5 ms·

These guys only DELIVER pre-packed lunch boxes. Somebody in the lunch-eaters' HOUSE makes the food and it's picked up from there and delivered to the lunch-eate

These guys only DELIVER pre-packed lunch boxes. Somebody in the lunch-eaters' HOUSE makes the food and it's picked up from there and delivered to the lunch-eater. This is not a catering service (hence the part of of your comment about procuring food doesn't apply).

marcamillion 15y ago
Errr....that makes it even more impressive. Because not only do they have to get lunch to 175,000 people, they also have to pick it up! You are right, I glossed over that fact. I was just using my experience as a vague point of reference for how complicated such a business is - even though on the outside it seems like it might be simple.
- rdtsc 15y ago
  > Errr....that makes it even more impressive. It is the opposite for me. How bad would it have to get for me to run around in the rain on a bicycle to deliver someone's home-cooked lunch to their office? Pretty bad. I would have to be pretty deep in poverty before I would start considering that. I guess one person looks at this as the triumph of free enterprise, another looks at it as how desperate the situation can get for some. If it is the only job they can get and they have hungry children at home, you bet they will get that 6 sigmas of reliability...
  - marcamillion 15y ago
    Hrmm...isn't that how the free-market works? It is precisely because you have no alternatives why you choose the work you do. If you can be a surgeon, you will be. If you can't, you won't. But whatever you decide to do, you can excel at it and move up as needs be (in most free societies anyway). You don't need to do this, so you wouldn't be their ideal delivery man. If you were, you would probably lose a few lunches and that would damage their reliability....which hurts their system and company. So the free market has priced you out of that job - because you wouldn't likely work for the pittance these guys earn. All of that being said, if these guys save and start to do other things, they too can eventually move up and possibly even start their own company that allows their past employer to outsource some functions to them! That might not happen, but nothing is really stopping them (cultural nuances aside, like caste, etc.) aside from good old fashioned drive and hard work. Edit: Plus you are missing the point. I am not saying that those delivery men are what is impressive. What is impressive is whoever put the system together that allows them to have the six sigma reliability when they are depending on thousands of illiterate men. That! is impressive....in my humble opinion.
  - potatolicious 15y ago
    You can say the same thing about flipping burgers at McDonald's, or dealing with annoying customers at Sears. The service industry is an unenviable place to be in, no matter where you are. I don't particularly buy that being in the "delivering lunches in the rain" business is a good indicator of particularly disturbing poverty.
    - kamaal 15y ago
      Not exactly, there is difference between offering quality of service out of professionalism and offering quality of service out of the fear that if you don't some body else will and take away your job. And if you lose your job you have no other option but to starve(With your family and kids). Its a little bit to imagine this in the US, partly because you haven't even the outside idea what sort of poverty is there here in India. They are not the same. And that sort of desperation can't be felt unless you are in that situation.
      - RealGeek 15y ago
        Which city are you from? Would like to buy you a coffee if you are in Delhi NCR.
matdwyer 15y ago
If that is the case, why do they have to bring the empty container back? Why couldn't the person bring it home to their own house? I understand why you would get it delivered so it is hotter/fresher... but not the return
- brianbreslin 15y ago
  perhaps its expected as an extra convenience? [edit: watched the video he says that its very hard to carry things and board trains in mumbai, thus worth it to have the tiffin returned home as well]
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- ars 15y ago
  There is a social stigma against carrying your own food.
  - antiterra 15y ago
    But Shahrukh Khan carries his plastic tiffin packed by Anushka Sharma to work in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and his coworkers are in awe!
    - jagira 15y ago
      That scene is from a small Punjabi town. It is difficult to carry lunch boxes in Mumbai's local trains.
  - Indyan 15y ago
    This is partially true. The stigma is not so much against carrying your own food, as it's against carrying the particular type of tiffin box that is shown in this video. They are quite large and bulky. Imagine, a guy in a suit, with an Attache in one hand, and the bulky tiffin box in the other. Also, if you commute by Mumbai's local trains, it will be a nightmare to board them with the boxes. Here's a snap taken inside a typical coach: http://www.mumbai77.com/Pictures/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=107&pos=5 http://www.mumbai77.com/Pictures/Gallery/displayimage.php?al...

