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COURIER LIFE, D 18 ECEMBER 10-16, 2021
Bodega owners ask
NYC for help as grocery
delivery apps expand
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
New York City bodega associations
are asking the city for help — and for
regulations for an up-and-coming industry
threat.
Francisco Marte, founder of the Bodega
and Small Business Group, and
Radhamés Rodríguez, president of
United Bodegas of America, are calling
for fi nancial help for bodegas across the
city, and raising a red fl ag for a new delivery
businesses they say may pose an
existential threat to their livelihoods.
“These startup companies offering
10-20 minute grocery delivery will
compete directly with our family-run
bodegas,” Rodríguez said in a release.
“If we don’t take action, thousands of
our businesses will close their doors
in the next six months, creating additional
food deserts and harming New
Yorkers’ access to food.”
Those startups are app-based grocery
delivery services like JOKR, Gorillas,
and Buyk, who offer a full range
of supermarket goods delivered to your
door in minutes. With prices comparable
or lower to what’s found in brickand
mortar stores, no minimum purchase,
and low or nonexistent delivery
fees, the apps give customers the opportunity
to get their hands on one or two
forgotten items — or a whole week’s
worth of food — with just a few taps.
Some bodega owners worry that
the apps, most of which launched in
New York City this year, are encroaching
on a niche previously fi lled only by
the neighborhood corner store.
Bodegas – found on almost every
block carrying everything from basics
like dish soap and eggs to deli sandwiches
and beer – have received no
help during the pandemic, Marte said,
and have struggled even as the city has
come back to life.
Marte and Rodríguez are asking the
city — and the incoming Adams administration
— to invest in bodegas with “targeted
public policy programs,” including
helping to develop technology that bodegas
can use to stay competitive.
“Some kind of support to show apps
that can be directed to use the bodegas,”
Marte told amNY. “Bodegas are
not too savvy with this technology.
We’ve already been working with one,
but they don’t have the resources or
the funding to compete.”
My Bodega Online, which launched
last year, currently works with a small
number of bodegas in the Bronx, providing
a platform for online ordering.
Jose Bello, the app’s founder, told
amNY last month that adapting to the
rapidly-changing tech landscape is critical
for bodegas, and said acting quickly
is imperative for bodegas as quick-commerce
A Gorillas courier maneuvers through Manhattan.
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
delivery apps continue to grow.
“This half a billion dollar industry
was created in the last 18 months,”
he said. “By the time that people realize
the effect that they may or may
not have —maybe either they burst as
a bubble, or they take over everything
— it’s too late, they are here.”
“It would be great if the new administration
could help to create
some technologies that help the bodegas
against those dark store corporations,”
Marte said. “Everything is
turning to more technologies, we cannot
be left behind.”
They should also consider the lack
of help bodegas received during the
pandemic, he said, even as they stayed
open to provide their communities
with food and other essentials.
“We need the support so we can
stay here,” he said.
Marte and Rodriguez are also asking
the city to take a look at the zoning
regulations in the neighborhoods
where these dark stores are opening “to
prevent unregulated micro-fulfi llment
hubs in residential zones and commercial
zones,” and urging them to require
quick-commerce apps to offer EBT services
to their customers online.
Bodegas are a longtime staple of
New York City neighborhoods, he said,
and usually owned and operated by
immigrant families and employing
people from the community.
“You see any problems happening,
people, where do they run? To the closest
bodega that is open for protection,”
he said, urging pols to step up to help
bodegas before things get too dire.
“At the worst time, when the city
shut down, we stayed open,” Marte said.
“We risked our lives, we risked our
health, we risked our families health to
give service to the community.”
”
-OPRAH WINFREY-WINFREY
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