As she prepares for her O-Levels, 10th grader Deeana Maqsood finds comfort in food, especially when staying up late at night, studying for a dreaded mock exam on maths the next morning.
In the past, Dhaka’s night owls had few options to deal with midnight cravings, which ranged from cookies to cooking something of the instant variety — instant soup, instant noodles, ramen, and so on.
But Maqsood does not enjoy cooking, nor do cookies guarantee satiety for long.
“I was so stressed, I just wanted comfort food,” Maqsood said, describing one such night.
Fortunately for her, midnight delivery services have sprung up across the city, as services like Munchies, Knack, and BuyHereNow have found a big customer base in the students, freelancers, and insomniacs of Dhaka.
Less traffic, more options
Dhaka traffic makes it difficult for mainstream services like Foodpanda to provide citywide coverage.
Through the Foodpanda app, for instance, people can mostly order from restaurants in their areas only.
The mode of transportation is also different, as those working for Foodpanda and Pathao use bicycles to deliver food, but the late night delivery men mostly use motorcycles.
“For riders, it is difficult to cover that distance on a bicycle. And for certain foods, if you receive it after an hour, the quality will not be the same,” said Saurav Dey, head of PR at Foodpanda.
“For obvious reasons, we have different zones throughout the city. So, we can deliver at the quickest possible time. If there is traffic, it would take longer and that is also unpredictable,” he added.
Living in Mohammadpur, but want to order food from that new taco place in Gulshan? Tough luck.
However, afterhours delivery services like Munchies are not limited to specific areas since there is no traffic at night.
Munchies says it is “not bound by area-wise distance,” a unique selling point which it claims “increases repeat customers and leads to a ripple effect that contributes to the ongoing success.”
Anit Kumar, Chief Operating Officer of Munchies, states that they are able to cover distances much bigger than the usual one or two-mile radii, which is unimaginable given the traffic at regular hours.
Night owl Shahil Eshan, a student of the Engineering University School and College, said Munchies was able to deliver food to his home in Old Dhaka from a restaurant in Gulshan in the middle of the night.
It did not even take that long, he added.
"We are currently making profits, but not a lot," said Kumar, adding that the business model is profitable.
Although Munchies broke even about four or five months ago, as a startup, it’s main plan is to scale. And to that end, it has recently secured funding from French venture capital firm Super Capital VC.
‘They would laugh’
One of the main challenges for Munchies was convincing delivery men that they would receive orders at night.
“They would laugh at the idea of late-night deliveries,” Kumar said.
But with a base salary, the staff realized they would have the opportunity to make some extra income.
“Pathao during the day, Munchies at night,” he said.
In fact, Munchies used the absence of late-night food deliveries to circumvent a saturated food delivery market.
Business is so good that Munchies is expanding into Chittagong as well.
Growing industry to feed growing hustle culture
Esha Rushdi, director of Hello Dhaka, said the disrupted hours of operations during the pandemic prompted them to begin late-night deliveries.
“People have changed their lifestyles; about 20% of people have begun working at night after the pandemic hit, or don’t sleep at night at all,” she said.
While people may be skeptical of the quality control of food delivered at night, Rushdi says she makes sure the quality remains intact throughout all shifts.
“The chefs change, the person cooking at night gets to rest during the day,” she added.
Kazi Islam, the founder of Pizzeria, claimed that Cheez had launched late-night delivery services right after his “test run.”
Pizzeria later shut down, but not due to a lack of demand at night.
“As a high school graduate, I would not be able to compete in such a saturated market,” Islam said referring to other food services muscling in on the late-night delivery scene.
But the bet seems to have paid off for Cheez and its peers, as the hustle culture has only grown since the pandemic hit a rapidly growing nation.
Armina Hoq, an operations and finance manager at Nisai Bangladesh, works throughout the day, and at times is only left with the option to host spur-of-the-moment gatherings with her friends past midnight.
But spontaneity comes with a price and at times, that is an empty fridge. Through midnight deliveries though, she can still play the part of a good hostess.
A frequent Cheez customer, Hoq is grateful that such deliveries are available, but wishes she had more options.
“It is nice that something is available past midnight,” Hoq said. “The options are just limited.”
Another key player in the night-time delivery scene is Knack.
The owner of Knack said that they rely on loyal customers, much like Munchies and Cheez, but avoid “hiking prices.”
Although Knack is the most popular in Mohammadpur, much like Munchies, they are able to deliver anywhere in Dhaka during the night.
And the challenges that Knack faces are similar to that of Munchies, mainly having to pay delivery men more.
In Knack’s case, they pay the delivery men double the amount they would get during the day.
As their business grows, Knack has decided to open two kitchens each for catering to north and south Dhaka customers.