Life Without FreshDirect
By NICK FOX
(John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times)
My stockpiles were depleted. There were no cans of tomatoes and chicken broth tucked under the metal kitchen shelves. There no bottles of seltzer and beer in the hidey hole between the sink and the fridge. Supplies of canned salmon, beans, flour, cornmeal, ketchup and squeeze containers of Fox’s U-Bet syrup were dangerously low.
We hadn’t just been through a flood, I’d just been avoiding my usual supplier of heavy things I don’t want to carry from the supermarket.
Since reading about FreshDirect’s labor and immigration problems I’ve stopped using it, at least until its warehouse workers vote this weekend on whether to remain without a union or to be represented by either Teamsters Local 805 or Local 348 of the United Food and Commercial Workers.
While FreshDirect resolved its issues, I tried shopping online at three Manhattan supermarkets that had already reached accords with their workers — Food Emporium, D’Agostino and Gristede’s — each a union shop.
I’m still waiting for my delivery from Gristede’s. I placed a $66.57 order on Wednesday morning at 10:30 and then got an email confirmation. No delivery time. The next morning I called customer service to ask what was going on. Orders over $125 or more than 60 pounds go out the same day for a $9.95 charge, I was told. Orders less than that get shipped by UPS, for the same fee, and take two business days to process.
There’s a Gristede’s two blocks from my house, I said. Sorry, I was told, that’s the deal. Last night they sent me an e-mail message with U.P.S. tracking numbers for my canned goods, milk (kept in a styrofoam cooler, I was told), and frozen peas (stored with dry ice, they said.)
I’m sure I’ll get my stuff one of these days. But the Gristedes’ Web site itself was not particularly reassuring. A search for canned salmon brought me to products from Bumble Bee as well as Nine Lives. [Update: it arrived at 7 p.m. Friday. My half-gallon of milk and three cartons of peas were packed with enough dry ice, cold packs, bubble wrap and styrofoam containers to ship a couple of hearts for transplant.]
Food Emporium online brought to mind a Porsche with a Kia engine. The Web site was clear and easy to use. The customer service folks were fast and professional. (I wish they worked for my cable company.) Read more …
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