How Does Fresh Direct Deliver Your Online Grocery Shopping List Order Items To Your Roosevelt Island Apartment - Watch And Find Out

Do you use online grocer Fresh Direct for any of your Roosevelt Island grocery shopping? Business Insider shows us how Fresh Direct delivers your online shopping list items to your door.

How FreshDirect delivers 100,000 grocery orders every week pic.twitter.com/LlFWYCCHdH

— Business Insider (@businessinsider) December 1, 2020

Roosevelt Island was one of the first delivery sites for Fresh Direct, being a test site location in 2002 for the online grocery delivery concept.

Fresh Direct was recently purchased by Dutch company Ahold Delhaize which is one of the largest grocery store operators in the United States.

Fresh Direct Celebrating 15 Years Of Online Grocery Delivery Service - First Order Was 18 Cans Of Artichokes To Roosevelt Island, Was That Your Order?

The Fresh Direct online grocery delivery service company is celebrating it's 15 year anniversary.  Did you know that Roosevelt Island was one of the first neighborhoods receiving Fresh Direct service in 2002?

A resident received and shares this Fresh Direct 15 year anniversary promotional flyer.

According to the Fresh Direct flyer:

2002 Fresh Fact

The first ever Fresh Direct order - which contains nothing but 18 cans of artichokes - is successfully delivered to Roosevelt Island

Were you the first Fresh Direct customer - do you know who the Roosevelt Island resident was that received the first Fresh Direct delivery order of 18 cans of artichokes? Let us know.

Here's a 2016 report on how a Fresh Direct order gets delivered to your door



and 2016 NY Times conference on Food For Tomorrow with

• Jason Ackerman, Co-Founder and C.E.O., FreshDirect
• Matt Maloney, Founder and C.E.O., Grubhub
• Matt Salzberg, Co-Founder and C.E.O., Blue Apron

What's your Roosevelt Island grocery and food shopping preferences?

Whole Foods Second Avenue 57th Street Store Opening Near Roosevelt Island Tram On August 23 - Will You Shop There?

Image From Whole Foods Facebook Page

Reported in February 2010:

... Whole Foods signed on as the anchor retail tenant for a new mixed use development project to be located only minutes from the Roosevelt Island Tram Manhattan Station on 2nd Avenue and 57th Street....

 Image of Second Avenue 57 Street Whole Foods Opening on August 23

A reader tipped me off to Whole Foods announcing on its Facebook page that it will be opening its Second Avenue and 57th street store later this month. According to Whole Foods:

Excited to be joining the Midtown East community - opening our new E57th St store on August 23!

Being so close to the Roosevelt Island Manhattan Tram Station, will that make it more likely for you to shop at the 2nd Avenue 57th Street Whole Foods rather than using current grocery options such as Fresh Direct, Gristedes, M&D Deli, Food Emporium or stores in Queens? There will also be a new organic grocer (Wholesome Direct) opening on Roosevelt Island's Main Street - how will the new Fresh Direct impact that business?

Among the many great items sold by Whole Foods will be Sigmunds Pretzels

 Image From Facebook Whole Foods

Hope that includes the sandwich pretzel rolls.

UPDATE 12 PM - Whole Foods answers:

@rooseveltisland Yes, the sandwich pretzel rolls are in the plan. :)
— Whole Foods NYC (@wholefoodsnyc) August 10, 2012

Initial response by Roosevelt Island residents:

Damn Straight I will... I would rather shop there, pay higher prices and buy higher quality products compared to Gristedes. and shooping at a cleaner store will be nice..

and:

see you there!!!

and:

For Sure!!

and:

I was so thrilled to see that a new Whole Foods was opening at that location...but then saw it was opening after I was supposed to move out of New York altogether. If I still lived on R.I., I would be making a weekly trip there for sure!  

I think Roosevelt Islanders will be making plenty of trips to the Second Avenue 57th Street Whole Foods.

Fresh Direct Trying To Cut Fuel Emissions

From Progressive Grocer on internet grocer Fresh Direct:

...it will begin converting its 150-vehicle delivery fleet to biodiesel next month.

...The fleet will switch to B5, a blend of 5 percent biodiesel and 95 percent regular diesel. By February, the company plans to use B5 in its entire fleet.

And:

"Our trucks are a mass transit system for food in the communities we serve, and we are committed to make the fleet run as clean-burning and low- impact as possible," said Adrian Williams, FreshDirect's s.v.p. of transportation. "Our conversion to biodiesel is but one example of our company's environmental stewardship and support of a sustainable future for New York."

FreshDirect will also begin testing idling reduction technologies to allow truck engines to be turned off automatically after three minutes during loading and delivery. While FreshDirect strictly prohibits drivers from idling, this new functionality enforces compliance. By the end of the year 10 percent of FreshDirect's trucks will be running this technology.

More on Fresh Direct environmental policy at re-nest.
Image from Streetsblog.

Grocery Shopping on Roosevelt Island

Kensington Brooklyn blogger has been posting and readers commenting upon the the quality and variety of grocery shopping options in their neighborhood which I found very interesting as it pertains to Roosevelt Island. For a very long time our only grocery shopping option was Gristedes (I think an earlier and smaller version of the store was called Sloan's) and the Deli on Main Street. Then, a few years ago, Fresh Direct came into existence and I think that Roosevelt Island was one of their first test markets. Other options are the Food Emporium on First Avenue, the Trade Fair on 36th Avenue or Costco on Vernon B'lvd, both in Queens.

My preferences for quality of food, service and price has been for Fresh Direct and Food Emporium. Gristedes is used primarily for convenience due to being on Roosevelt Island although now that am living in Southtown, Food Emporium may be more convenient, particularly with monthly metro card. I have rarely gone into the Deli so I hesitate to offer an opinion on them but I do remember that during the blackout several years ago they were the only store open providing much needed supplies including water and there was no gouging at all. In fact, they were extremely helpful during that period. I have never shopped at either Trade Fair or Costco so cannot venture an opinion.