Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal not allowed to enter Gurugram mall for food delivery. Watch

Deepinder Goyal shared a video of what happened at Ambience Mall in Gurugram on X.

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, who had turned into a delivery agent on Saturday, was refused entry to a Gurugram mall and made to climb three flights of stairs to collect an order from an eatery. The experience taught him that the food delivery company needs to work with malls and restaurants to ensure that delivery partners are treated more humanely.

"During my second order, I realised that we need to work with malls more closely to improve working conditions for all delivery partners. And malls also need to be more humane to delivery partners," Goyal shared on X with a video of the incident.

During my second order, I realised that we need to work with malls more closely to improve working conditions for all delivery partners. And malls also need to be more humane to delivery partners.What do you think? pic.twitter.com/vgccgyH8oE
Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 6, 2024

It happened when Goyal -- dressed as a Zomato delivery agent carrying their signature red catering bag -- visited Ambience Mall with his wife Grecia Munoz to pick up a food order from Haldiram's. First, the security at the entrance refused to let him in and asked him to use the service stairs. When he asked if there was a lift that he could use, he was directed back to the stairs.

"Was told to take the other entrance," the Zomato CEO shared on X. "Realised that they were asking me to take the stairs. Went in again to make sure there aren't any elevators for delivery partners."

After climbing three flights of stairs when he reached Haldiram's, again, he wasn't allowed to enter the ball again and was made to wait at the stairs with other delivery partners. Goyal said he "chilled" with the other delivery partners while collecting "valuable feedback" from them.

He finally managed to get into the eatery when the security guard at the staircase took a break and was able to pick up his food order for delivery.

Hours later, in an update, Goyal shared that responding to his post, Ambience Mall has created "a comfortable online food delivery pick up point for all delivery partners". "Thanks Arjun (owner of Ambience) for noticing my post and taking quick action," the Zomato boss wrote on X, adding that the mall has also agreed to let the company deploy some “walkers” inside the mall to quickly shuttle the food from the restaurant to the pickup points to hand over the food to delivery partners.

"I urge all the other mall owners to please do the same, or come up with other innovative solutions which can help our collective customers, our delivery partners, restaurants, delivery aggregators, as well as malls themselves," Goyal said.