There are two grocey stores I like in Manhattan, one real (Wholefoods in Chelsea) and one virtual, (FreshDirect.com). The Wholefoods in Chelsea is quite amazing, albeit slightly pricey. For an organic focused store, their range and variety is outstanding and the quality of produce better than anyone else in the city. I realize that this is quite a statement but one I feel qualified to make. I have had done a lot of cooking and sourced both plain and exotic ingredients uptown, downtown, east and west and nothing comes consistently close. Dean & Deluca, Fairway, Eli's, China Town, Little Italy, Union Square farmers' market, Balducci's and Healthy Pleasures -- I have tried them all.
The only problem with Wholefoods, apart from getting cruised in the aisles, are the long lines. No matter how much effort Joe and I place in planning our weekend trip to Wholefoods we always manage to get there at exactly the same time every visit. The "Crazy but fast" timeslot marked in red on the cashier's handy little time planner.
I was there on the Sunday before the huge snow storm a few weeks back and the line wound back past its usual starting point beside the bakery, around the prepared food section, past the frozen food section, along side the beer bottles, past the OJ and dairy cases and stopped in the corner shelving bottled water! Somehow the line managed to move quickly and with the shoping experience so good, standing in line doesn't seem so bad.
Now FreshDirect is my utopia. It merges my day job as an Internet professional with my passion for food. It would also allow me to simplify yet another part of my New York life. As much as I love grocery shopping at Wholefoods, it's a pain in the ass doing it without a car. Trying to hail a cab, arms loaded with heavy bags is ridiculous, even worse is lugging it all on the subway and then up three flights of stairs. Unfortunately, FreshDirect for me right now is merely a dream since they don't deliver to my area. I have begged and pleaded to no avail.
While I am unable to use FreshDirect's services right now, the planets controlling my work aligned and I was able to visit their processing center this week. Can you tell I was excited just to see this place?
The center is huge and that's no exageration. 300,000 square feet of climate controlled space broken into mini climates that we as consumers would never consider necessary for our produce. For example, bananas and tomotoes are stored separately to prevent the gases from one being absorbed by the other. Groupings of produce have their own micro climates since one temparture zone isn't satisfactory for all produce and would increase spoilage rates.
But that's only produce. Most things are prepared to order, including coffee, chicken, beef, pork, fish and deli items. For instance, long processing lines cut huge sides of beef into smaller and smaller segments, by the time it reaches the end of the line, the cut is exactly as you specified on the website. Its then placed into a "boat" barcoded and sent on its way via a complex system of conveyer belts, chutes, trolleys, pulleys and carousels that wind up, down and around the warehouse to join your other items picked or prepared somewhere else.
I haven't even mentioned bread yet. An item they can't make enough of despite the fact they bake 500 loaves an hour. The enormity of this undertaking astounded me. Not only are there logistical complexities that require understanding, but then you have to add employment, training, computer systems, deliveries and most importantly cleanliness. The place is super clean. They appear to have thought of everything, even then the special non-porous floor tiles that can be easily disinfected, something they do every day.
I should say that as a professional whose job it is to build websites, FreshDirect's is the best in the industry and sets the standard for design, branding, usability and most of all information architecture. I do love this site and am impatiently waiting to actually use it to purchase my daily groceries.
So until they deliver to my area, I need to spread the word. If you are lucky enough to be within a golden polygon (a delivery zone) buy your groceries from these guys. The produce is great and the customer service outstanding. You will never have to look at that carton of OJ and calculate how much extra weight it will add to your shopping bags and whether you have the strength to haul it up and down subway stairs. Best of all you can keep them in business and help them expand into my zipcode.
Sorry to be cranky, but you have committed one of my least favorite punctuation faux pas. I would try to turn the other cheek, but you say you're a journalist. And it's a journalist's job to get these things right.
The problem is a confusion between "it's" and "its". "Its" is possessive. Correct usage would be: "He put it in its place." "It's", on the other hand, is a contraction of "it is". "It's a lovely day, isn't it?"
Below are where I found the mistakes. Please don't take this as bitchy; I truly want to see people using this correctly.
"I was there on the Sunday before the huge snow storm a few weeks back and the line wound back past it's usual starting point beside the bakery"
"As much as I love grocery shopping at Wholefoods, its a pain in the ass doing it without a car."
Thanks,
Pam
Hey Pamela
I do want to thank you for pointing out my gramatical errors. I am surprised you didn't find more. I do understand the difference between the two "its" I just shouldn't be so lazy proof reading my entries. They are usually created around midnight with me sitting in bed trying to stay awake long enough to publish an entry. Your intentions are noted, no offense taken.
Posted by: Domenic on March 22, 2003 10:37 AMyou didnt mention Urban Organic
Have you tried them.
urbanorganic.com
Posted by: gene on May 20, 2003 04:30 PMDomenic:
2 'm's' in grammatical
FreshDirect SUCKS and is such a crock of shit. When are the bullshit lies of this company going to be exposed already?
Posted by: Philanderer on July 8, 2003 11:44 PMI was just as excited about FreshDirect coming to my area in the Summer 2003. I was satisfied with the quality of the ordered food, although the vine tomatoes were delivered unripe and very sour for this time of the year.
It was my third FreshDirect order, when things went WRONG. After I got my delivery, I learnt too late that more then $50 worth of food was missing.
I quickly got on the phone with their customer service, but after 20 minutes of being on hold - left a message. Next day, after no response I emailed. Again, unanswered, finally, got a hold of a representative the day after, who promised me that the transportation department will get back to me withing 24-48 hours.
In the four days after I placed my first complaint, FreshDirect failed to contact me even once! Emails, phone complaint and a voice message went unnoticed.
I made my final phone call, during which a customer service representative apologized for the inconvenience, offered to deliver missing items the next day and gave me a $10.00 FreshDirect coupon.
It was not the missing food, but the very poor customer service and an insulting $10 "for the trouble" that makes FreshDirect far from utopia for New Yorkers.
Posted by: Natalia on September 8, 2003 11:25 PMIn response to Natalia's concerns above, I have to say I've never experienced a problem with FD customer service. My wife and I order from FD pretty much on a weekly basis, and the only problem we've ever had was a couple of broken eggs. FD customer service was easy to reach by phone, and credited us the cost of the entire carton each time it happened.
Posted by: B.McF. on October 22, 2003 12:59 PMI think the best market in the city is Citarella I have tried them all but find the price and quality is a step above the rest. Freshdirect is OK, I would never buy the vegetables or fruit again, you just have to pick something's out yourself, where Citarella is good for everything.