marcamillion 15y ago

Errr....that makes it even more impressive. Because not only do they have to get lunch to 175,000 people, they also have to pick it up! You are right, I glossed over that fact. I was just using my experience as a vague point of reference for how complicated such a business is - even though on the outside it seems like it might be simple.

rdtsc 15y ago
> Errr....that makes it even more impressive. It is the opposite for me. How bad would it have to get for me to run around in the rain on a bicycle to deliver someone's home-cooked lunch to their office? Pretty bad. I would have to be pretty deep in poverty before I would start considering that. I guess one person looks at this as the triumph of free enterprise, another looks at it as how desperate the situation can get for some. If it is the only job they can get and they have hungry children at home, you bet they will get that 6 sigmas of reliability...
- marcamillion 15y ago
  Hrmm...isn't that how the free-market works? It is precisely because you have no alternatives why you choose the work you do. If you can be a surgeon, you will be. If you can't, you won't. But whatever you decide to do, you can excel at it and move up as needs be (in most free societies anyway). You don't need to do this, so you wouldn't be their ideal delivery man. If you were, you would probably lose a few lunches and that would damage their reliability....which hurts their system and company. So the free market has priced you out of that job - because you wouldn't likely work for the pittance these guys earn. All of that being said, if these guys save and start to do other things, they too can eventually move up and possibly even start their own company that allows their past employer to outsource some functions to them! That might not happen, but nothing is really stopping them (cultural nuances aside, like caste, etc.) aside from good old fashioned drive and hard work. Edit: Plus you are missing the point. I am not saying that those delivery men are what is impressive. What is impressive is whoever put the system together that allows them to have the six sigma reliability when they are depending on thousands of illiterate men. That! is impressive....in my humble opinion.
- potatolicious 15y ago
  You can say the same thing about flipping burgers at McDonald's, or dealing with annoying customers at Sears. The service industry is an unenviable place to be in, no matter where you are. I don't particularly buy that being in the "delivering lunches in the rain" business is a good indicator of particularly disturbing poverty.
  - kamaal 15y ago
    Not exactly, there is difference between offering quality of service out of professionalism and offering quality of service out of the fear that if you don't some body else will and take away your job. And if you lose your job you have no other option but to starve(With your family and kids). Its a little bit to imagine this in the US, partly because you haven't even the outside idea what sort of poverty is there here in India. They are not the same. And that sort of desperation can't be felt unless you are in that situation.
    - RealGeek 15y ago
      Which city are you from? Would like to buy you a coffee if you are in Delhi NCR.

matdwyer 15y ago

If that is the case, why do they have to bring the empty container back? Why couldn't the person bring it home to their own house? I understand why you would get it delivered so it is hotter/fresher... but not the return

brianbreslin 15y ago
perhaps its expected as an extra convenience? [edit: watched the video he says that its very hard to carry things and board trains in mumbai, thus worth it to have the tiffin returned home as well]
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
ars 15y ago
There is a social stigma against carrying your own food.
- antiterra 15y ago
  But Shahrukh Khan carries his plastic tiffin packed by Anushka Sharma to work in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and his coworkers are in awe!
  - jagira 15y ago
    That scene is from a small Punjabi town. It is difficult to carry lunch boxes in Mumbai's local trains.
- Indyan 15y ago
  This is partially true. The stigma is not so much against carrying your own food, as it's against carrying the particular type of tiffin box that is shown in this video. They are quite large and bulky. Imagine, a guy in a suit, with an Attache in one hand, and the bulky tiffin box in the other. Also, if you commute by Mumbai's local trains, it will be a nightmare to board them with the boxes. Here's a snap taken inside a typical coach: http://www.mumbai77.com/Pictures/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=107&pos=5 http://www.mumbai77.com/Pictures/Gallery/displayimage.php?al...