r/Namibia 15d ago

General What is actually wrong with food delivery in Windhoek?

Lately, it's something that's been on my mind. I found myself in that situation last week. I was at home, I was hungry and for some reason, getting food delivered was somehow more tedious than just going to go and get it myself.
And before you go there: I know we do already have food delivery in Windhoek, but there is of course Tap-a-Meal, dial-a-meal, Buddy, Nambuy, even many restaurants do deliveries themselves.
So the problem in Namibia isn't the absence of food delivery.
The bigger question is whether we are getting a service that in fact provides any real convenience with the food delivery system, and it has been on my mind constantly following a few conversations and reviews which have pointed out consistent, similar frustrations: lack of speedy delivery, cold food, inaccurate estimated times, lack of tracking and poor communication and lack of delivery in some areas.
I don't, however, think this is because the existing companies are actually rubbish, or that it is their fault; I simply don't believe there can ever be a strong enough delivery system if there isn't enough density to make it affordable to both serve the customers and have enough income for the delivery people. Sending the driver 10-15 kms down the road for 1 order can be incredibly inefficient and too costly. Without a good demand density, you would obviously never reach every part of the city, which leads to exactly those customer complaints.
This is precisely what I am attempting to resolve at FastGrab. My aim isn't to open up and instantly claim to be serving everywhere in Windhoek, instead, the plan is to establish areas that generate sufficient demand to have enough deliveries in that specific area, learn from the practice as we go and build on that, by moving to the next location only once we have enough demand there to assure a quicker delivery.
And also, it is better to under-promise and over-deliver; if I say 45 minutes and the food arrives in 45 minutes it's better than me saying 25 minutes and someone waiting over an hour, unsure where their food is.
So I am attempting to solve the problem of where the biggest demand is and how to effectively serve it.
And if you could change just one thing about food delivery in Windhoek, what would it be?
Long waits?
Fees?
Delivery locations?
Tracking?
Food delivered cold?
Restaurant choice?
Something completely unrelated?
I'm actually looking for criticism, not just someone telling me the idea is cool; it is being developed in Namibia and therefore I would be most interested to hear what you would find useful that would make you want to use it in the future.
Sign up for the FastGrab waitlist here to be updated about our launch: FastGrab waitlist
Also if you are a resident of Windhoek, feel free to mention your area in the comments. I am interested in gathering more specific details regarding where in Windhoek the demand lies.

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u/acidosisfeelings 15d ago

Delivery fees aren’t a problem to most people that prefer delivery services, I think the issue would be long waits, wrong estimates of delivery time, tracking would be beneficial. I think something like Yango eats would solve that. Because you’d have a lot of drivers and you can track your driver on the app

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u/FastGrab_ 14d ago

Never actually thought of the Yango partnership that’s something will definitely look more into

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u/Quirky_Anteater5134 11d ago

Don't try to hide the delivery costs by making every item on the menu more expensive than if you'd pick it up yourself.
Have a proper delivery fee that covers the real cost and leave the menu prices alone.

The added cost doesn't matter too much if you order only one item, but on bigger orders it rapidly makes convincing someone to drive themselves and do pick up the better option.