'Realised This Could Spell Trouble': After Backlash, Zomato Drops 'Green' Uniforms For Delivery Personnel

Zomato has dropped its plan for green uniforms for its 'Pure Veg' fleet on the ground.

CEO Deepinder Goyal on Wednesday announced that while it will be going ahead with its 'Pure Veg' mode plans, it will be dropping the idea of green uniforms.

Source : X/Deepinder Goyal

Zomato won't be going 'green' anymore. The food delivery aggregator on Tuesday announced plans to roll out a 'Pure Veg' mode on its app, designed to cater to vegetarian customers. Alongside, Zomato announced that orders placed on the 'Pure Veg' section will be delivered by personnel wearing green-coloured uniforms. This announcement led to a huge uproar on social media, with disgruntled users taking to X (formerly Twitter) to express their concerns about the seemingly "thoughtless" consideration, as it would almost amount to an invasion of privacy, as people would get to know what everyone's ordering - Veg or Non-Veg. 

Responding to the furore, CEO Deepinder Goyal on Wednesday announced that while it will be going ahead with its 'Pure Veg' mode plans, it will be dropping the idea of green uniforms. "This means that the fleet meant for vegetarian orders will not be identifiable on the ground (but will show on the app that your veg orders will be served by the veg-only fleet)," Goyal tweeted.

What Was The Issue With Green Uniforms?

After the first announcement, social media users expressed concerns that getting their food delivered by a Zomato personnel wearing red would clearly flag the kind of food they are ordering, which might lead to issues with landlords or even resident welfare associations (RWAs) in certain cases, especially the ones which don't allow non-vegetarian residents. 

"This will ensure that our red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food, and blocked by any RWAs or societies during any special days… our riders’ physical safety is of paramount importance to us," Goyal tweeted. "We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice thing if that happened because of us."

Update on our pure veg fleet —

While we are going to continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the on-ground segregation of this fleet on the ground using the colour green. All our riders — both our regular fleet, and our fleet for vegetarians, will…

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 20, 2024

How People Are Reacting To The New Announcement

Since the rejigged plan was announced based on social media reactions, most users on X understandably responded positively.

As a shareholder of Zomato, I am glad you've done what is right. Kudos Deepinder and the Zomato team. https://t.co/Mr1qmSkznw

— Parikshit Shah (@imparixit) March 20, 2024

Glad you rectified it in no time. It was surprising that you announced something without thinking about the consequences. At least you saw the physical problem with this. Nobody is a hater Deepinder, we all love Zomato, but we also know how rotten the society is. This would have…

— sohom (@AwaaraHoon) March 20, 2024

Good decision.The best part is when people criticized this decision, you or your team read it, understood it, and changed it without taking it to your ego. Unlike vishwaguru,you didn't just stick to a decision regardless of whether it was wrong, without considering changing it..

— भाई साहब (@Bhai_saheb) March 20, 2024

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

However, there were a few who still expressed concerns over extra fees and also if the fleet would actually be 'Pure Veg' as promised and that their food wouldn't be put in a regular Zomato box which also carries non-vegetarian meals. 

So how we know it's the "pure veg" fleet ? You might be charging extra and we pure veg people will have to share the delivery box with unpure non veg food ...

— Mukesh (@mikejava85) March 20, 2024

Indians obsession with purity is deep rooted in it's caste discrimination mindset

It often changes it's form & comes out in society

— Vikas (@VikasKA01) March 20, 2024

Ana was thinking 🤔 zomato reminds one of tomato 🍅 and that is red and relevant for a branding colour. Green tomatoes sound raw.

— Ana (@VoiceOnX) March 20, 2024

good decision.

question - two orders that could fit in one box will now be delivered in two boxes by two different delivery partners. who bears the cost of this inefficiency?

— Mayank (@realmayankrai) March 20, 2024