worth it to New York City consumers?
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | OCT. 29 - NOV. 4, 2021 35
pint of Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream,
$5.29, and a dozen Eggland
Large White Eggs, $2.99. What
I couldn’t get on Gorillas was a
gallon of dairy milk — most of
their milks are lactose or dairyfree.
I chose 12 ounces of Ronnybrook
Farm milk for $1.89, but
the real next-best choice was a
half gallon of Battenkill Valley
skim milk, which runs $4.49.
At Food Universe, the same
dozen eggs costs $3.99, though
the store was running a “manager
special,” on a different
brand of eggs — 3 cartons of a
dozen for $5. A gallon of 2 percent
milk was $3.59, Green Giant
Green Beans $1.99, the same
pint of Ben & Jerry’s, $5.59, two
liters of Coke, $2.49, and a fourpack
of Scott toilet paper, $5.29.
At a nearby independent
halal grocery store, a gallon of
milk was $3.49, as advertised
by a sign taped to the front door,
2 liters of any soda, $2.49, and
single rolls of Scott toilet paper,
$1.49. We had some more trouble
with brands on JOKR. We filled
the cart with a bottle of Palmolive
dish soap, $2.99 — slightly
more expensive than the Food
Universe’s most expensive bottle,
which was $2.79, but on par
with a bottle of Ajax at the halal
store – a four-pack of Scott, $3.79,
and 2 liters of Coke, $2.29. The
cheapest eggs, a dozen Alderfer
“humane certified” large eggs,
was $3.49, the cheapest loaf of
bread, “Mestemacher Fitness
Bread,” $3.99, compared to a
$2.29 loaf of store-brand Italian
bread at Food Universe.
We couldn’t find canned
green beans, but the closest
item – a 12oz bag of fresh beans
— was $3.99, and a half-gallon of
Organic Valley 2 percent milk
was $4.79.
All together, the haul was
$25.51, plus $0.81 in taxes and
a $6.00 tip — $32.32 in total. At
the time, the app noted that delivery
would likely take longer
because of the heavy rain.
Of course, your experiences
with these apps may vary.
‘It’s an atrocity’
Some aren’t sold on the
idea of grocery delivery apps,
no matter how convenient or
cost-effective the companies
promise they are.
Friends Jasmine Lee and
Kahlil Robert Irving prefer to
support local businesses and
know the owners.
Lee, who lives and works
in Chinatown, thinks “it’s an
atrocity.” She prefers to pick
her produce and disagrees
that using a grocery delivery
app is faster.
“It’s actually not very convenient,”
Lee said. “What’s
more convenient than just
running down the street to
your bodega?”
Kahlil Robert Irving,
who lived in Brooklyn and
now calls St. Louis, Missouri
home, felt that the constant
evolution of trying to figure
out how to make money by offering
more convenience was
quite problematic for human
interaction.
“It’s about being human.
This kind of evolution of
capitalism is dehumanizing,”
Irving expressed. “It’s
demonizing the possibility of
relationships or sustaining
interpersonal relationships.”
David Bishop, a partner
with Brick Meets Click, a consulting
company that works
with “conventional” grocery
stores, said those established
brick-and-mortars know best.
“The retailer’s inventory
ordering system is fairly automated
in the sense that it’s
looking at historical buying
patterns, overlaying that
with other causal factors
like weather, and incorporating
what the current sales
trends are to replenish that
stock,” Bishop said. “A traditional
grocery store has been
around a long time, so their
understanding of what sells
and what doesn’t is far greater
than what a new entrant who’s
coming in and trying to serve
a specific need may be able to
do.”
Quick-delivery apps, for
now, are focused in dense urban
areas. Since each small
warehouse serves a small
area — maxing out at 2.5
miles, in the case of 1520 —
there need to be a lot of people
living there.
The cost of purchasing
enough land or renting out a
large enough building to run
a traditional grocery store is
much higher in New York City
and the tri-state area than in
rural areas, Bishop said, so
operating out of a store with
a smaller footprint, and that
doesn’t invite shoppers in,
means those companies have
“comparable costs, although
lower to traditional brick-andmortar
grocers.”
All stores try to reduce
waste, he said, because, in the
end, it eats into their profits
— but he said the proof that
carrying fewer items would
result in less waste “remains
to be seen.”
The third installment of
“The Race to Deliver,” scheduled
to run on Nov. 4, will focus
on the potential and current
impacts grocery delivery apps
may have on bodegas, grocery
stores and other brick-andmortar
businesses.
THE RACE TO DELIVER
A Buyk courier delivers groceries in the Village.
/QNS.COM
