THE REAL COST OF
Are the new grocery delivery
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN &
GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
This is the second story in
Brooklyn Paper’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 apps promise to
get you what you need within
15 minutes of placing your order
— whether it’s a full cart
of groceries or just the carton
of eggs you need to bake
brownies.
But the speed of delivery
isn’t the only draw — it’s the
cost.
Startups like Gorillas,
Fridge No More,
1520 and JOKR advertise
free delivery
or low delivery
charges, and
no minimum order
price.
On their website,
Fridge No More declares
“No extra cost for convenience.
How are prices so
good? Smaller stores = lower
rent.” JOKR says their prices
are about the same as what
you’d fi nd in the local grocery
store.
Each of these deliver from
a series of small, neighborhood
based “dark stores,”
micro-warehouses not open
to the public. A smaller store,
as Fridge No More says,
means lower rent.
“We have less overhead
in a small store than a traditional
shopping center, and
we’re able to have more control
over our inventory and
our waste cost,” said Tyler
Trerotola, U.S. co-founder of
JOKR. “Which we can channel
back to the consumer
through better pricing.”
Unlike grocery services
like InstaCart, where personal
shoppers are sent to existing
grocery stores, these
companies buy their stock directly
from suppliers — there
is no middle man.
“Because we own our inventory,
we can procure
from both your large CPGs
(consumer packaged goods)
of the world all the way down
to your mom and pop shops,
and have all of that in the
same store for delivery. So we
make more margin on all of
that,” Trerotola said.
The companies also keep
track of what sells and what
doesn’t in each warehouse,
allowing them to tailor the
number of items they order
and store – something else
that can keep costs down, as
they aren’t ordering miscellaneous
COURIER L 20 IFE, OCT. 29-NOV. 4, 2021
items that need to be
thrown away.
Making a grocery run
Our reporters placed grocery
orders from some of the
city’s most popular apps
– or tried to – to see
how prices on dayto
day necessities
like eggs, milk,
and toilet paper
compared to the
costs of the same
or similar foods on
different apps.
Besides promising to deliver
your groceries within
15 minutes, “Fridge No
More” also offers 50% off
the fi rst order. However, the
promo code “50Less” had expired.
After contacting customer
service via their app
— they responded within one
minute with a quite cheerful
sounding message — the rep
provided a new promo code,
which worked.
The app doesn’t provide
the option of sorting their
products from lowest to highest
priced, so frugal customers
have to scroll through
the app to fi nd products that
meet their budget. If you expect
to fi nd “no-name” brands
to save an extra buck, you’re
out of luck. While “Fridge No
More” offers brands that can
be found in any supermarket
like Pepperidge Farm and
Charmin, many of their products
are more “high-end.”
After adding a four-count
of “Seventh Generation” toilet
paper at $5.29, 10 oz of ground
Cafe Bustelo Espresso at $4.19,
a dozen large eggs at $3.19, a
loaf of white Italian bread at
$2.89, a 20 oz bottle of Gatorade
at $1,89, Silk Almond Milk for
$4.49, and a pint of “Halo Top
Ice Cream,” sea salt caramel
fl avor at $5.29, and one
of America’s favorite drinks,
Coca Cola, which only comes
in cans and small glass bottles
— checkout was pretty easy.
The total was $27.23, but
with the 50% code, I ended up
paying $19.61, including a 20%
tip or $5.49 for the courier. The
app gives customers the option
of tipping between 10, 15, 20, or
25%. The courier receives 80%
and the packer 20%. Once the
customer confi rms the purchase,
a page pops up, keeping
them up-to-date with the delivery
status of their order.
Delivery was swift. Only
9 minutes after placing the
order, the courier arrived,
handed over the goods, and
went on his way.
A four-pack of Scott toilet
paper at the “corner store”
runs for $6.99, a dozen eggs,
cage-free are $4.99, Almond
Breeze is $5.99, a loaf of Arnold
White Bread is $4.69.
Shoppers who want to get
a head start and place an order
during off-hours hoping
to receive their groceries fi rst
thing in the morning are out of
luck. Like regular stores, the
app is “closed” from 11 pm
to 8 am, and orders can’t be
placed during those times.
Not everything was easy
Orders placed with JOKR
and Gorillas were less successful.
Despite both companies
advertising delivery in
Long Island City, neither had
a warehouse close enough
to deliver on the border between
LIC and Astoria.
Still, fi lling a cart on the
apps was similar in price to
fi lling one in-person, though
the same brand discrepancies
exist — if you’re hoping
to fi nd a house-brand jug of
milk or can of vegetables on
an app, you’re likely out of
luck.
A small order with Gorillas
— which was just a hypothetical,
since we couldn’t
complete the transaction –
amounted to $18.84 for the
THE
RACE RACE TO TO
DELIVER