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Indian Entrepreneur Goes Blinkit-Free For 5 Months, Realises 10-Min Delivery ‘Removed Planning’ From Life: ‘They Run For Our Cravings'
Indian Entrepreneur Goes Blinkit-Free For 5 Months, Realises 10-Min Delivery ‘Removed Planning’ From Life: ‘They Run For Our Cravings'
Quick-commerce apps have become part of everyday survival in many Indian households. Groceries arriving in minutes, last-minute ingredients delivered without thought and errands resolved with just a tap. So much so that for many, imagining life without these platforms almost feels impractical. But for one woman, living without them wasn't a choice; it was a circumstance that led to a pause.
Saloni Srivastava, a marketer at HustlePost Academy and a YouTuber, recently shared a detailed Instagram post about going nearly five months without using Blinkit, Zepto or any quick-commerce app after moving from India to France. In her post, she focused on how this pause made her rethink the convenience she had taken for granted and offered her a new perspective on planning, consumption and the “invisible labour" behind instant deliveries.
Entrepreneur Doesn't Use Blinkit, Zepto
Saloni Srivastava begins by clarifying that her absence from quick-commerce apps wasn't driven by protest or principle. As she wrote, “Not because I'd taken a stand against quick commerce, or because I'm a cool person with an impressive moral backbone."
The reason, she explained, was simple: “I had just moved to a country where a service like this was simply not available."
Back in India, Blinkit had become an unspoken part of her daily life. “It felt normal. Necessary, even," she noted.
That sense of normality began to shift once she adjusted to life in France.
A Different Habit Shaping Up In France
In France, Saloni described how grocery shopping follows fixed hours, with almost all stores and restaurants shutting down on Sundays. “So, you really don't have the option to shop impulsively whenever you want. You must pause, think about what you might eat over the week, make a list, and then go buy the groceries, keeping all that in mind," she mentioned.
Before leaving India, she admits she was worried that “doing this every day would feel like a logistical nightmare." Five months later, her conclusion was “surprisingly fine."
Living without instant delivery made her realise how deeply convenience had removed planning from her life. As she explained, “Blinkit didn't just deliver groceries to me. It removed planning from my life."
“I didn't have to think ahead. I didn't have to anticipate hunger or boredom or anything else I may need. Everything could be decided in the moment and resolved instantly. It felt liberating, even indulgent," the post mentioned.
Why Quick Commerce Scaled In India
With distance, Saloni says she became aware of the “invisible labour" absorbed by others to sustain that effortlessness. At the same time, she acknowledged why quick-commerce apps flourished in Indian cities.
Poor urban infrastructure, unreliable footpaths, traffic-heavy neighbourhoods and exhausting workdays make even basic errands difficult. In that context, these platforms addressed genuine gaps.
“So these apps didn't just magically appear in our lives, they solved a very real problem," she noted.
These Apps Created Jobs For Many
Saloni is careful not to label these companies as villains. She pointed out that they have created employment at a scale the government has failed to provide. What was designed as part-time gig work is “currently the only thing feeding millions of families in India."
“For many delivery partners, this work isn't a choice among many different employment options… It is the ONLY option available to MANY of them," she stated.
She highlighted that the exploitative nature of this reality: delivery workers lacking access to basic necessities like clean toilets, paying upfront for uniforms and racing against time for minimal pay.
“If any white-collar gig demanded money before the job started, we'd all label it a scam within minutes," the YouTuber further said.
A System That Runs On ‘Government Failure'?
Saloni contrasted India's gig economy with developed countries, where such work is usually taken up by students or full-time workers seeking supplemental income, not survival.
“In India, can we realistically imagine an Infosys fresher engineer or a college student working as a delivery partner in off-hours, just to make some additional income as a side hustle?" she questioned.
According to her, the system persists not because of individual cruelty but due to government failure and collective acceptance. “It's just the sort of clarity that only distance can provide," she wrote.
When she lived in India, these apps felt “not just useful, but genuinely impressive." It was only after stepping outside that ecosystem that she began to see the strain beneath it.
“Our government failed to give us walkable, traffic-free roads, and also failed to give viable employment opportunities to a lot of people, and so these tech companies came and fixed both of these for us. It felt modern. Efficient. Necessary. I didn't question it because it seemed to answer a need I experienced every day," she explained.
‘Someone Else Carrying Burden Of My Urgency'
Saloni said that living without quick commerce hasn't made life harder. It has simply “made it slower in small, human ways," noting, “I think ahead. I plan meals. I miss an ingredient sometimes and adapt. None of this feels like deprivation at all."
She now thinks that the ten-minute delivery was “only created a sense of urgency in my life, the burden of which someone else had to carry."
“The delivery worker had to race against the clock to fulfil my midnight craving of chips and Coke, simply because I refused to plan ahead like an adult. The faster they moved, the more they made. So they rushed…often through potholes, endless traffic, and poisonous air, all for just 20 rupees," the post stated further.
While she doesn't argue against the existence of delivery services, she questioned whether such speed is truly necessary, noting, “We lived perfectly well with next-day delivery before 2022, back when these apps didn't exist."
“The only things that we truly need to arrive in ten minutes are ambulances and police, no?" she asked.
She further questioned: “What have we normalised in the name of convenience, and who is paying for it when we're not looking?"
In the end, Saloni clarified that she doesn't claim to have “neat solutions." She said that taking a little time to plan her meals and shopping has cost her very little personally but it can make a real difference for delivery workers who no longer have to rush through traffic to satisfy “momentary craving."
Source: News18
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