Closing Bell: Fresh Direct Cherry Picking in Bed-Stuy?

They obviously think the inmates of this SuperMax prison have more money than their surrounding neighbors, therefore sell to them, not offer the neighbors squat. You'd hope that anyone who knows their arugula and kobe beef would have better taste in housing, but there it is.

Seriously, for that reasoning alone, I wouldn't buy from them even if they did deliver to me, which they don't. I live in 11216 zip code (BS/CH) which is also invisible to their radar, and is adjacent to this part of BS. Either sell/deliver to all of us, or none of us. Period.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 4:15 PM

Is it possible they don't deliver to other areas because they are concerned for the safety of their drivers?

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 4:28 PM

They don't deliver to all of Harlem either. I've seen certain Harlem brownstone listings that say "within Fresh Direct delivery zone" as part of the sales pitch.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 4:32 PM

See more at www.bedstuyblog.com

4:28, you are a racist.

Not everyone in Bed-Stuy is a criminal.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 4:57 PM

This is purely about business. How many residents of the Marcy Houses use Fresh Direct?

Safety is also an issue. It's no secret that vast swathes of Bed-Stuy, despite some gentrification, remain dangerous.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 4:58 PM

"4:28, you are a racist."

And 4:57, you've never looked at Brooklyn crime stats.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 5:36 PM

and how does someone commenting on safety and crime stats get labeled a racist?

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 5:54 PM

This building is right across the street from the Marcy projects. If there was anywhere that was "dangerous" it would be here, and I don't buy that everyone in the projects is waiting on the corner for a deliveryman to show up. Please.

I don't buy that drivers in danger scenario whatsoever. Bodegas on really dreadful corners get deliveries. More and more restaurants deliver, and businesses like Sears and PC Richards have always delivered. I've never seen anyone running down the street stolen goods.

No one is going to jump Fresh Direct on streets like Hancock and Marcy, or any other place in BS where houses are now going for close to a millon, and people of all nationalities and incomes are walking up and down to their jobs and homes. Fresh Direct needs to look at how they can make more profit by serving a market that is crying out for their product. Their drivers could get mugged anywhere, including in tony Manhattan.

If they can deliver to Washington Hts, parts of Harlem, and East Houston Street, then they can come to Bed Stuy, Crown Heights and anywhere else they could be doing a rousing business. But then, they don't seem to have much business sense sometimes anyway. I heard they don't even deliver to the area that their warehouses are in in Astoria. I know people who can see their warehouse from their window, but can't get Fresh Direct.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 5:57 PM

If FD didn't serve a section of Brooklyn whose residents are white, none of you would make these kinds of comments.

Bed-Stuy is not just the Marcy houses, or projects in general. Why do non-residents of Bed-Stuy assume that everything in the area is a housing project? You all need to get out more. (But why would you, you think Bed-Stuy is so crime ridden.)

Is crime higher in some sections of Bed-Stuy, you bet. But there are large sections of the neighborhood that are extremely safe, where the population has money to spend and the people have requested - repeatedly - to have FD service. Yet FD is still not in the area.

You make these blanket statements based on some perceived notion of an area in which you don't live. Bed-Stuy is not "the dark continent." Grow up, get a clue and stop being racists.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 6:14 PM

you folks living there will get the thrill of having Fresh Direct's noisy, fumy, refrigerated trucks and surly drivers parked under your windows at all hours of the day and early evening!

FD isn't really "green" is it :/

Funny how it's lauded on this site alongside Whole Foods...

sg

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 6:17 PM

Let's cut to the chase. Let's be real. The tenants in this building will be affluent white folks. That's why Fresh Direct will cater to the building and not the surrounding area.

gary

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 6:45 PM

This is directed to October 31st, 4:58PM. If swaths of Brooklyn such as Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights are so dangerous, why wrae there so many white folks moving in?

Leo

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 6:48 PM

Flesh Direct, if they really are redlining areas NEED TO BE SUED. They are depriving/denying their services by saying "we won't sell to you because you don't live in the right house/building".

Now…Trader Hoe’s delivers just to Manhattan…I’m a little miffed that they’re willing to deliver from 14th Street all the way “up” to the “top of the world” in Manhattan for a small fee but won’t make a much shorter trip to Brooklyn to our house for the love of money… But, feh…who cares. It’s just TJ’s…and they’re opening another soon in Brooklyn. Anyway, it seems more consistent for them to deliver to just one borough. It seems more legally defensible…and I’d bet they consulted with their attorneys on it. But Fleshy D looks like it’s headin’ down a costly track if it continue this discrimination.

