Blinkit strike: Zomato-owned company tells riders it is shutting some Delhi-NCR stores permanently

Blinkit riders across some stores in Gurgaon and in some Delhi-based stores said that they had received a message on the Blinkit delivery partner app, which says that specific stores are being shut permanently because no work has been happening in them since the last 3-4 days. ET has reviewed the messages being sent to delivery partners. In the message, the company also claims that it has made several attempts to discuss the issue with the executives.

To be sure, unlike food-delivery platforms, where gig-workers are free to deliver across localities, riders working with quick-commerce platforms are tied to specific dark stores that they have signed on with. A part of the message sent to delivery executives states that the registration of the delivery executive with the platform was being terminated because of the dark store being shut down.

Blinkit delivery executives went on a strike last week across Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida after the company changed its payout system from a flat Rs 25 per delivery (plus Rs 7 during peak hours) to a Rs 15 per delivery minimum fee along with a distance-based component.

Delivery executives in Delhi and Noida also said that some of the stores in these locations were coming back online with some riders breaking off from the strike and delivering in the early morning and late night hours. Operations in these stores, however, continued to be stunted for much of the day,

In a statement, a Blinkit spokesperson said: “Only Gurgaon and Noida remain majorly affected currently. We are working with the authorities to ensure that those of our riders willing to work in these areas are allowed to work safely”.

Blinkit’s rivals told ET that they have been witnessing a bump in sales from their dark stores following closure of Blinkit stores in light of the protests. The strike commenced last Tuesday. Tata Group-owned BigBasket’s quick-commerce vertical BBNow saw incremental order growth of 28% in Delhi, and 43% in Gurgaon and Noida last week following the strikes. Zepto also saw a 40% jump in orders from Delhi-NCR last week after the strike began, while Swiggy’s Instamart saw a 10-20% rise in orders.

In a report on Monday, ICICI Securities said Blinkit is expected to lose 1% of its revenue on account of the ongoing strikes during the April-June quarter, with Zomato likely to lose 0.15% of its revenue during the period on a consolidated basis. ET had reported earlier that around 100 Blinkit dark stores were shut temporarily because of the strikes. The company has around 400 dark stores in the country, almost half of which are in the Delhi-NC region.