More Fresh Direct Outreach...

Norwood resident Lis has been kind enough to take on the task of managing the 'Bring FreshDirect to the NorthWest Bronx!' Facebook page, and she's urging everyone to not only call/email FD, but to also send along some good, old-fashioned snail mail. For your convenience she's created the following template you can copy/paste into a Word doc and simply insert your name/address, print, and sign:

May 14, 2010

FreshDirect Management
23-30 Borden Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to request that delivery services be extended to the NorthWest Bronx. Because I live in an area that is considered a “grocery-store desert” that disallows its residents access to fresh, high-quality food, I would appreciate the opportunity to purchase FreshDirect’s groceries.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXX

By the way, if anyone's interested in starting a campaign for their neck of the woods, please be sure to let us know so we can help you publicize it.

Click here to join the 'Bring FreshDirect to the Northwest Bronx' Facebook page.

~ErLu

Bring FreshDirect to the Bronx!

If you read the ole BD regularly, you know there was quite a kerfuffle following a post about FreshDirect's new initiative to deliver their convenient products to Westchester County.

A BD reader emailed and expressed her frustration that FD would literally be driving through the BoogieDown to deliver food, but not deign to stop in non-Riverdale Bronx nabes.

For some reason a Riverdale resident found it rather objectionable that the demographic hoi polloi of the Northwest Bronx would desire or could afford to buy groceries.

A quick call to Fresh Direct shed some light on the matter:

The customer service person I spoke to said that FD does not do market research into per capita income, or other such statistics to decide why and where to expand. In fact, he indicated that they generally respond to demand voiced through phone calls and emails. The end result of the call: Fresh Direct would love to service the Northwest non-Riverdale Bronx; we just need to ask them.

So I implore you, dear readers, to call FD's corporate number between the hours of 8am-5pm (718-928-1000) to request service to your part of the Bronx. You should also email FD on their website. Additionally, you can simply go to their website and create an account with your address - if enough accounts are created, they will extend services! To do this, first enter your zip code in the purple box at the bottom of the homepage that says "Find out if we're delivering to your neighborhood!" You will most likely be directed to a page that says "Home Delivery Not Available In Your Area." Beneath that message, enter your email. You'll be taken to a page that says "Welcome to Fresh Direct!" At the top of the page click on "New Customer? Sign Up." Enter all of your contact into here, and you've officially created an account.

Ansd lastly, make sure to join the newly formed facebook group "Bring FreshDirect to the NorthWest Bronx!!" (generously set up and run by BD reader Lis).

Not from the NW Bronx? Establish your own Facebook group (and still call and email FreshDirect), and be sure to let us know about it so we can update this post with links to your groups. FreshDirect made it very clear that they would love to service the Bronx, they just need to know about Bronxites' desire to be served!

~ErLu

Fresh Direct Now Drives Through the Bronx to Deliver to Westchester

We recently received this infuriating email from a BD reader...Grrrr, so frustrating!

I just read that FreshDirect is expanding their delivery coverage into
Westchester County.
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100406/FREE/100409935

Up until now, I had been giving FreshDirect the benefit of the doubt
as to their reasons they don't serve the Bronx. After all, I thought
their business model of allowing people to order groceries on the web
for home delivery depended not on population density alone, but on
density of population with internet access, bank accounts, and credit
cards.

But now they're driving through the Bronx to get to a county where
they most certainly have to drive considerable distances from location
to location to make deliveries? In Manhattan, they usually park the
truck once and deliver to several households at once with a hand
truck, and that made sense to me. But now they're demonstrating that
they're willing to drive to make a delivery, just not within the
Bronx. That infuriates me. People in the Bronx need access to fresh
groceries, and I have a hard time believing they'd get fewer customers
per square mile here than they do in Westchester.

Currently, FreshDirect seems to only deliver to Riverdale in the
Bronx. I entered several Bronx zip codes into their lookup widget:
http://www.freshdirect.com/about/index.jsp?siteAccessPage=aboutus&successPage=/index.jsp

For those of you who don't know, the Fresh Direct warehouse is located in Long Island City, Queens. So yep, they'll be cutting through the BoogieDown in order to bring a convenient grocery shopping option to our neighbors up in Westchester, and even some in Connecticut!

~ErLu