Mercato Metropolitano trials delivery service

In an attempt to rival the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats, the London-based food market, Mercato Metropolitano, has started trialling a delivery service. 

As a way to revive the financial district, the service will focus on the MMy market in Canary Wharf. 

It currently offers deliveries by foot to offices and residents within a 200-metre radius.

Addressing the service

Andrea Rasca, Mercato’s founder and chief executive, said he launched the project as he wants to “restructure” the food delivery industry in Britain, particularly in larger cities, as “delivering food from one side of London to another is not a good experience for anybody”.

He added: “The food is served terribly, it’s cold and the food traders and the delivery guys are not paid well.” He claimed that the big food delivery platforms “don’t care” as they’re “just providers of anything that can be sold online”.

Rasca said he launched the trial, called MMYconcierge, to provide a delivery service where staff are paid well and healthy food takes a front seat, in “a bid to rival and level-up from the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats whose drivers went on strike late last year over poor working conditions and wages”.

With 700 people signed up, each local resident and business recieves a QR code that takes them to Mercato’s menu. They choose their food and groceries, and the delivery team takes the order to the door. There is no delivery fee, everything is transported via foot, and workers are paid the London living wage of £13.15 an hour, “as opposed to gig economy workers, who get paid minimum amounts per delivery”, Rasca said.

Rasca said the service will probably be rolled out to other “big developments” across London if the trial is successful. He added that Canary Wharf was “not an easy location” to operate in and said there needed to be a “revival” of the business district.

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