After critics lambasted the sweet, sweet government subsidies that online grocer Fresh Direct received to move its headquarters to the South Bronx, the company is trying to fix some of the more glaring criticisms against it. Come May 21st Fresh Direct will expand beyond the higher-income ZIP codes in the borough and, arguably more important in the long run, the company will now accept food stamps over the internet. more ›

Over the weekend we noticed that Fresh Direct was selling ramps again this year, and for $7.99 per bunch! This is a full $4 over the price you can get them for at the Union Square Greenmarket. Has RampsMania come to this—price gouging? We've reached out to Fresh Direct, who are currently sold out of the seasonal favorite, to see if they could explain the markup, and will update when we hear back. In the meantime, they aren't the only ones making a huge profit off of the foraged item—last week we spotted ramps at Forager's in DUMBO selling for $5 per bunch, and their bunches look suspiciously thin. more ›

Not so fast, Fresh Direct! Last week the Governor, the Mayor and the online grocery store were happily talking up their $130 million deal to move the company's homebase from Long Island City to the Bronx (as opposed to New Jersey). But a funny thing happened on the way to the getting approval—the neighbors started chiming in. And they aren't happy! more ›

Though for a second it looked like it might move to New Jersey, the popular grocery delivery service Fresh Direct is staying in town. Governor Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg and Bronx Beep Ruben Diaz Jr. today announced that, thanks to some hefty financial incentives from the city, state and borough, FD is moving from Long Island City to the Bronx. And it's planning on adding 1,000 jobs or so in the next few years to boot. more ›

City Council Speaker and presumptive mayoral candidate Christine Quinn announced a compromise on the controversial living wage bill yesterday. While it would require companies who receive substantial tax benefits from the city to raise employee wages to $10/hour with benefits or $11.50/hour without, according to Crain's the law would only apply to direct employees of the companies who receive benefits, not their tenants, thus significantly narrowing the initial scope of the legislation. more ›

Over the weekend Wal-Mart quietly launched an online grocery delivery service called Wal-Mart to Go, which could prove to be a tough competitor for Fresh Direct. Wal-Mart is by far the biggest grocer in America; the Times reports that the chain controls about 33 percent market share in the United States. Wal-Mart's online grocery inventory is more diverse than Fresh Direct (12 varieties of Triscuits, compared to Fresh Direct's measly two kinds!) and right now the prices are competitive— the Times found sixteen ounces of celery at Wal-Mart to Go fo $1.98, compared to $3.49 through Fresh Direct. With a Wal-Mart in the works for Brooklyn, some New Yorkers may soon be tempted to reevaluate their contempt for the corporate chain. more ›

Need to warm up? This story should give you the warm fuzzies (sorry). City Harvest reports (via their Facebook) that "FreshDirect donated approximately 72,000 pounds of food this week after Monday’s snowstorm brought business to a halt on the East Coast." The food would have gone undelivered and to waste otherwise. This is a photo from this morning's 1,000 pound drop off at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in Chelsea. more ›

Bad news for anyone hoping to ride out the pending Local 32 BJ strike by just ordering out more than usual: the grocery delivery service Fresh Direct will refuse to enter buildings whose doormen are on strike. The unionized drivers of Local 348S want to show solidarity with building workers, and will make anyone who orders groceries to those buildings meet them on the street and carry the boxes themselves. Union leader Eduardo Cordero told the Times, “We will not be putting our members in any kind of danger or any situation that would provoke trouble... At the same time, the company still has to provide a service." more ›

First we moved grocery shopping online, and now it's made the leap to iPhones. Fresh Direct has launched an app (only available to current customers as of now), allowing folks to phone in their shopping lists, so to speak. The Wall Street Journal reports back saying the "selling point lies in its ability to suggest items based on previous buys," highlighting past orders, deal and favorite items. This is all because the man is watching you; CEO Rick Braddock says the company’s database tracks every purchase a customer has ever made, which provides a profile based on ones shopping behavior. Okay, but when do we get to the real Jetsons stuff, like punching our cravings into a machine and having it instantly pop up on the kitchen table? more ›

Did you hear? The office party's been cut from the budget, according to a poll by FreshDirect & BizBash. This means that drunken coworker makeout, drunken coworker karaoke, and drunken telling your boss off will also be down to an all time low. Just how low? More than 65% of New York businesses are eliminating or scaling back on holiday parties this year, according to the survey of more than 200 event professionals in New York City. Of course, FreshDirect also has a solution to the problem: use their "At The Office" service to cut down on costs and party it up in your cubicles! Last month a catering company told ABC News that the drop-off in business is the worst it's been since post-9/11 2001. Oh well, take a break and watch a clip from The Office's season 3 Christmas special. more ›

The only way to save Harlem for the benefit of its longtime residents is to economically cripple the neighborhood. So says Dr. James Manning of the ATLAH World Ministry church. He's proposing an economic boycott of the area in Manhattan between 110th St. and 155th St., from the Harlem River to the Hudson River. The plan is that once interloper businesses have been driven out via bankruptcy, Harlem will become a less desirable place to live for people like whites, rising rents will decline, and Harlem will have been purged of the problems that have been driving people out of their homes. more ›

Got a tidbit for us? Send it to the feedbag. more ›

Approximately 85 undocumented workers are being fired from the high-end grocery delivery company Fresh Direct on the on the eve of the holiday season because their status as U.S. residents is disputed. Dozens of workers filed out of the company's Queens warehouse. Fresh Direct blamed a federal probe for the axing of almost a hundred workers. According to the Daily News, "management insisted it carried out the purge under pressure from federal authorities to crack... more ›

