Gothamist: No More Spinach - and No More Other Veggies?

B

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:05:48 -0500

Someone keep an eye on the freegans...

Mollygizer

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:21:34 -0500

One of my coworkers here at Washington Square Village just went home sick after eating a salad of spinachy goodness yesterday... it may be closer than you think. He assumed it couldn't happen to him either.

Popeye

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:19:44 -0500

Pizza and soup are all cooked, which kills e. coli. Simple as that. If you're worried, don't eat it raw.

Scott

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:07:17 -0500

Well, waste, if your neighbors don't recycle the FD boxes, they're jerks, I agree there. And it would be nice if FD made some bigger efforts (less packaging, maybe hybrid vehicles like city buses). But there's no denying that there's a TON of waste in the regular grocery store mechanism, too. Delivering to 50 individual retail locations instead of one warehouse -- lighting and heating/cooling those locations -- taking up expensive real estate with bland/windowless storefronts -- it's far from a perfect model. And my FreshDirect orders come to me, 50 blocks north of 96th, where the retail grocery options are slim.

Em

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:17:33 -0500

three times this weekend i've suddenly remembered the e.coli scare - whilst in the middle of eating spinach. two salads and a knish later, am i worried that might get sick? not so much. i finished all three meals.

waste waste waste

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:12:36 -0500

When food comes from outside the city in one truck and goes to the supermarket it is far more efficient than the same food going to Fresh Direct's warehouse only to be repackaged in cardboard boxes and sent back out in trucks that make stop after stop - all while never shutting down their engine (gotta keep the refrigeration going!). All that wasted cardboard is enough reason to shut down Fresh Direct. And Fresh Direct's overpriviliged customers in my building are too lazy to even break down the boxes for recycling. This morning I couldn't even get into the trash room because it was full of uncollapsed boxes (not to mention the trash that my idiot neighbors couldn't quite get into the trash chute). And I find it hard to believe Jen's friends don't have access to good food markets. Someone in the far nothern reaches of the Bronx would have a much better claim to that fact but I'm guessing Fresh Direct's key demographic lives solidly below 96th St.

jmchez

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:56:28 -0500

I hate this! Amazing waste of good food over what? Five cases somewhere in a country of 300 million? 99.9% chance that your spinach is fine. Want more safety? Just don't feed it to children or old people.

Jen

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:54:44 -0500

It might be polluting, but I know that it's very convenient for some people who simply don't have as convenient access to a wide variety of grocery items.

Scott

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:38:47 -0500

Sure, FreshDirect uses trucks... but how do you think the food gets to the bricks-and-mortar supermarkets? On a donkey?

just asking

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:30:05 -0500

Don't you think ordering from fresh direct is actually less polluting than getting groceries from the store?

timbnyc

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 09:48:08 -0500

Great customer service...from the pollution nightmare that is Fresh Direct!