FreshDirect - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

FreshDirect is an online grocer

Online grocer

Online Grocer refers to a grocery store that allows private individuals and businesses to purchase groceries and grocery products online. There is usually a delivery charge for this service...

that delivers to residences and offices in the New York City metropolitan area. FreshDirect also offers next-day delivery to most of Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

and parts of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, Queens

Queens

Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

, The Bronx

The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

, Staten Island

Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...

, Nassau County

Nassau County, New York

Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island, east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532...

, Westchester County

Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...

, Fairfield County

Fairfield County, Connecticut

Fairfield County is a county located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The county population is 916,829 according to the 2010 Census. There are currently 1,465 people per square mile in the county. It is the most populous county in the State of Connecticut and contains...

, Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...

and Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...

. The company was founded by Joe Fedele

Joe Fedele

Entrepreneur Joe Fedele is the founder and was CEO of New York-based online grocer FreshDirect. Creating new processes of the retail business model , other processes such as JIT and "made to order" rather than "made to stock" production...

and Jason Ackerman, a former investment banker who specialized in the grocery industry. FreshDirect custom-prepares groceries and meals for its customers, a manufacturing practice called Just In Time that reduces waste and improves quality and freshness.

Introduced to the New York market in 2002, FreshDirect grew popular for its convenience, fresh food and lower prices than many Manhattan supermarkets. FreshDirect is popular for its distribution of organic food

Organic food

Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.For the...

and locally grown items, as well as items that consumers see in supermarkets daily. FreshDirect also delivers numerous Kosher

Kashrut

Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed...

foods and is recognized by the Marine Stewardship Council

Marine Stewardship Council

The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent non-profit organization with an ecolabel and fishery certification programme. Fisheries that are assessed and meet the standard can use the MSC blue ecolabel. The MSC mission is to 'reward sustainable fishing practices’...

as a certified sustainable seafood vendor.

Operations

FreshDirect uses SAP AG

SAP AG

SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...

software to process thousands of orders placed on its website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

every night. Orders are dispatched to the kitchen

Kitchen

A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...

, bakery

Bakery

A bakery is an establishment which produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.-See also:*Baker*Cake...

, deli

Delicatessen

Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....

as well as fresh storage rooms, produce

Produce

Produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...

ripening

Ripening

Ripening is a process in fruits that causes them to become more palatable. In general, a fruit becomes sweeter, less green, and softer as it ripens. Even though the acidity of fruit increases as it ripens, the higher acidity level does not make the fruit seem tarter, which can lead to the...

rooms and production areas within the company's refrigerated facility. All order components are custom-cut, packaged, weighed and priced. In the case of dry goods

Dry goods

Dry goods are products such as textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, and sundries. In U.S. retailing, a dry goods store carries consumer goods that are distinct from those carried by hardware stores and grocery stores, though "dry goods" as a term for textiles has been dated back to 1742 in England or...

or frozen foods, items are picked from storage before being placed inside bins that travel along conveyors to the sorting area. There, products in a customer's order are scanned and gathered in corrugated fiberboard boxes. The boxes are labeled, recorded and loaded into refrigerated delivery trucks.

FreshDirect is based in a 300000 square feet (27,870.9 m²) building in Long Island City and is one of the largest employers in the area. Though the website and plant processes were in development for several years before its public launch, the company made its first deliveries to Roosevelt Island

Roosevelt Island

Roosevelt Island, known as Welfare Island from 1921 to 1973, and before that Blackwell's Island, is a narrow island in the East River of New York City. It lies between the island of Manhattan to its west and the borough of Queens to its east...

on July 11, 2002. FreshDirect has since expanded service to Manhattan

Manhattan

, Brooklyn

Brooklyn

, Queens

Queens

, the The Bronx

The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

and parts of Nassau County

Nassau County, New York

Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island, east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532...

, Westchester County

Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...

and New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. The company now has almost 2,000 employees, 250,000 customers, and has delivered more than 6,000,000 orders.

Controversy over unionization vote

Employees at Fresh Direct have made several attempts to unionize. In 2004 and 2005, Teamster Locals ran two unsuccessful campaigns to organize Fresh Direct's 500 delivery workers. Following these failed campaigns, Local 348S of the United Food and Commercial Workers

United Food and Commercial Workers

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in many industries, including agriculture, health care, meatpacking, poultry and food processing, manufacturing, textile, G4S Security, chemical...

ran a successful organizing drive in 2006 and subsequently negotiated a contract for Fresh Direct's drivers. Although Anthony Fazio Jr., the UFCW local's secretary treasurer, said his union waged a tough fight to win recognition, some plant workers reported that company officials had openly encouraged workers to sign up with 348S. Local 348S has been accused by other unions of providing "sweetheart contracts" to businesses.

The contract negotiated for the drivers includes no minimum starting wage but has a maximum that caps the highest wages the company must pay at $12 to $18. Raises total $2.55 over the life of the 5-year contract.

In the summer of 2007, Local 805 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters began signing up workers at Fresh Direct's warehouse in Long Island City. UFCW Local 348-S subsequently announced their intention to organize the warehouse workers. 348-S later filed for an election, which was held on December 22 and 23, 2007. Approximately 530 out of the warehouse's 900 employees voted in the election. Of those that participated, 426 workers voted against joining any union, 73 workers voted to join the Teamsters, and 31 workers voted to join UFCW 348-S.

The election, however was mired with controversy. Days before the election, FreshDirect released a memo to its employees asking them to verify their eligibility to work in the U.S., saying it was responding to an audit by federal immigration authorities. As a result, 100 to 300 employees were dismissed, suspended or quit just days before the vote was scheduled.

Union activists and some New York City elected officials have accused FreshDirect and the I.C.E. of intentionally creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. FreshDirect has publicly denied this accusation.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.