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Zomato's 'Food Rescue' goes viral as Reddit user scores 90% off on cancelled order
Our read
Food Rescue turns a costly cancellation problem into a viral acquisition and retention loop, but operators must watch for users gaming the system by waiting for discounted rescues instead of ordering at full price.
Ask next
The report,
A viral Reddit post showing a 90% Zomato discount drew attention to the company's 'Food Rescue' feature, which offers cancelled orders to nearby customers at steep discounts to reduce food waste from over 4 lakh cancellations.
Reported figures
From the report. Source details below
- Rs 2,451
- Rs 274
Why it matters for the brand
Food Rescue is a defensible, data-driven feature unlikely to be replicated easily by Swiggy without comparable order density, raising the strategic value of last-mile network scale in any India foodtech consolidation play.
The counter-case
The case against this reading — not reported by the source.
A 90% discount viral moment trains customers to game the system - cancel orders or wait for 'rescues' rather than pay full price. If 4 lakh daily cancellations is the baseline, that's a logistics failure being rebranded as ESG. Restaurants bear the margin hit on already-cooked food, delivery partners get squeezed on per-order economics, and Zomato's AOV gets dragged down as the rescue habit spreads. Virality here is a unit-economics liability, not a win.
The source
First seen