Zomato reverses decision on green uniforms for pure-vegetarian delivery fleet due to social media criticism; opts for red attire for all riders

After facing criticism for introducing a “Pure Veg Mode” service, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal announced on Wednesday that they would retract the plan to use green uniforms for the new fleet. He clarified that all riders, including those serving vegetarians, would wear the standard red uniforms.

Goyal stated on social media platform X, “Although we’ll still have a fleet for vegetarians, we’ve decided not to visually segregate them with green uniforms. All our riders, whether in our regular fleet or serving vegetarians, will wear red.

The day after introducing the veg mode for pure vegetarian customers, the platform announced a “Pure Veg Fleet” for its Indian vegetarian clientele. Zomato’s founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal, along with CEO (food ordering and delivery) Rakesh Ranjan, even personally delivered some orders. Goyal shared on X that India leads globally in vegetarianism, and these additions were made based on their input.

“This implies that the fleet assigned for vegetarian orders won’t be visually distinguishable on-site (although the app will indicate that your vegetarian orders will be handled by the vegetarian-exclusive fleet). This ensures that our delivery partners wearing red uniforms aren’t mistakenly linked with non-vegetarian food and potentially barred by residential welfare associations or communities during special occasions. The safety of our riders is our top priority,” wrote Goyal.

Nevertheless, Goyal’s posts quickly sparked controversy online, drawing waves of criticism towards him. Some users expressed concerns about potential unequal treatment of Zomato’s regular riders by certain residential welfare associations (RWAs), while others questioned whether the “veg-only” mode would also apply to green-uniformed delivery personnel.

He further commented, “We’ve come to understand that our customers might face issues with their landlords due to our actions, which wouldn’t be ideal. Thank you to everyone who discussed this last night. Your feedback, both positive and negative, was incredibly valuable and guided us to reach this better outcome.”

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