After ceasing operations in India in wake of coronavirus pandemic, Flipkart has now resumed its operations for grocery and essential products, similar to Amazon’s approach to the situation.
“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.”, said Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy in a blog post on Wednesday.
Flipkart had previously decided to halt all its services as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a 21-day lockdown in the country as a measure to reduce and contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Grofers has restarted operations in a few cities including Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Bengaluru as of last night. The company hopes to resume operations in other cities in a couple of days.
“We have gone live in a few cities with the help of local authorities. Requesting your patience as we are hopeful of restarting operations in other cities within a day or two. We are in constant touch with local authorities for permissions.”, wrote the company on its Twitter handle.
BigBasket, on the other hand, is operational in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Indore, Mumbai, Mysore, Noida, Surat, and Vadodara. The company hopes to be back in Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Nagpur, Patna, and Vijayawada in a couple of days.
In the meantime, Big Bazaar, one of the largest supermarket chains in the country, has launched its doorstep delivery services in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Gurugram.
