‘Save bodegas with technology:’ NYC bodega
associations seek to boost local delivery app
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
A week after asking local
government for help as quickcommerce
delivery apps continue
to grow, New York City’s
bodegas have decided to take
things into their own hands.
Three organizations representing
hundreds of bodegas
citywide are backing a fundraising
campaign for My Bodega
Online, a delivery app
developed by and for bodega
owners.
“The funds will help cover
the cost of hardware, equipment
and jumpstart local marketing,”
said Jose Bello, CEO
of My Bodega Online, in a release.
“We are a grassroot,
bootstrapping startup looking
to ‘save bodegas with technology.’”
Bello, backed by the Yemeni
American Merchants Association,
United Bodegas of
America, and the Bodega and
Small Business Association,
is seeking to raise $37,500 to
get bodegas in the South Bronx
trained and ready to start using
the software — equipping
themselves to compete with
the tech startups they fear will
threaten the future of bodegas.
“This is the fi rst time that
the three of them, the three organizations,
are all working
together on something,” Bello
said. “For me, what is happening
with bodegas is this: they
feel afraid of crime and whatnot,
and they want a solution
for that. And then you have
quick-commerce.”
Quick-commerce apps, like
JOKR and Gorillas, launched
in the city earlier this year, and
have quickly gained popularity
and ground. The venturecapitalist
backed companies
deliver groceries, toiletries,
and home goods in as little
as ten minutes for customers
within their delivery range,
using small warehouses called
“dark stores” and couriers on
electric bicycles and scooters.
While the service may seem
like a threat to grocery stores
at fi rst glance, some bodega
owners fear that low prices and
speedy delivery encroach on
their niche — a quick stop for a
handful of essential items.
Much of the money raised
will go toward “micro-marketing,”
Bello said, putting out the
message to customers that ordering
from a bodega is even a
possibility, and the rest will go
to training and preparation for
store owners and their delivery
workers. They estimated
that each store would need
about $1,500, and have chosen
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, D 18 EC. 10-16, 2021 BTR
25 bodegas in the Bronx to
start with.
“The problem is that the
customers, I feel, they are not
seeing these corner, mom-andpop
stores as a way to get my
groceries online,” Bello said.
“The bodegas that are already
doing delivery over the
phone, even they are having
problems understanding, ‘Hey,
there is another way.’”
Launching the fundraiser
was an actionable step Bello
and the organizations could
take toward protecting those
mom-and-pop stores, he said,
as New Yorkers and local
elected offi cials start to take
notice of the concern about delivery
apps.
As for training, Bello said,
some bodegas already have
an informal delivery service.
Regulars call in an order on
the phone, it gets written down
on a piece of paper, and the
owner sends someone out on
an electric bicycle to drop it off
nearby.
“Now they need to download
the app, it’s an app for
them, they need to approve
the order, take the order, make
the delivery, click again, it’s a
process,” he said. “And then
we realized, in the last three
months, you need a special personality
or skills to do that.”
The stores Bello has chosen
for the fi rst round of fundraising
have designated delivery
workers already, he said, but
both owners and couriers will
get some training as they get
acclimated to a more formal,
customer-service oriented delivery
process.
“To secure our service we
must become part of the online
commerce revolution,”
said UBA president Radhames
Rodriguez, in a release. “We
ask New Yorkers to join this
movement ‘Save Bodegas with
Technology’. We won’t disappear
like the neighborhood
taxi driver bases disappeared
a few years ago when Uber disrupted
the taxi industry. Now
we have our own app and our
own technology and will fi ght
back and win.”
This push to raise money
and get the 25 bodegas in the
Bronx online is a test, Bello
said, and an opportunity to see
how the public will respond.
“If this is successful, and
moves forward, we will get
other funding from other
sources,” he said. “This is giving
the opportunity to the public
to say, ‘Hey, do you like this
idea, do you support bodegas,
do you think the city should
keep bodegas as, somebody
said, the fabric of New York
City.’”
In an effort to combat the rise of
quick-commerce delivery apps,
bodegas citywide are fi ghting back
by launching a fundraising campaign
and starting their own My
Bodega Online, a delivery app developed
by and for bodega owners.
Photo Pablo D. Castillo Jr.
My Bodega Online currently serves seven South Bronx bodegas. Screenshot
Kirstyn Brendlen
JOKR’s micro-warehouse -– or “dark store” -– in the Financial District.
Photo Gabriele Holtermann