With 30,000 red yardsticks on hand, New York artist Gene Schmidt is measuring the width and length of Manhattan. Each yardstick is numbered, used once, and later taken to Schmidt's studio and added to a sculpture. The pilgrimage/performance/art project, titled Manhattan Measure, was inspired by an ancient Hebrew text, but also parallels city walking "pioneers" like Mike Epstein. more ›

With more than a dozen new residential buildings being developed in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, the area is getting, you guessed it, another condo tower. more ›

It's been a while (or maybe for some, not long enough) since John Mayer got up on the comedy stage. Well, he's back. This past Saturday he took the stage at the Comedy Cellar, and in a series of "I'm single now" jokes, he touched on Fresh Direct, commenting on the services delivery times: "You know what I could go for, Wednesday between the hours of 2 and 6pm...you know what's gonna eventually be really delicious?" Well, he gets points for effort. Check out his delivery in the below video: more ›

The Coupon Clipper scours the specials for the best deals in New York's big grocery stores. more ›

- Augieland has a food pornrific post on the late night scene at Momofuku Ssäm Bar. Please note the disclaimer in the second paragraph – it was his birthday and he had been well served. more ›

Let’s start with all the cards on the table -- this post may be as hard for you to believe as it was for us to write. As you might expect from people obsessed enough with ingredients to have a weekly column on a single vegetable, when it comes to pre-prepared meals the bar to enjoyment is set rather high. So the invitation to Fresh Direct’s launch of “Fresh Dining by Terrence Brennan” – a line of fresh food, vacuum packed for microwave dining at home -- was accepted with hearty skepticism. more ›

The government is asking Americans not to eat spinach as it continues to investigate the E.coli outbreak related to the leafy green. Spinach - and other vegetable - supplier Natural Selection has been cleared of contamination, but the FDA hasn't lifted the recalls on Natural Selection brands. But some restaurants and grocery stores are still featuring spinach, as the Post reports seeing "spinach soups, spinach pizzas and even bunches of fresh spinach." Now, spinach soups and pizzas might be passable, because the spinach could have been long frozen (how does E.coli do in the freezing temps, though?), but we'd think most customers would avoid spinach. more ›

We love Fresh Direct for its convenience, if nothing else. They've taken it one step further by incorporating a new feature called One-Click Recipes: over 400 recipes from 53 cookbooks including The Silver Palate, The New Basics, The Barbecue Bible, the French Laundry and Bouchon cookbooks, and, one of our favorites, the New York Cookbook. Fresh Direct plans to add new recipes to the site regularly. Not only is there a great search feature -- you can search based on main ingredient, level of difficulty, type of event (date night, cooking for a crowd, etc.), number served, or cuisine, but once you hone in on that perfect recipe, you can quickly and easily add them to your cart. They'll even tag some items as "You May Already Have," just so you don't inadvertently buy yet another bottle of olive oil, and will warn you if you add an ingredient that's already in your cart. On top of all that, certain recipes have tabs that let you make it organic or kosher. Not bad, huh? more ›

The city has stepped up to the challenge and will join NY State as a co-defendent in the lawsuit to stop the redevelopment of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Last month, a bunch of civic groups banded together to sue the state, which is overseeing the project, because there are now 1,200 condos in the mix. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, which filed suit, told the NY Sun, "There will be Fresh Direct trucks delivering groceries. When a child decides to kick a ball, it will bounce off of someone's house." more ›

Lizzy Marlin, Founder of Fizzy Lizzy more ›

Purveyors of all things portable, the grocery delivery service, Fresh Direct, is now offering Fresh Dining meals. Prepared, but raw, these meals are geared to the health and taste conscious, but time-challenged individual. Fresh Direct offers several options, ranging from $6.99-$9.99, four fish, three chicken and a veggie selection. Each single serving meal comes in a microwavable plastic container and supposedly has a five day shelf life. Convenient, healthy and affordable...theoretically this should have been a life saver... a real boon to the busy Gothamite.In reality, however, it was far less impressive. more ›

Valentine's day. We're on the fence. Getting flowers is nice, but we also like getting flowers on the 13th and 15th. Overall there is too much pressure put on the day, on singles and couples alike, and we hate when companies use it to wrangle up the former and pour lemon juice cocktails into their wounded, bleeding, unloved hearts (ahem, Fresh Direct). more ›

The New York Times reports that Fresh Direct is creating a new advertising campaign featuring some rather prominent New Yorkers, Mayor Koch, Bobby Flay, and Paulina Porizkova (did you know she lived here?), to contend with the newest challenger to the New York food world, Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's advertising strategy to get back at Fresh Direct? Nothing. Well, almost nothing -- they plan on using their general advertising strategy, designed to keep their costs low, which consists of sending quarterly mailings to residents in the neighborhoods where there stores are located. more ›

We, like so many others in this city, depend on Fresh Direct to bring us delicious things to fill our cabinets and fridge. They don't judge us if we order too much wine or not enough vegetables. They don't complain about the 5 flights of stairs they climb to deliver us our groceries. But now, our lovable little grocer has delivered us a "Brokenhearted Menu" for the upcoming Valentine's Day. more ›

Okay, so the transit strike is screwing up your holiday shopping. It's time to get creative. Through the magic of Fresh Direct and/or a short walk to your local market/bodega/grocery/gourmet food shop, (and hopefully with the luxury of telecommuting) you can make last-minute gifts for those pesky folks still left on the list. more ›

* Strong Buzz more ›