And yes, to the one above who mentions the fume-spewing trucks: AGREED. Horrible! I think I was the FIRST person decrying FD's trucks (pre-NYT articles) as soon as I realized we now had diesel fumes, idling rumbling, double parking and resultant driving hazards and honking, not just in the AM when bodegas get their deliveries in the nabe but nearly all hours of the day and well into the night. Horrible. Just the worse sorts of truck engines too that should be taken out of circulation because of their inefficiency and pollution-creation. Just because the box is all dressed up like a new billboard doesn’t make the truck any newer. Have a look at one sometime.

I have thought it would be appropriate to add a note to their more common taglines emblazoned in the graphics on the sides of their trucks. It runs something like:
“Fresh Direct. Our food is fresh. Our customers are spoiled.” Someone needs to add: “You can say THAT again!” …though, for all I know, the food isn’t fresh either.

I mean, who needs refrigerated toilet paper? (Is it safe to defrost toilet paper on the counter or do you have to defrost it overnight in the fridge?…my mother used to defrost it in the oven all night which was warm from the pilot light and we never got sick.)

I would LOVE to know how much more pollution is created by this new “delivery system” what with all the fuel for transporting huge amounts around, refrigerating products indiscriminately, adding a TON of single-use cardboard to the waste stream?!!!

Plus, I’ve seen plenty of trucks (are these drivers all documented workers???) with only ONE staffer…just the driver. So, the truck sits there idling, double parked and empty while the poor guy has to run all over the place. I wonder what these drivers are paid and what kind of tips they get. I hope it’s not the HORRIBLE non-pay grocery stores have gotten away with for years!

FortGreener/TheGrammarLady

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 7:16 PM

The Changeling Says:
October 31st, 2007 at 5:45 pm
I didn’t realize that FD refused to deliver to so many neighborhoods! What an eye-opener…

From the bedstuyblog.com and she is serious.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 7:19 PM

Thanks, Leo. You are right. And people who make such generalizations about the area simply have no clue because they base their opinions on hearsay and not the facts. But that is the power of the blogosphere: to give power to the ignorant.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 7:38 PM

And less we not forget a Robert Scarano job

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 8:08 PM

love love fresh direct. it is a life saver and it's a big deal to have delivery. if you are working parents with kids, it is the best.

think it's right to fight to have it.

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 9:19 PM

I live just east of Franklin in 11216. Fresh Direct will drive down our street and deliver to the fancy Corcoran condo building directly across the street, but refuses to deliver to our brownstone. While I realize it may not be cost effective to deliver to our little building, I imagine as the holidays approach Fresh Direct would get some business from the 11216 side of the tracks (at least from me when I try to feed 15 family members for Thanksgiving!).

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 10:04 PM

All in all, seeing any comments stating that Flesh Dissect refuses to deliver, for example 10:04PM's comment mentioning deliver to a nearby building but not the townhouse, is completely shocking. Does Flesh have any legal grounds for this or is it absolutely exposed to a class action suit?

And Bren, I'm glad you acknowledged my humor...so little appreciation out there otherwise! "Our customers are spoiled!" "I mean", does it take a genius not to start at that stupid, foot-in-mouth tagline. Who in the heck do they have doing their PR-Marketing?!

With regards,
FG/TGL

Posted by: guest at October 31, 2007 10:32 PM

"This building is right across the street from the Marcy projects. If there was anywhere that was "dangerous" it would be here..."

Not so. Being across the street from the Marcy Houses is not the same as having to go into them. That's why many people who feel safe on Smith Street would never go into the Gowanus Houses.

And, yes, many parts of Bed-Stuy remain dangerous and crime-ridden. As 5:36 notes, crime stats verify this. Pointing to the safest parts of the neighborhood doesn't disprove that other parts are populated by a low-income demographic that contains the areas criminals (even though the remainder of these residents are decent and law-abiding).

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 9:26 AM

Well I called and emailed and tried to get fresh direct to Prospect and Franklin to no avail - and THE TRUCKS DRIVE THROUGH MY STREET TO GET TO AREAS WHERE THEY DO DELIVER ! It makes no sense. As a couple with a kid and no car, Fresh Direct would have been v. helpful. My neighbors also emailed....Finally we bought a used car and now go to Fairway in Red Hook which is infinitely better ! Screw Fresh Direct. Who needs them....

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 9:58 AM

I have been emailing FD for the past 2 years encouraging them to deliver to my block. As an earlier poster stated, they will go to some parts of 11216 - just not MY part. It is beyond irritating. There are plenty of well-heeled folks in South Stuy who would love to use them, environmentally unsound or not. However, thanks to the Bed Stuy Blog, I just found out that Super Foodtown has online ordering and delivery (and they have been adding lots of organic stuff), so FD can now kiss my ass.

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 11:14 AM

Fresh direct is expensive, not fresh, and limited selection. You also need to order your groceries days ahead of time.
What's their appeal?
Foodtown on Fulton also delivers, as do most grocery stores in the area.
It's an appeal beyond me.

