Grocery delivery app Milkrun criticised amid inability to meet early promises

A revolutionary grocery delivery service that once promised delivery within minutes has experienced a dramatic downfall.

Once celebrated by consumers for having groceries at their door within a few minutes of an order being placed, Milkrun’s offering is now a far cry from its earlier days.

The app launched in September 2021 with the attractive selling point: “groceries delivered in minutes”, and shocked customers across Sydney and Melbourne when it lived up to the claim.

Reviews from six months ago praised Milkrun’s swift operation and how it had somehow managed to fill a much-needed gap in the market that, at the time, was out of reach for other companies offering grocery delivery.

It gained support from an impressive list of investors including Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, and Australian venture capital firm AirTree, raising $11 million before it even launched.

Within months of its launch the company raised a jaw-dropping $86 million and was described an “overnight success” with customers spending between $27 and $57 on average each month.

By the middle of last year however, it began to experience the realities of the broad economic downturn and swiftly became unable to deliver in the same capacity.

Changes to Milkrun’s offering has seen it receive broad criticism. Picture: Milkrun

The company had no choice but to back out of its key selling point to deliver groceries in 10 minutes, with delivery estimates stretched to 30-40 minutes, but according to users, regularly taking far longer.

Bonuses and pay for new riders were also slashed, while fees for users of the app went from non existent to between $2.60 and $7.

Discontent from users has since been well recorded in reviews attached to the company’s Google and Apple app store account.

Recent Google reviews cite the app as being an attractive grocery delivery option a few months ago but no longer delivering in the way it used to.

“Used to be good when it first started but now it’s just easier and faster to order off UberEats,” one of its latest Google reviews read.

“Delivering goods in 10 minutes was unbelievable but they somehow did it, always! Now every time you open the app, it says 30-40 minutes,” another wrote.

“Service is just terrible now. $5 delivery fee plus a 10 per cent surcharge on an order, $20 minimum and 40+ minutes for delivery all the time. It was amazing when they first started but every time I go to use the app, the service just gets worse and worse,” someone else noted.

Customers have left unsavoury reviews in the Apple app store.

Similar complaints were raised in reviews on the app store, with customers left disappointed at the obvious drop in quality of service.

Customers argued there was “no longer any point” in the service Milkrun offered, given it was not necessarily quick or affordable.

There were also remarks it was “so expensive” and that it was a “great concept but poorly executed”.

When contacted by news.com.au, a Milkrun spokesperson declined to respond to negative reviews and opted against providing context surrounding changes to the company.

Consumer advocate Adam Glezer from Consumer Champion agreed Milkrun’s downgraded offering made it unattractive to earlier customers.

“I believe having ‘groceries delivered within minutes’ was the biggest selling point for Milkrun. Convenience was their point of difference,” Mr Glezer told news.com.au.

“Stretching it out to 40 minutes has rightfully made consumers extremely upset. It’s like paying for the convenience of fast food and having to wait the same period of time as a sit-down meal”.

Users are unsatisfied the company has not kept up with its earlier promises.

“In saying that, their delivery time is still far superior to Coles and Woolworths’”.

Milkrun founder and CEO Dany Milham announced in a message to his workforce last month that 20 per cent of them were being let go.

“This is obviously very difficult news to deliver and receive, and I’m sorry to those of you whose roles are being impacted,” Mr Milham reportedly said.

Mr Milham blamed needing to lay off staff on the difficult economic climate.

“With economic and market conditions changing rapidly, we need to get ahead of the curve and evolve the way we operate to fit the current environment and extend our runway,” he wrote.

“This means making some structural changes and some tough decisions that will unfortunately impact some of our people.

A $29 order can fast become a $34 order that takes over an hour to arrive.

“From today we will be consolidating a number of our hubs but will be still continuing to service all our current markets.

“We will also be making some structural changes at HQ. This means we will be reducing the total number of roles across the business by around 20 per cent.”

It emerged last year that Milkrun had yet to reach profitability, with Mr Milham saying the company had been losing $40 per order at one point but had since improved.

A Milkrun spokesperson at the time said the model had become profitable and it had enough funds to keep it running for more than a year.

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Originally published as Grocery delivery app Milkrun criticised amid inability to meet early promises