18 NOVEMBER 11, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
THE RACE TO DELIVER
How new grocery delivery apps are
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
This is the fourth story in Schneps
Media’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
The warehouse window display of the Gorillas grocery delivery service in Chinatown, which promises to deliver
within 10 minutes. Photos by Gabriele Holtermann
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
saw grocery store profi ts 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 e-bikes.”
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 most attractive, easily-accessible
location, since the stores aren’t open
to customers.
“We just need to be in ‘A’ markets,
not necessarily at ‘A’ locations in those
markets,” he said. “So we prefer side
streets.”
A Buyk courier delivers groceries in the Village.
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