Later, the restaurant owner returned from a delivery. A box with the logo of "Eleme," an O2O food delivery platform, was placed on the back of his motorbike. The owner says they accept both onsite and online orders, with a discount offered to customers who order at the restaurant.
The owner also recommended a popular dumpling house located deep in the alley. The restaurant was only a 10-square-meter kitchen where dumplings are made, cooked and sold online. The only sink in the kitchen, covered with dirt, was used to wash hands, vegetables and rags. In the backyard, some shrimp and vegetables were exposed in the open air.
Unprofessional delivery workers
At a Hunan style restaurant, a staff member was busy checking orders with delivery workers. The orders were placed on a table next to the door, with customer names, addresses and phone numbers on them, open to anyone who passed by.
The reporter found that a large number of orders came from office workers in the neighborhood. A security guard at a plaza in the Zhongguancun area said the group of food delivery workers at the building had mushroomed in the last few months.
"Their motorbikes are parked randomly on the street when they deliver food," said the guard surnamed Liu. "Sometimes I have to ask them to move their bikes to avoid congestion." Liu found the drivers were all riding motorbikes with the logo "Eleme," but they didn't have uniforms. A friend of Liu's who delivers for Eleme said that many of the food providers are small businesses with dubious qualifications.
