Indians are discovering the thrill of shopping without paying

Indians are discovering the thrill of shopping without paying through a platform called FoodNeverComes, which lets users browse menus, add items to a cart and proceed to checkout—only to find that no food ever arrives. The site’s slogan reads, "Order the food. Skip the bill," while a blunter tagline states, "The nutrient never comes - but the dopamine does." FoodNeverComes was built by two 26‑year‑old software developers, Purvansh Parmar and Anshul Sharma, from Udaipur in Rajasthan. Launched in June, the platform has attracted more than 2.7 million visitors. It presently offers 22 kitchens, 327 dishes and 319 real recipes, complete with fake prices, a simulated checkout and a fictional delivery experience. The concept belongs to a growing online genre dubbed “dopamine sites,” which replicate the rituals of consumption without the actual purchase. Similar platforms include fake shopping sites, mock delivery services and even pretend holidays. The trend first emerged in South Korea and has since spread, spawning sites such as Dopamine Shop and Fakehaul that mimic everything from food delivery to travel. Parmar and Sharma traced the idea to their own habits. After meeting during a computer‑science diploma programme, they co‑founded NeuroX AI, which develops software, AI products and Instagram content. They noticed their online baskets filling with desired items that were never purchased. Sharma would browse electronics, fill an online hand‑basket and then abandon it. Parmar’s mother exhibited the same behaviour, adding items to a cart and saying she would order them later. Parmar’s own habit centred on food‑delivery checkouts; during a two‑month stint in Mumbai he spent 5,000‑10,000 rupees weekly on food, sometimes ordering treats he did not need—Belgian waffles, crystal pickles and, on one occasion, a large jar of sour pickles he barely wanted and gave away to friends. He believes “perhaps the existent craving was not ever for the food, but for the ritual of ordering it.” Parmar explained, "Sometimes you're not bare at all. You're bored or busy, and past you realise that ordering nutrient makes you consciousness good. You commencement associating the enactment of ordering with that dopamine hit. Eventually, it's not conscionable the nutrient you want." Ravi Dhar, director of the Yale Center for Customer Insights, labels this phenomenon “anticipatory utility”—the pleasure of looking forward to consumption. He notes it is especially strong with items that capture the imagination—a new pair of shoes, a holiday, a hotel meal—because anticipation becomes part of the experience. Dhar added, "Sometimes, Dhar says, anticipation tin beryllium much pleasurable than ownership: 'The thrill is successful the chase.' Once the entity is acquired and the hostility resolved, intelligence arousal falls." Kent Berridge, a University of Michigan neuroscientist who developed the “wanting” and “liking” theory, distinguishes motivation from pleasure. Wanting drives pursuit; liking is the enjoyment of having obtained the object. Dopamine, in his view, fuels wanting, not liking. He said, "Some situations tin trigger 'wanting' by itself," and added, "We tin prosecute thing intensely adjacent erstwhile the eventual pleasance is anemic - or, successful much mundane terms, privation thing much than we yet similar it." Dr Anna Lembke, a Stanford University addiction psychiatrist and author of *Dopamine Nation*, cautioned against equating dopamine with pleasure. She told the reporter, '"To telephone dopamine a chemic of pleasance is an oversimplification," she told me. "Dopamine is the molecule that says 'get much of' or 'do much of', but it doesn't needfully equate to pleasure."' Lembke also observed, "Anticipation of reward tin beryllium arsenic reinforcing arsenic the reward itself," she says. Berridge suggested that repeatedly ordering imaginary food could generate a “dopamine deed and beardown 'wanting', and besides evoke faint conditioned 'liking'.” However, he expects the novelty to fade quickly and would be “surprised” if many users returned for more than about ten fake orders. Dhar is more open to the possibility that simulated consumption could act as a release valve. He stated, '"While we inactive request much empirical information to cognize if simulated buying tin fulfill a user urge, grounds from simulated depletion successful gaming shows it tin beryllium highly effective," helium says.' Lembke warned of a risk: the ritual might simply rehearse the behaviour it aims to replace. She noted, "The 1 up side, though, is that radical utilizing these sites person connected immoderate level already admitted to themselves they person a problem, and that admittance is often the archetypal measurement successful recovery," says Lembke. Sharma ran his own informal experiment. When his phone screen cracked, he spent a week on Amazon comparing six or seven replacements, adding them to his cart, then repaired the handset. He said, "I enjoyed the process of probe and putting the phones successful the cart," helium says. "Eventually I didn't bargain a phone." He now catches himself repeating the habit on food‑delivery apps, especially when anxious, filling baskets without checking out. "'I realised that I endure from this problem,' helium says." The founders have extended the concept beyond food. A second site, TripNeverLeaves, lets users plan a vacation—choosing destination, flight, seat, hotel and activities—then sends them on a virtual flight that never leaves the runway. TripNeverLeaves has drawn more than 100,000 visitors and lists 260 places “you won't go.” The demographic of users remains unclear, but Lembke pointed out that younger people may be especially prone to reinforcing digital rewards because the developing brain is more susceptible. She explained, "In puerility and aboriginal adolescence, the beforehand lobe, which acts similar the brakes connected appetite, is not yet afloat connected to the emotion centres of the brain. Hence, teens are much apt to instrumentality risks without appreciating the antagonistic consequences, and much apt to get addicted to reinforcing substances and behaviours, erstwhile exposed," she says. For now, the founders say the sites are not focused on making money. They intend to keep them free and eventually share the data with neuroscientists and psychologists. What appears as a joke about ordering too much food has opened a broader question about modern consumption: if much of the thrill arrives before the item is received, is the item itself necessary at all?