FreshDirect Fights Local Critics with New Website

Written by Jon Lentz on . Posted in Breaking News.

Critics have blasted FreshDirect’s government-subsidized move from Queens to the Bronx as a waste of taxpayer dollars with little benefit to local residents, as well as a serious health issue since more delivery trucks could exacerbate the borough’s already high asthma rates. So this week the online grocer is striking back with a new web site, www.freshdirectfacts.com, which defends the $127.8 million in city and state subsidies and posts a slew of positive newspaper editorials, supportive quotes and upbeat press releases. The web site also touts 3,000 “good-paying jobs” created or retained, the development of greener trucks and the economic boost from construction and other jobs. “One of the things the site does is address misinformation around FreshDirect’s move to the Bronx,” a company spokesman said. But critics remain unmoved. “I think they’re trying to make up for the fact that they’re just not a good corporate citizen,” Bettina Damiani, of Good Jobs New York, said after perusing the site. “They threatened to go to New Jersey unless New Yorkers gave them more money.”

This piece first appeared in City & State’s Heard Around Town, April 24, 2012. To read more from City & State click here.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Trackback from your site.

  • Jen Ramos

    Lies. See the website http://www.boycottfreshdirect.com/

    Sign the petition. Do not let Cuomo and Bloomberg give away $130 million of our money to a company near bankruptcy that pollutes, wants to take over the South BRonx waterfront and pays workers 8$ an hour.

  • Mychal Johnson

    If Fresh Directs PR department creates another 10 websites, they still can’t legitamize the need to bring 2000 additional vehicle trips per day to an area overstaturated with traffic and air quality issues. The website doesn’t address why they think it’s ok to build on land that is none to have a native american settlement and burial ground. If they don’t create one additional job they don’t have to give back one cent. Write their response to this.

  • http://www.lilykesselman.com Lily Kesselman

    FreshDirect is misleading taxpayers and with $127 million in taxpayer dollars they can afford to hire companies to do PR for them.

    They don’t mention residents will have to suffer an additional 2,000 truck trips PER DAY through their residential neighborhoods. They don’t mention their $8 per hour part time jobs will be EXEMPT from the Fair Living Wage Act. They don’t mention their factory and trucks will be located NEXT TO the waste transfer station. They don’t mention they are building on STATE OWNED PROPERTY. They don’t mention this was never brought to the local community board. They don’t mention that their factory will be built in a neighborhood with one of the highest asthma rates in the country. They don’t mention the LEAST EXPENSIVE option is to stay in Queens and expand. And the don’t mention the thousands they spent lobbying the tens of thousands of dollars they spent lobbying the Mayor, the NYCEDC, NYC City Council and the Department of City Planning. They also don’t mention the 380 TONS of solid waste they produce monthly NOT INCLUDING their delivery boxes. And the 10 electric trucks they intend to buy? Well the company that manufactures them isn’t even built yet. This is a bunch of empty promises to take subsidies to promote private profits.

    New York taxpayers should be aware of where their hard-earned dollars are going and maybe look past corporate websites aimed at misleading consumers. There’s nothing “green” about FreshDirect.

  • Monxo

    FreshDirect’s site is full of it. It shows that they have felt the bite of its critics and are on the defensive. It is just pathetic. South Bronx residents have offered to meet with FD’s management numerous times, to no avail. Instead, they use their government subsidies, tax brakes, and exemptions to put up this site packed with lies, instead of facing its critics honorably. It is a cowardly and shameful spectacle indeed. And it shows that a people organized will put these creeps on the run. Boycottfreshdirect [dot] com – southbronxunite [dot] com

    Moving to the SouthBronx is SOOOO not happening!!! Ha ha ha.

..