It's Foodpanda's World. We're Just Living In It.

My parents don't use foodpanda. They have our khansama, Irshad.

"Irshad, zara doodh lay ao."

"Irshad, dhania khatam hogaya hai."

"Irshad, Lahori Tikka say chaar tikka aur naan pick kar lo."

While all my mother's friends have turned to foodpanda, she's still holding strong.

"Call me old school," she tells me over the phone. Since the responsibility of sourcing my family's groceries across Islamabad's choti markets has fallen on poor Irshad's shoulders, it appears she has forgotten the long afternoons she spent going from shop to shop, stand to stand, sourcing fruits, vegetables, meat, and daily staples. They even order takeout sparingly — my family still considers restaurant food "a treat," an excuse to step out of the house.

In urban Pakistan, they are part of a dying breed. As in much of the rest of the world, there was a shift toward restaurant and grocery delivery in Pakistan during the pandemic. It provided a lifeline to restaurants during COVID, and while restaurant revenues globally have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, in-person dining has not. It turns out people love ordering in.

Farheen Gul, who lives by herself in Lahore, was an early adopter of delivery — first through Couch Potato (RIP) and later Careem. She said most of the competition got edged out by foodpanda over time, and she now considers herself a foodpanda super user. She orders takeout several times a week, and will rely on the app even for small-ticket items like cosmetics and chips. "If I have the option to get it at home instead of getting in my car, why not?" she tells me over the phone.

Sarah Malik, who lives with her family — husband, children, and in-laws — in Lahore, also relies on foodpanda daily, from her morning coffee to groceries. For them, it started during the pandemic, but the habit persisted because it’s much easier to lean on foodpanda for everyday staples than to rely on the driver already split between errands for different family members. While Sarah still gets fresh produce from the stands outside her home, she has had good experiences ordering higher-end produce like salad greens and cherry tomatoes through the app, and appreciates how she can easily return bad or expired products – an option not always available with smaller stores.

The foodpanda team confirmed that while restaurant delivery continues to make up the bulk of their revenue, grocery delivery has become their fastest-growing sector. "This growth is being powered by a shift in daily consumer habits across Pakistan, where q-commerce has completely redefined public expectations. Instead of waiting for next-day deliveries, customers now count on receiving their daily household essentials at their doorsteps within a 30-to-40-minute window," they shared over email.

Beyond the shift in daily shopping habits, foodpanda — as the dominant player — has also begun to shape restaurant behavior. I spoke to Batool and Ammar Mohsin, the Lahore-based sister-brother team who run multiple restaurants, including Rina’s Kitchenette and XO Chinese Chips. Since each of their restaurant concepts is different – for instance, XO Chinese Chips is focused on takeout– the relationship with foodpanda varies. For instance, Rina’s Kitchen and XO Chinese Chips are roughly equal in terms of revenue from foodpanda, but XO Chinese Chips’s orders are significantly higher in volume. Secondly, given XO Chinese Chips’s franchising model, they partner heavily with foodpanda to make data-based decisions about new franchise locations, and menu items.

"We view our relationship with restaurants and shops as a true strategic partnership rather than a traditional client transaction," the foodpanda team shared. "To actively support their growth, we share important data insights, such as peak purchasing times, high-performing menu items, and optimal pricing strategies."

Foodpanda is rapidly changing how consumers shop and dine across Pakistan. While the market here is dominated by a single player, the broader global shift is the same: delivery apps have fundamentally altered how people eat. The rituals my mother participated in — wandering the grocery store, going from stand to stand to select the best fruit, cooking from scratch — are now competing with convenience.

My mother’s point is, “don’t you want to hand pick the produce you buy?” But for super users like Farheen, the time saved by not getting into your car to the store is worth the occasional suboptimal tomato.

There is however, a larger question about the separation between people, the food they eat, and how it’s grown and prepared. This disconnect already began to appear with large supermarkets, and will only be accelerated by the shift towards app-fueled delivery. I think of the small fruit and vegetable stands my mother used to visit in the choti markets scattered around Islamabad and wonder how many will survive the next ten years as they are left out of the digitization of grocery shopping. I also wonder about how greater reliance on take out will shift palates away from simple seasonal cooking that defines most of every day Pakistani food.

Am I just being romantic?

Maybe but there is more to it. Research does indicate that small-scale food production and retail keep money circulating locally, sustain low-skill employment, and strengthen neighborhood food networks — all of which are compromised when retail consolidates around large platforms. There are also studies that suggest small vendors act as a nutritional cushion for the urban poor, and that time saved through convenience frequently leads to the consumption of less healthy food.

Of course, these concerns, fairly abstract to everyday consumers, conflict directly with more visceral ones: traffic and time. As urban congestion in cities like Lahore and Karachi makes commuting an increasing hassle, it is hard to expect consumers to opt out of reliable, affordable delivery for broader, altruistic reasons about preserving small and medium enterprises.

Foodpanda is no longer limited to the upper-middle and upper classes it served in its early days. The team confirmed they have penetrated deep into the mass middle-class market by offering accessible budget options and everyday grocery staples, and have expanded beyond Tier 1 cities as digital connectivity grows across the country.

Pakistan is one of Delivery Hero's — foodpanda's parent company — fastest-growing markets. The app is clearly meeting a demand. But it may also be worth asking where that demand is coming from, and what can be done to ensure it is leading somewhere healthier and more equitable.