kolkatamumbai several food delivery services cab and bike taxi aggregators and nonessential ecommerce firms are joining hands with retail chains and online grocers to supply groceries to consumers stuck at home because of the lockdownuber dominos pizza rapido zypp swiggy zomato and scootsy have all ventured into grocery delivery in partnerships with retail chains such as big bazaar spencers retail and natures basket and online grocers bigbasket and grofers that are grappling with a massive shortage of employees due to flight of several migrant workers to their hometowns some of these firms are in advanced level discussions with the countrys largest online marketplaces amazon and flipkart too industry executives said advt uber has forged partnerships with spencers retail and big basket while it is in advanced talks with flipkart amazon and big bazaar industry executives said in these times we need to create an ecosystem and partnership and convert store into a platform to enable more deliveries in a day to our consumers via our ecommerce and phone delivery orders said devendra chawla managing director of spencers retail and natures basketspencers and natures basket are also in partnership with bike taxi aggregator rapido and delivery service scootsyeven restaurant lobby national restaurant association of india has associated with pharmeasy bigbasket and few retailers for temporary employment of restaurant staff executives said zomato has tied up with grofers while dominos has partnered itc to deliver essentials through its fleet of delivery personnel and is in talks with multiple retail chains marico has partnered with swiggy and zomato to sell essential food items such as oils and oatsbesides spencers and natures basket rapido has also partnered with big basket grofers big bazaar and fruits and vegetables supply chain ninjacart among others rapido cofounder aravind sanka said he said around 70 of its fleet of 250000 drivers are still in the cities so it can comfortably deliver essentialsuber is not charging any commission from its drivers for its new lastmile delivery service said prabhjeet singh director operations and head of cities uber india south asia advt a flipkart spokesperson said the marketplace is exploring all possible collaboration ideas including cab aggregators and railways to ensure smooth and hasslefree movement of grocery and essentials from sellersvendors to the customers amazon declined to commentmeanwhile dmart has started a pilot of keeping a few stores open round the clock in mumbai neville noronha md at avenue supermarts that runs dmart said few stores opened 247 will provide ample time for consumers to plan their grocery shopping instead of rushing to stores and risk crowding he said there is adequate stock of staples while packaged essential goods are beginning to see shortages nowsome retailers such as more future group and spencers retail are also partnering with residential welfare associations for bulk deliveries to manage the queue in storesmost retailers are trying out new initiatives not just to ease out operations but also to generate sufficient cash flow at a time when liquidity crunch could threaten their survival