Eat now, pay later

Last week I opened up Deliveroo and proceeded to order some dinner. Nothing too unusual, except this time I noticed a Pay with Klarna option. For those that aren't familiar Klarna is a buy now pay later service, offering the cost of a product to be split into 3 payments. Aside from merchant fees, Klarna makes money when customers opt to, or need to extend credit terms or miss a payment.

Deliveroo has questionable business practices at the best of times, and perhaps I expected too much from them, but there is something seriously fucked up about offering the option to spread payments for food on a platform like Klarna. Food insecurity is a major problem for many people. I hope there was some pushback within the product team as they considered the ethical implications of a buy now pay later option for something as basic as food.