Case 19: FreshDirect Is It Really Fresh?* With a bold promise on its website entry page, FreshDirect claimed, “Our food is fresh, our customers are spoiled…. Order on the web today and get next-day delivery of the best food at the best price, exactly the way you want it, with 100 percent satisfaction guaranteed.”1 However, recently many consumers have questioned the freshness of the food delivered by FreshDirect. Since online shopping does not give the chance for customers to feel and choose the products themselves, they must rely completely on FreshDirect to select the food for them. This notion has not appealed to some customers. Operating out of its production center in Long Island City, Queens, FreshDirect offers online grocery shopping and delivery service to more than 300 zip codes in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau County, Riverdale, Westchester, select areas of Staten Island, New Jersey, and parts of Connecticut. FreshDirect also offers pickup service at its Long Island City facility, as well as corporate service to selected delivery zones in Manhattan and summer delivery service to the Hamptons on Long Island. When it was launched in July 2001 by Joseph Fedele and Jason Ackerman, FreshDirect pronounced to the New York area that it was “the new way to shop for food.” This was a bold statement given that the previous decade had witnessed the demise of numerous other online grocery ventures. However, the creators of FreshDirect were confident in the success of their business because their entire operation had been designed to deliver one simple promise to grocery shoppers: “higher quality at lower prices.” While this promise was an extremely common tagline used within and outside the grocery business, FreshDirect had integrated numerous components into its system to give real meaning to these words. Without a retail location, FreshDirect didn’t have to pay expensive rent for a retail space. To offer the highest quality products to its customers, FreshDirect had created a state-of-the-art production center and staffed it with expert personnel. The 300,000-square-foot production facility located in Long Island City was composed of 12 separate temperature zones, ensuring that each piece of food was kept at its optimal temperature for ripening or preservation—kept colder and cleaner than in any retail environment. Further quality management was achieved by an SAP manufacturing software system that controlled every detail of the facility’s operations. All of the thermometers, scales, and conveyor belts within the facility were connected to a central command center. Each specific setting was programmed into the system by an expert from the corresponding department, including everything from the ideal temperature for ripening a cantaloupe to the amount of flour that went into French bread. The system was also equipped with a monitoring alarm that alerted staff to any deviation from the programmed settings. Another quality control ele ...

1. Case 19: FreshDirect
Is It Really Fresh?*
With a bold promise on its website entry page, FreshDirect
claimed, “Our food is fresh, our customers are spoiled…. Order
on the web today and get next-day delivery of the best food at
the best price, exactly the way you want it, with 100 percent
satisfaction guaranteed.”1 However, recently many consumers
have questioned the freshness of the food delivered by
FreshDirect. Since online shopping does not give the chance for
customers to feel and choose the products themselves, they must
rely completely on FreshDirect to select the food for them. This
notion has not appealed to some customers.
Operating out of its production center in Long Island City,
Queens, FreshDirect offers online grocery shopping and
delivery service to more than 300 zip codes in Manhattan,
Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau County, Riverdale, Westchester,
select areas of Staten Island, New Jersey, and parts of
Connecticut. FreshDirect also offers pickup service at its Long
Island City facility, as well as corporate service to selected
delivery zones in Manhattan and summer delivery service to the
Hamptons on Long Island. When it was launched in July 2001
by Joseph Fedele and Jason Ackerman, FreshDirect pronounced
to the New York area that it was “the new way to shop for
food.” This was a bold statement given that the previous decade
had witnessed the demise of numerous other online grocery
ventures. However, the creators of FreshDirect were confident
in the success of their business because their entire operation
had been designed to deliver one simple promise to grocery
shoppers: “higher quality at lower prices.”
While this promise was an extremely common tagline used

2. within and outside the grocery business, FreshDirect had
integrated numerous components into its system to give real
meaning to these words. Without a retail location, FreshDirect
didn’t have to pay expensive rent for a retail space. To offer the
highest quality products to its customers, FreshDirect had
created a state-of-the-art production center and staffed it with
expert personnel. The 300,000-square-foot production facility
located in Long Island City was composed of 12 separate
temperature zones, ensuring that each piece of food was kept at
its optimal temperature for ripening or preservation—kept
colder and cleaner than in any retail environment.
Further quality management was achieved by an SAP
manufacturing software system that controlled every detail of
the facility’s operations. All of the thermometers, scales, and
conveyor belts within the facility were connected to a central
command center. Each specific setting was programmed into the
system by an expert from the corresponding department,
including everything from the ideal temperature for ripening a
cantaloupe to the amount of flour that went into French bread.
The system was also equipped with a monitoring alarm that
alerted staff to any deviation from the programmed settings.
Another quality control element that had been made an integral
part of the FreshDirect facility was an extremely high standard
for cleanliness, health, and safety. The facility itself was kept
immaculately clean, and all food-preparation areas and
equipment were bathed in antiseptic foam at the end of each
day. Incoming and outgoing food was tested in FreshDirect’s in-
house laboratory, which ensured that the facility adhered to
USDA guidelines and the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control
Point food safety system and that all food passing through
FreshDirect met the company’s high safety standards.2
System efficiency had been the key to FreshDirect’s ability to
offer its high-quality products at such low prices. FreshDirect’s

