Surge in online orders bogs down delivery of goods in Patna

PATNA: Residents of the state capital have been facing inconvenience as most online grocery retailers are not fully functional owing to the 21-day nationwide lockdown. Many regular customers who placed orders online claimed that online stores are not able to make the deliveries as per their requirement.
Danapur resident Seema Agarwal is upset that most online grocery delivery services are either claiming to be out of stock or taking several days to make the deliveries.“My order was cancelled after three days and that too without any prior notice. I had to perform ‘Ashtami Puja’ on Wednesday and I was totally relying on the online service as the grocery shops near my house did not have all the items,” Seema said.
Online grocery delivery retailers, on the other hand, claimed that they have been forced to delay or cancel orders over the past few days due to several reasons, including scarcity of operational staff, shortage of supply and surge in demand of products.
Shubham, an executive at an online delivery store, said, “There has been an unprecedented surge in online orders after the lockdown. Minutes after we started taking orders, the slots got full because of which many people were not able to place their orders. We are receiving hundreds of complaints via phone calls and emails but we are trying our best to fulfill the demands of every resident.”
Online stores had to suspend deliveries in the city for a week after the lockdown. Before restarting the deliveries, they had to arrange for delivery agents, get sanction from the district administration and complete other formalities.
“The warehouse had to be sanitized and all operational staff given proper masks, gloves and were told to follow the guidelines as precautionary measures to combat the spread of Covid-19,” Shubham said.
Meanwhile, online food delivery services in the city are struggling to get food orders from residents as the number of orders have gone down by more than 80%. “The demand for online food was high during the first three-four days of gthe lockdown, but now it has gone down by 80%. These days we are hardly receiving five orders compared to around 40 orders a day earlier,” said Suresh Agarwal, marketing executive of an online food delivery site.
Customers are reportedly staying away from ordering food online from restaurants as they are not sure about the safety and how the food is being handled. “We are not in the position to take risk as the virus is too dangerous. I would rather eat plain home-cooked food than have fancy restaurant food,” said Akshat Raj, a resident of Kadamkuan.
The district administration has put out phone numbers for home delivery services across the city to avoid mass gatherings at wholesale shops. Vishal Kumar, the manager of one of the supermarkets that has been given sanction for delivering essential commodities to residents, said, “The day after the district administration launched home delivery option for residents, we got flooded with calls. The situation was the same at our other branches too.”
He added, “In the beginning, people mostly placed orders for rice, wheat flour and cooking oil, however, now they have started ordering noodles, packaged food and other things too.”