Bodega owners ask NYC for help as grocery delivery apps expand in Five Boroughs | amNewYork
By Kirstyn Brendlen
Posted on December 3, 2021
Farm Shop Deli, a bodega in Park Slope.
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
New York City bodega associations are asking the city for help — and for regulations for an up-and-coming industry threat.
Francisco Marte, founder of the Bodega and Small Business Group, and Radhamés Rodríguez, president of United Bodegas of America, are calling for financial help for bodegas across the city, and raising a red flag for a new delivery businesses they say may pose an existential threat to their livelihoods.
“These startup companies offering 10-20 minute grocery delivery will compete directly with our family-run bodegas,” Rodríguez said in a release. “If we don’t take action, thousands of our businesses will close their doors in the next six months, creating additional food deserts and harming New Yorkers’ access to food.”
Those startups are app-based grocery delivery services like JOKR, Gorillas, and Buyk, who offer a full range of supermarket goods delivered to your door in minutes. With prices comparable or lower to what’s found in brick-and-mortar stores, no minimum purchase, and low or nonexistent delivery fees, the apps give customers the opportunity to get their hands on one or two forgotten items — or a whole week’s worth of food — with just a few taps.
A Gorillas courier maneuvers through traffic as she is leaving the warehouse in Chinatown to deliver groceries.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Some bodega owners worry that the apps, most of which launched in New York City this year, are encroaching on a niche previously filled only by the neighborhood corner store.
Bodegas – found on almost every block carrying everything from basics like dish soap and eggs to deli sandwiches and beer – have received no help during the pandemic, Marte said, and have struggled even as the city has come back to life.
Marte and Rodríguez are asking the city — and the incoming Adams administration — to invest in bodegas with “targeted public policy programs,” including helping to develop technology that bodegas can use to stay competitive.
“Some kind of support to show apps that can be directed to use the bodegas,” Marte told amNY. “Bodegas are not too savvy with this technology. We’ve already been working with one, but they don’t have the resources or the funding to compete.”
My Bodega Online, which launched last year, currently works with a small number of bodegas in the Bronx, providing a platform for online ordering and delivery.
![amny-condensed-small-white.png](https://www.amny.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/amny-condensed-small-white.png)
Posted on December 3, 2021
![amNY_GroceryDeliveryApp_4_Holtermann-3-1200x800.jpg](https://www.amny.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/amNY_GroceryDeliveryApp_4_Holtermann-3-1200x800.jpg)
Farm Shop Deli, a bodega in Park Slope.
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
New York City bodega associations are asking the city for help — and for regulations for an up-and-coming industry threat.
Francisco Marte, founder of the Bodega and Small Business Group, and Radhamés Rodríguez, president of United Bodegas of America, are calling for financial help for bodegas across the city, and raising a red flag for a new delivery businesses they say may pose an existential threat to their livelihoods.
“These startup companies offering 10-20 minute grocery delivery will compete directly with our family-run bodegas,” Rodríguez said in a release. “If we don’t take action, thousands of our businesses will close their doors in the next six months, creating additional food deserts and harming New Yorkers’ access to food.”
Those startups are app-based grocery delivery services like JOKR, Gorillas, and Buyk, who offer a full range of supermarket goods delivered to your door in minutes. With prices comparable or lower to what’s found in brick-and-mortar stores, no minimum purchase, and low or nonexistent delivery fees, the apps give customers the opportunity to get their hands on one or two forgotten items — or a whole week’s worth of food — with just a few taps.
![amNY_GroceryDeliveryServices_3102221_Holtermann-21-scaled.jpeg](https://www.amny.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/amNY_GroceryDeliveryServices_3102221_Holtermann-21-scaled.jpeg)
A Gorillas courier maneuvers through traffic as she is leaving the warehouse in Chinatown to deliver groceries.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Some bodega owners worry that the apps, most of which launched in New York City this year, are encroaching on a niche previously filled only by the neighborhood corner store.
Bodegas – found on almost every block carrying everything from basics like dish soap and eggs to deli sandwiches and beer – have received no help during the pandemic, Marte said, and have struggled even as the city has come back to life.
Marte and Rodríguez are asking the city — and the incoming Adams administration — to invest in bodegas with “targeted public policy programs,” including helping to develop technology that bodegas can use to stay competitive.
“Some kind of support to show apps that can be directed to use the bodegas,” Marte told amNY. “Bodegas are not too savvy with this technology. We’ve already been working with one, but they don’t have the resources or the funding to compete.”
My Bodega Online, which launched last year, currently works with a small number of bodegas in the Bronx, providing a platform for online ordering and delivery.