery partners' participation in the new fleet will not be decided on their dietary preferences.
"I would like to repeat that this feature strictly serves a dietary preference. And I know there are a lot of customers who would never order food from a restaurant which serves meat, irrespective of their religion/caste," Goyal said.
Soon, there was a barrage of criticism on social media. Many accused the company of being casteist and raised concerns about delivery persons being discriminated against.
Check out the tweets:
What really shocks me is these plans get rolled out without much thought or consideration. One post on Twitter and everyone can tell you that it's a bad marketing strategy. Allowing people to even choose a veg fleet to deliver in itself is a move that focuses on segregation.…
— Sakshi Narula (@mssakshinarula) March 20, 2024
Our Q to @deepigoyal on Zomato's "Pure Veg Fleet" announcement: Will Zomato now also filter out delivery workers who r vegetarian only to service this fleet? Will @zomato in the future also take customer feedback about who can deliver their food and who cannot? Read PRESS NOTE 👇 https://t.co/JZFkFi2ChO pic.twitter.com/QPwRo84sHY
— Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (@TGPWU) March 19, 2024
Removing the green uniform doesn’t take away the casteist connotation of the words “pure-veg”. It’s a corporate endorsed segregation. https://t.co/yBc2g8vAz9
— ⌜kalim⌟ (@akhmxt1) March 20, 2024
Well @deepigoyal - why was the "Food has no religion, Food is a religion" tweet been deleted by @zomato ?
— Arnav Gupta (@championswimmer) March 19, 2024
It was one of the most impressive tweets ever made that handle. I know many (including myself) in the Zomato team that day feel extremely proud of the stance we had taken
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks