How new grocery delivery apps are
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
This is the fourth story in
amNewYork Metro’s fi ve-part
series examining the proliferation
of grocery delivery services
across the city — and the impact
they’re having on residents and
brick-and-mortar business owners
alike.
New quick-commerce grocery
delivery companies sweeping
New York City have several
things in common: they’re all
app-based, their couriers primarily
travel on electric bicycles
and scooters, and their
goal is to get customers their
groceries within 20 minutes.
The speed of delivery is
the backbone of their business
model, and they accomplish
it with “dark stores,” micro
warehouses stocked goods
and groceries and placed in
their target neighborhoods.
Each dark store serves about
one square mile, on average
— about an eight-minute ride
from the warehouse to the edge
of the delivery zone.
All launched in New York
City in the past year, apps like
JOKR, Gorillas, Buyk, and
Fridge No More have expanded
rapidly, and they’re not done
yet — JOKR started up in June
with only four warehouses and
plan to operate 20 by the end of
the year, and Buyk recently announced
their expansion into
Brooklyn, Queens, and the
Bronx, doubling their number
of dark stores to 20 and making
them the fi rst of the companies
with a presence in the northernmost
borough.
At the heart of this rapid
expansion is real estate. Any
retail business needs space,
whether it’s a warehouse or
a storefront, and fi nding an
empty space that checks all the
boxes and won’t break the bank
is a challenge in the city, especially
in the neighborhoods occupied
by the apps’ target demographics
— mostly young
families or professionals living
in well-to-do areas like Williamsburg
and lower Manhattan.
Alex Beard, a managing director
with Ripco Real Estate,
has worked in commercial
real estate in New York City
for 15 years. Earlier this year,
he started working with Gorillas
as they sought out available
space for their dark stores, including
a ten-year lease in the
former home of a grocery store
on the Lower East Side.
Gorillas is expanding faster
than any other business he’s
seen in his career, he said.
“This is new, as far as speed
of expansion,” he said. “I mean,
Gorillas’ motto is ‘Faster than
you,’ so it’s not surprising
that they’re expanding at the
rate that they’re expanding. I
started working with them in
March of this year, there’s now
16 units in the city, and more
coming, we have leases out.”
The low prices and increasing
popularity of grocery delivery
apps worry the owners
of existing grocery stores
and bodegas. While the pandemic
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, N 8 OV. 12-18, 2021 BTR
saw grocery store profits
soar, many bodegas are still
struggling to recover, and one
Brooklyn grocery store owner,
who asked not to be named,
said it’s likely easier for the
apps to expand than it would be
for a brick-and-mortar grocery.
“We’re looking for 60,000
feet minimum,” he said. “I’ve
seen some delivery app pop-up
locations where they’re taking
advantage of empty commercial
spaces in the city as a result
of the pandemic. They’re
putting up these gondolas, putting
limited SKUs, and they’re
off to the races on their ebikes.”
Beard said looking for
space for Gorillas isn’t necessarily
easier than looking for
a grocery store or other retailer.
They need 3,000 square
feet at minimum, and “at
grade,” or level with the street
— no steps up or down.
One thing that does work
to their advantage is that
they’re not looking for the
THE RACE
TO
DELIVER
A Buyk courier delivers groceries
in the Village. Photo Gabriele
Holtermann