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 11:41 AM

I live in Bushwick near the Myrtle JMZ stop and FD delivers to my building and I think one other building in my hood. I always thought it was 1/2 a business thing because we are the two big apartment buildings in the neighborhood... and half a racist thing... FD just continueing to marginalize the marginalized.

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 12:35 PM

Why all the hubub? Fresh Direct isn't particularly great. The food isn't necesarly "fresh" or "direct." You FD wannabes have succumbed to contemporary marketing and promotion. And that building is seriously ugly.

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 1:56 PM

fresh direct is a business; they will supply any big building where they can make money. this is nothing to do with socioeconomics or race. when they have a building where multiple people are making orders, they make more $$, its a simple equation. i am sure that if enough people in marcy projects wanted to order stilton and chevre, they would find a way to make deliveries there. and the building looks good, excellent even when compared to some of the other crap that has been built further down myrtle or in the surrounding blocks.

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 3:00 PM

Why do commentors on this site always insist that they're victims of some kind? Do you really think that Fresh Direct drives down every street in Brooklyn and determines which buildings they will deliver to? Do you really think they deny one building on a block but will deliver to another because they've somehow determined the racial makeup of said buildings and thereby determined which building is more lucrative and safe? C'mon now, think about what you're typing before you spew it out online for all the world to read...you just sound dumb.

FD is a business. They don't know every street and neighborhood in BK. They could review crime stats by precinct and use that as a tool, but other than that, I'm pretty sure they don't pick and choose neighborhoods the way you're all making it out to seem. All of this said, FD is a stupid and unnecessary service for the lazy and spoiled. It's Meals On Wheels for the upper crust.

That's just my opinion....

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 4:07 PM

"and the building looks good"

Maybe to you it does. To me, it looks like crap.

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 4:30 PM

I'm sure FedEx, UPS, USPS deliver eveywhere..it's snobbery plain and simple..

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 4:36 PM

Of course FedEx, UPS and USPS deliver *pretty much* everywhere - it's in their basic function as a service provider to do so. Fresh Direct however is in no way legally required to deliver to you. They are providing a luxury service and can pretty much deliver or not deliver wherever they choose to do so. but I'm pretty sure it's not snobbery, but good business practice that determines where they will or wont go.
Lets say there is ONE house in East NY that wants FD (and to avoid the *RACIST* comments, you can replace East NY with Montauk or some other out of the way locale). Is it really worth FD's time and money to send a truck and delivery guy all the way out there to make one delivery? Probably not. If you really want FD to deliver to you, gather all of your neighbors and get them all to make a request to the website. If FD sees the dollar signs on your block, they'll bring you your pre-packaged overpriced groceries for sure.

Posted by: guest at November 1, 2007 4:52 PM

Hey,

I'm about a month late to this strand, and most likely, no one will read this but still--I'd like to get it off my chest.

First, just a reminder that by purchasing groceries at Super Foodtown, Pioneer and other stores, you're actually investing in the neighborhood yourself and helping it grow.

For the record: I live in 11221, on the cusp, so to speak, but on a tony block. And, for the record, I'm African American, and grew up in the housing projects of East NY. According to my paycheck, I'm now middle class.

I've lived in this neighborhood for nearly 2 years and have not only never been able to order from Fresh Direct, but I've never had a problem with crime. Is there crime in the Stuy? Of course. But, BS is one of the largest neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and believe me, those single swaths are far enough apart to make the trip completely safe for FD and their drivers -- most of whom, to be honest, live in neighborhoods just like this.

Is this just a business thing? Nah. Growing up, I used to have to walk a good 20 minutes to get a copy of the NY Times. I was required to get it for school, but having read it a few times, my parents and I both kinda liked it, and so each week I made the walk. It also inevitably listed higher paying jobs than the Daily News or the Post, which back then at least, was how so many people in the neighborhood found jobs. Few things have made me feel so marginalized and unimportant than that walk. It made me angry, and determined to get to a place (socially, economically) where I would matter enough to get the paper delivered (at least to a market closer to my home). It also made me wonder if the paper had invested in the neighborhood just a little more, more people could've bought the paper accessed their job listings, which paid more at every level. With those higher paychecks, a drop in crime would have been inevitable, as would an increase in high school graduation rates. More graduates lead to greater college attendance, which leads to better paying jobs, which would lead to more folks buying the damn paper.

By investing in the neighborhood with flyers, and ad or two in the Daily News, FD would foster the burgeoning market here, and their efforts would pay off quickly and in spades. If FD determined to hold on to the stereotype of housing projects as festering nests of lazy, economically disadvantaged people looking for delivery trucks to rob, rather than the overcrowded, only housing resource available for working families they actually are, then fine. Don't deliver to the projects. Just do the brownstones. Sorry for the rant, folks.

Posted by: guest at December 30, 2007 8:32 AM