hihihihi
existing traditional grocery stores have been more successful in online delivery from their local physical stores. For instance, a leading example of dot-com excess was the flame out of online grocery start-up Webvan in 1999. Webvan burned through $1.2 billion from investors in order to launch its online grocery business in ten markets. Webvan went bankrupt in 2001.
FreshDirect was founded in 1999—just prior to the burst in the Internet bubble. The business plan for online groceries was to focus on a high-density, single metropolitan area like Manhattan in New York City, to offer farm-fresh food, and deliver it on-time at prices about 15% less than local stores. A high-density urban area meant fewer delivery trucks would be needed, and average incomes were quite high in Manhattan. Most investors and commentators thought the task difficult, if not impossible. For many years it was a combination of both.
FreshDirect built a 300,000-square-foot headquarters and refrigerated packing plant in 2000 in the Long Island City section of Queens and made its first deliveries in 2002.
The FreshDirect Web site features around 3,000 perishables and 3,000 packaged goods compared to the typical 25,000 packaged goods and 2,200 perishable items that a typical grocery store offers. To provide the level of service it wanted, FreshDirect created the most modern automated perishable food processing plant in the United
States. While most of the plant is kept at 36 degrees to ensure freshness and quality control, dedicated areas vary from a low of minus 25 degrees for frozen foods to a high of 62 degrees in one of its specially designed fruit and vegetable rooms. FreshDirect butchers meat from whole carcasses, makes its own sausage, cuts up its own fish, grinds coffee, bakes bread and pastries, and cooks entire prepared meals. Cleanliness is an obsession— the factory was built to exceed U.S. Department of Agriculture standards. Despite
FreshDirect was founded in 1999—just prior to the burst in the Internet bubble. The business plan for online groceries was to focus on a high-density, single metropolitan area like Manhattan in New York City, to offer farm-fresh food, and deliver it on-time at prices about 15% less than local stores. A high-density urban area meant fewer delivery trucks would be needed, and average incomes were quite high in Manhattan. Most investors and commentators thought the task difficult, if not impossible. For many years it was a combination of both.
FreshDirect built a 300,000-square-foot headquarters and refrigerated packing plant in 2000 in the Long Island City section of Queens and made its first deliveries in 2002.
The FreshDirect Web site features around 3,000 perishables and 3,000 packaged goods compared to the typical 25,000 packaged goods and 2,200 perishable items that a typical grocery store offers. To provide the level of service it wanted, FreshDirect created the most modern automated perishable food processing plant in the United
States. While most of the plant is kept at 36 degrees to ensure freshness and quality control, dedicated areas vary from a low of minus 25 degrees for frozen foods to a high of 62 degrees in one of its specially designed fruit and vegetable rooms. FreshDirect butchers meat from whole carcasses, makes its own sausage, cuts up its own fish, grinds coffee, bakes bread and pastries, and cooks entire prepared meals. Cleanliness is an obsession— the factory was built to exceed U.S. Department of Agriculture standards. Despite