Personally, I like them, I’m busy (lazy) and LOVE having my groceries delivered. I even ordered their Thanksgiving meal last year because I was too busy (lazy) to cook.

marketing geniuses, clearly.

I just wanted to let you know that Fresh Direct now serves zip code 11216, but only on Wednesdays from 6:30am to 2pm. I called FD to see what was up- I had actually thought momentarily that so many people in the neighborhood were signing up for FD that all of the time slots had already been filled up! But, sadly, no. The receptionist at FD told me that because we are a new area they are expanding to, they are only offering the 8 hour time slot to “test out” the area to see how many customers order from them.

Not only to they dangle the FD service in front of us for over a year, delivering to condo buildings in the midst of broken down buildings (for example, on Spencer St. in zip code 11205, FD delivers to the huge condo building and not to the addresses surrounding it), but through graciously expanding their services, Fresh Direct is barely throwing us a bone here and is exploiting the neighborhood by not offering the full extent of their services.

I asked if this “testing out” policy is applied to all new neighborhoods that FD expands to, and the FD rep told me “no.”

I was also promised an announcement email from FD when they would expand to 11216, and never received an email. I actually had to just log in to see if my zip code was on the list of zips they deliver. Lucky me, 11216 was magically there. No announcement, no coupons, nothing.

The rep had even defensively reported that FD had made the decision to expand to 11216 because of the many, many people in the neighborhood sending in email requests for FD to come to the area. So, if so many people showed interest in the FD service, why the limited delivery times?

Basically, this is an outrage, and I sent a very long email to FD describing each way they are being discriminatory against low income neighborhoods. I’m editing the email and will send it out to the Brooklyn Rail and other community minded pubs.

Please take into consideration that just because Fresh Direct is seemingly providing their services to our neighborhood, they are not offering an equal opportunity for lower income households to take advantage of the benefits of Fresh Direct. I am now boycotting Fresh Direct, and hope others in the neighborhood will too, in favor of researching other possibilities for obtaining fresh food. There is the Bed Stuy CSA, the green market in Fort Greene, and perhaps even other opportunities available that I don’t know about. I would love to know if there is a Bed-Stuy food coop or if there are plans or interest in starting one. It is time to really take an interest in the health of our community, and I’m prepared to educate myself as much as possible.

@star 9: That’s the Jamal and Prince Market, right? I visited them some months ago soon after they opened. I thought that they would be doing some serious business in that area. Hopefully people will drop by and let them know what products they’d like for them to stock.

@Bed-Stuy Shopper: Don’t think that FD will replace our wonderful CSA! I’m going to join the CSA again this year, and I’ve encouraged everyone I know to join, but the CSA doesn’t run year round and if you eat veggies/fruit that they aren’t offering, you’d have to get them from some other source. Finally, FD can be our other source.