Bhubaneswar, May 8: Two youngsters in the city have a solution for your lazy moment. The time when you don't feel like stepping out and want someone to shop and deliver non-vegetarian items, including some exotic stuff, at your doorstep.
Two friends - Soumya Ranjan Panda and Darshan Baral - have started a website that delivers fish, prawn, crabs, and other seafood at your doorstep. The website - www.emeat.in - offers a variety of products including dry fish and exotic items such as meat of emu, turkey and duck as well as lobsters.
When The Telegraph asked the two about the push behind their emeat.in portal, Panda said: "As the city is on a smart drive, there is a demand to have facilities that make life easy. Our portal is one such smart facility. We firmly believe that everyone needs to join this smart shift and we are trying to do our bit. Those using our website to shop will be able to save time that they can put to good use," said Panda.
The two friends, both in their twenties, are students of Utkal University and are awaiting their final-year result."We love to have non-vegetarian food, but never had any idea where to buy quality items. Also, going to the market and buying those is a big hassle. As we were discussing these, the idea struck us and we went ahead to develop the website," Panda said.
He said the two had pooled money from their own resources to develop the website, but a steady flow of hits has drawn the attention of investors eager to invest in the project.
Panda said in the three months since launching the website, they had managed a confirmed monthly clientele of 1,000. This, he added, increased every day and more so on weekends. Their regular customers are mostly young professional and homemakers.
Asked about the quality of the stuff delivered at customer's doorstep, Panda said: "We select good meat that has the right colour and tenderness. When a packet of the desired meat is delivered at a client's home, it is cent per cent fresh and gives the feeling of being procured from a local outlet," said Panda.
"The meat is fresh and we slaughter only after getting the order. Hygiene and quality are always on the top of our minds and this is reason why we source our products from the best outlets in the city," Baral said.
He said that their website can be accessed 24X7, but their service starts at 8am and continues till 1pm. After a brief break, the service resumes at 5pm and closes for the day at 9pm.
"Several youngsters come to the city to work and study and they are not aware of the best places to get non-veg products. The website is a big hit with them," said Baral. He said though a few local portals offer home delivery service, emeat.in scored in terms of quality and exotic stuff.
"We are the only home delivery portal in town to provide exotic meat and dry fish, which is popular with Odias," Baral said.
Picking up from where Baral left off, Panda said they also offered marinated items such as chicken masala tikka, chicken drumstick and chicken lollipop.
For those staying beyond Bhubaneswar, the two young entrepreneurs have some good news. "We will shortly launch the facility in other big towns of the state," Panda said.
