Seeing ‘temporarily unavailable’ message on Blinkit? The reason could be…

Food delivery firm Zomato's grocery unit, Blinkit has become ‘temporarily unavailable’ after 50 of its stores were closed in different parts of Delhi-NCR. The incident happened after the delivery partners associated with the unit protested against the recent changes in their pay structure.

According to the revised pay structure of Blinkit, its delivery executives would receive a minimum fee of ₹15 per delivery, instead of ₹25 per delivery. Meanwhile, customers of the grocery unit also found it a tedious task to place orders from its app in the last few days. Those who tried to place orders were greeted with the message, "Due to excess demand, temporarily unavailable."

Videos that surfaced on social media showed how Blinkit's delivery executives were protesting against the revised payment structure.

BJP leader Kapil Mishra hit out at the Blinkit management team in connection with the issue. "Some Blinkit employees met me today. The injustice Blinkit is doing to its employees is illegal. The Blinkit management is playing with the lives of lakhs of families. It must implement the old payment structure immediately. Reduction from ₹25 per delivery to ₹10-15 is cheating with the employees," Mishra tweeted in Hindi.

Meanwhile, Zomato's other food delivery services continued normally. Zomato bought Blinkit (earlier known as Grofers) last year for $550 million to jump on the bandwagon of “quick commerce.”