In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. This had resulted in a panic with people rushing out to buy daily essentials. He later clarified that shops that provide daily needs will remain open. However, on Day 1 of the lockdown, many online delivery stores said that they will not be able to deliver since they are not getting the requisite clearance.
However, later on the same day, supermarket chain Biz Bazaar announced that it is offering doorstep delivery services in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Gurugram. This was followed by the Ministry of Home Affairs stating that online delivery of essentials goods should not be stopped.
This was followed by an announcement by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday announced that essential services including medical stories and grocery shops will remain open for 24 hours. This decision was taken in a meeting held on March 26. Along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, State Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi and other senior officials were also present in the meeting.
After this Walmart Inc's Flipkart has also announced resuming its grocery and essential services after the local law enforcement authorities assured of safe passage of supply chain and delivery executives.
Once Big Bazaar made the announcement, they were flooded with calls. Following which, the company issued a statement on Wednesday,
“In light of the recent announcement, we are receiving unprecedented numbers of request for doorstep delivery. There could be delay due to the restrictions on movements”.
Owned by Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Ltd (FRL), part of the Future Group, Big Bazaar has also started doorstep delivery services in like Ranchi, Uttarakhand, Noida, Ghaziabad, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Punjab, Haryana, Faridabad, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
As per the government notification regarding the official 21-day lockdown period, shops including ration shops (under PDS), dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder can remain open.
Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said, "We have been assured of the safe and smooth passage of our supply chain and delivery executives by local law enforcement authorities and are resuming our grocery and essentials services later today (Wednesday)."
With Flipkart back in the business, Amazon said that it was in talks with government authorities to enable it to deliver essentials to its customers. Both the e-commerce giants, Flipkart and its counterpart Amazon India's Pantry services were temporarily suspended on Wednesday after the lockdown announcement.
Amazon India has stopped taking orders on non-essential items to prioritise delivery of essential goods.