Food Delivery: Your food is on the way, sir!

Who doesn’t love to eat? And if it’s from your favourite restaurant, then there is no point to ask this question. But the problem arises when you have to live a super busy life with no time left to go to a restaurant. Or maybe you’re enjoying your lazy holiday with your family. Either way, it will be great to eat your favourite restaurant food without going through the hassle of running out of time or watching your kitchen get dirty. Here comes the greatest solution of humanity, open your phone and order some food online. How easy and cool is that? It seems like technology gives you the power to summon your food at your fingertips. But food delivery is an old concept that originated in ancient Rome. Believe it or not, the origins of food delivery date back to Ancient Rome! Romans were the first ones who established the concepts of food delivery that we recognize today. Archaeologists from different parts of the world found 80 Thermopolium clustered in old Pompeii. Thermopolium was the best way for Romans to enjoy their hot meal on the go which was made from huge clay pots that kept the food hot. That’s exactly how modern fast food is being delivered to you. Maybe Ancient Romans couldn’t order their ’ favourite foods online, but it was the beginning. 

Now tell me, what do you think the first recorded delivery was? If your answer is pizza, you are right. The first recorded food delivery is believed to have taken place in Naples, Italy, in 1889. King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy were in Naples when they wanted to try the food of the people: the delicious pizzas of the famous pizza maker Rafaele Esposito. The queen loved all these pizzas and especially adored one in particular; pizza alla mozzarella, with mozzarella cheese, tomato and fresh basil leaves. Esposito named this pizza after the queen herself, calling it Pizza Margherita. 

At the end of the 19th century, British-ruled India saw a rise in the workforce in crowded metropolitan cities, which made the way easier for the development of a meal delivery system to solve the problems of these busy workers. Delivery men called Dabbawalas (literally translated as “one who carries a box”) would bring hot lunches from homes and restaurants to the workplaces of those who would require their services. In the 1950 s, when the TV was invented, people stopped going out to restaurants. Most families would prefer to eat their meals while watching their favourite television shows; this resulted in a drastic decrease in customers in restaurants. Seeing that these new inventions took their beloved patrons hostage, restaurant owners knew they had to take some action. That’s how the concept of fast food delivery service became extremely popular during the 1950s. 

Nowadays, we’re so familiar with the idea of an online food delivery service that we forget it wasn’t always like this. Could you guess what the first-ever online food order was? Pizza Hut launched PizzaNet in the 1990s. This was a historical moment because this was still the first website to order food on the internet back then. And the first-ever online food order was a large pepperoni pizza with mushrooms and extra cheese from PizzaNet. In 1995, World Wide Waiter started the first full-featured online food delivery service in the World. Now it is named Waiter.com, and it’s still running. 

Doordash, GrubHub, Uber Eats has occupied 80% of the worldwide Food Delivery Industry. To cope with the modern world, Bangladesh also joins the race of online food delivery services. Among them, FoodPanda, HungryNaki, Pathao Food, Shohoz Food, Sheba Food and Khaas Food are notable. Although the people of Bangladesh are not used to these types of services, several issues with netizen like internet speed, the trustworthiness of online business, etc. the bottleneck for the food delivery service sector, but it’s growing day by day. Even people who are not too familiar with the delivery mechanism still working in this sector. As a rising industry, it is very usual. 

Maybe after some years, People will dive deep and bring many more changes with their creative minds. That will reshape the food delivery industry. HungryNaki is the pioneer in food delivery service in Bangladesh. They started their journey in July 2013. HungryNaki is operating in 5 cities at this moment, namely in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Sylhet, Chittagong, and Cox s Bazar. It covers 1100+ restaurants across the nation. This startup is the Daily Star ICT Award winner in the best startup of the year category in 2016. Despite being one of the first movers, Hungrynaki’s market share dipped in recent years. As a result, global e-commerce business giant Alibaba has bought HangryNaki in 2021 with almost 8 crores BDT. Foodpanda, a subsidiary of Berlin-based delivery platform Delivery Hero, began its journey in Bangladesh in December 2013 with limited operations in Dhaka. Even starting after HungryNaki, FoodPanda has moved forward and is now playing a leading role in the food delivery service industry. With no fund problems and being a multinational company gave advantages to FoodPanda. They took their chances and changed the online food delivery industry of Bangladesh like never before. Other online food delivery services of Bangladesh are also doing great. 

Actually, we need another article to cover up all these companies in detail. Because, as a part of a vastly growing industry, they are taking a different approach to the same problem. But in the end, all of them are working hard to make our life easier. In some years, they will serve every corner of the country so that you can spend more time with the people you love while having your favourite meal in front of you.