By Heather Cecilia Phanwar
With every person owning a smartphone nowadays, life has become easier. Be it books, music, clothes etc, all are available on Play Store.
Apps have been part of our daily lives where we use them for various needs. With food apps like Swiggy, Food Panda and Zomato making waves nationally, Shillong is not lagging behind.
Local entrepreneurs have sought to capitalise on the online market by coming up with food apps like Netfoodish, Meal Dial and Meals Paradise to cater to the need of people in Shillong.
Netfoodish, a one-year-old start-up by Pynman Nongtdu, tries its level best to deliver fresh and warm food within 49 minutes after an order is placed. It came into existence with Nongtdu’s own funding that he saved from his pocket money while pursuing MBA at Lovely Professional University. There had also been support from family members.
“Currently, there are 15 to 20 eateries with us and we are adding more from day to day. We expect by the end of this year we will list all eateries in Shillong,” said Nongtdu.
Netfoodish, which runs from a temporary office in Nongthymmai, is doing well with its rating score from the app. People who order from the app are generally hostellers, office workers and tourists.
“We believe in teamwork and mostly patience in providing great service to our customers,” said Nongtdu.
Meal Dial, founded by Rohith Anur and Falina Sun, always had the thought of bringing online food delivery to Shillong. However, the actual work with technology, on boarding the team all began sometime in the mid-2016. The organisation went online on February 8, 2017, and is soon to celebrate their first anniversary.
The desire was to provide residents of Shillong a similar experience like other metropolitan cities. Customers can sit at the comfort of their home and order traditional Khasi food, global cuisines and Indian dishes, among other delicacies, from MealDial. And the food will be delivered to their doorstep.
The company has four delivery boys, operational hours being from Monday to Saturday, 10 am to 9 pm.
“The response so far has been good. We have been busy from day one catering to people from all walks of life,” said Anur.
However, like any other business or start-up company, there are difficulties.
“We face new challenges every day and we try to learn to make our service better,” said Sun.
MealDial’s technology team sits in Bangalore taking care of software aspects and keeping the website running all day. And its kitchen, logistics and production team operate from Mawlai.
MealDial is planning to expand its services to other northeastern cities, beginning with Aizawl, Mizoram. The company is currently in the process of roping in cafes and restaurants in Shillong integrating their menus into its website.
“People can order food from their favourite restaurant through our website. And we are still working on keeping no delivery charge even when they order form other eateries,” said Anur.
Customers have raved about MealDial and the taste and quality of food being served. The organisation had taken suggestions and feedbacks and implemented them.
MealDial takes great care in every order they receive right from cooking with fresh and organic ingredients to delivery. “There are random follow-up calls made to the customers by our officers to check on the quality of service,” said Anur.
Meals Paradise formed on December 1, 2017, by Yash Kumar, got the idea of food app from metro cities.
“We have seen that there is no facility like metro city food delivery service. Yes, Shillong is the right place for app-based business because here people are educated and there are many tourists,” explained Kumar.
Meals Paradise currently has two delivery boys. The company takes 1 hour to deliver each order covering places within 10 km radius from its office. “As per customer demand we are trying to add more variety for our customer. Customers are getting their favourite food at the doorstep at same price which they pay at the restaurant excluding packaging charges,” said Kumar.
Located on Don Bosco Road, Laitumkhrah, Meals Paradise also has plans to expand to other cities. It is also set to start night service next week.
These food apps make it easy for people to order food from their homes. With advancement in technology, our needs are catered well by these companies. Customers can enjoy the luxury of eating good food at home by ordering from these companies.
