“Pooji, we’ve got to start earning our own pocket money. It’s embarrassing to be asking dad to give me money to buy makeup and shoes. And I also want to save money for a trek trip,” Neeti said to Pooja while they were in the canteen of their college. “I’ve been feeling the same, bro. I need money to tide over my shopping expenses,” said Pooja. They started to brainstorm on ideas to make some money along with studying for their degree. “Idea,” said Neeti, pointing to their tiffins. “Nothing comes close to this,” she added. “Yes. I love to cook. You’re not that great a cook, but I could take you for the role of an assistant,” said Pooja mockingly. “Well, whatever. I am in love with this idea – our own little home tiffin service. As it is, because of afternoon college, we have ample time to cook lunch for our prospective customers,” said Neeti.
From the next day onwards, Pooja and Neeti set about their business, using their savings to buy steel tiffins and groceries. They had decided to use the vessels that were already available at their homes. 8th March, International Women’s Day was eight days away, and the two girls decided to kickstart their dream project. Getting the first set of customers was not difficult. To support Pooja and Neeti, their families placed the first order, along with their close friends and neighbors. Having tasted food made by them on earlier occasions, there was a sense of confidence that people had on the two of them. Pooja and Neeti were working day and night to ensure that their idea sustains despite the challenges. They had created social media pages, established their menu, hired a delivery guy and finalized a vendor to supply them ingredients.
“You know Pooji, until now I’ve always relied upon mom to bring me all the ingredients I needed for cooking,” said Neeti. “It has been the same for me. I would tell dad to bring vegetables for me on his way home from the office. How do we know that our vendor will deliver quality products? Should we resort to online shopping ?” “I am skeptical about online portals. Let us try out the vendor first,” said Neeti.
On the first day, the vendor not only came late, but the vegetables that he brought were also not as fresh as they expected them to be. Neeti had to make a trip to the vegetable market at the last minute to save the day, proving to be quite exhausting for both of them. At the end of the day, as they sat together to assess the situation, Neeti said, “You were right. Let’s do a simple search on ‘online grocery Bangalore’ and see where it leads us.” A lot of results popped up and they spent a good deal of time comparing each one.
“Pooji,” I think we have an answer. “Yep, LoveLocal seems the best among all options,” said Pooja, adding, “It not only ensures timely delivery, but also offers amazing deals to choose from. Their combo deals for vegetables and groceries can sort us out.” Neeti and Pooja discovered local shops around their houses. This heightened their trust all the more. They made an account and placed orders online for vegetables and groceries. To their surprise, their order arrived in a matter of hours and the ingredients and vegetables were of great quality.
“It was only two days ago that we were fretting about sourcing ingredients. And look how our problem has been solved so easily,” said Pooja. Overjoyed, Pooja made Chinese for both of them using the broccoli and baby corn from their order, and both of them relished it. “Cheers to us. We really needed this,” said Neeti.Since then, their journey to success in the tiffin service has moved up, and what started as a part-time involvement to churn up extra pocket money, became a full-time occupation and means for at least 50 others to earn their livelihood. The initial nudge and support from their parents helped Neeti and Pooja become the most recognized home-made food service in Bangalore, specializing in North Indian food down south.