3. biggest operational design component for reducing costs had
been the complete elimination of the middleman. Instead of
going through an intermediary, both fresh and dry products were
ordered from individual growers and producers and shipped
directly to FreshDirect’s production center, where FreshDirect’s
expert staff prepared them for purchase. In addition,
FreshDirect did not accept any slotting allowances.3 This
unique relationship with growers and producers allowed
FreshDirect to enjoy reduced purchase prices from its suppliers,
enabling it to pass even greater savings on to its customers.
Each department of the facility, including the coffee roaster,
butcher, and bakery, was staffed by carefully selected experts,
enabling FreshDirect to offer premium fresh coffees (roasted on
site), pastries and breads (baked on site), deli, cheese, meats
(roast beef dry-aged on site), and seafood. Perishable produce
was FreshDirect’s specialty—by buying locally as much as
possible and using the best sources of the season, it was able to
bring food the shortest distance from farms, dairies, and
fisheries to the customer’s table.
FreshDirect catered to the tastes of its Manhattan clientele by
offering a full line of heat-and-serve meals prepared in the
FreshDirect kitchen by New York executive chef Michael Stark
(formerly of Tribeca Grill) and his team. Partnering with Chef
Terrance Brennan of New York’s French-Mediterranean
restaurant Picholine, FreshDirect also sold “restaurant-worthy”
four-minute meals. Made from raw ingredients delivered in a
“steam valve system” package, these complete meals were not
frozen but were delivered ready to finish cooking in a
microwave.
The proximity of FreshDirect’s processing facility to its
Manhattan customer base was also a critical factor in its cost-
effective operational design. The processing center’s location in
Long Island City put approximately 4 million people within a

4. 10-mile radius of the FreshDirect facility, allowing the firm to
deliver a large number of orders in a short amount of time.4
Further, cost controls had been implemented through
FreshDirect’s order and delivery protocols. Products in each
individual order were packed in boxes, separated by type of
item (meat, seafood, and produce packed together; dairy, deli,
cheese, coffee, and tea packed together; grocery, specialty and
nonrefrigerated products packed together), and placed on a
computerized conveyor system to be sorted, assembled, and
packed into a refrigerated truck for delivery.
As of 2011, orders had to be a minimum of $30, with a delivery
charge between $5.49 and $6.79 per order, depending on the
order dollar amount and delivery location. Delivery was made
by one of FreshDirect’s own trucks and was available only
during a prearranged two-hour window from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30
p.m. from Sunday to Friday and from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on
Saturday.
Competing with other online grocers, specialty
gourmet/gourmand stores in Manhattan, and high-end chain
supermarkets like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Fairway,
FreshDirect was trying to woo the sophisticated New Yorker
with an offer of quality, delivered door-to-door, at a price more
attractive than others in the neighborhood. Operating in the
black for the first time in 2005,5 by choosing to remain a
private company and expanding gradually, FreshDirect’s owners
hoped to turn a daily profit, steadily recovering the estimated
$60 million start-up costs, silencing critics, and winning
converts.6
reshDirect was launched in July 2001. Cofounder and former
chief executive officer Joseph Fedele was able to bring a wealth
of experience in New York City’s food industry to FreshDirect.
In 1993 he cofounded Fairway Uptown, a 35,000-foot
supermarket located on West 133 Street in Harlem. Many critics
originally questioned the success of a store in that location, but

5. Fairway’s low prices and quality selection of produce and meats
made it a hit with neighborhood residents, as well as many
downtown and suburban commuters.
Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Jason Ackerman had
gained exposure to the grocery industry as an investment banker
with Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, where he specialized in
supermarket mergers and acquisitions. Fedele and Ackerman
first explored the idea of starting a large chain of fresh-food
stores, but they realized maintaining a high degree of quality
would be impossible with a large enterprise. As an alternative,
they elected to pursue a business that incorporated online
shopping with central distribution. Using the failure of Webvan,
the dot-com delivery service that ran through $830 million in
five years of rapid expansion, as their example of what not to
do, Fedele and Ackerman planned to start slow, use off-the-
shelf software and an automated delivery system, and pay
attention to details such as forming relationships with key
suppliers and micromanaging quality control.7
FreshDirect acquired the bulk of its $100 million investment
from several private sources, with a small contribution coming
from the State of New York. By locating FreshDirect’s
distribution center within the state border and promising to
create at least 300 new permanent, full-time, private-sector jobs
in the state, FreshDirect became eligible for a $500,000 training
grant from the Empire State Development Jobs Now Program.
As its name implied, the purpose of the Jobs Now program was
to create new, immediate job opportunities for New Yorkers.
CEO Successions
Although the press was mostly positive about FreshDirect’s
opportunities, growth and operational challenges remained. In
the words of an ex-senior executive of FreshDirect, “The major
problem seems to be constant change in Senior Management. I

6. think they are now on their 4th CEO.”8 Actually, the company
is currently on its fifth CEO in eight years of operation.
FreshDirect cofounder Joseph Fedele had remained CEO until
January 2004, when cofounder Jason Ackerman succeeded him
in that position. Since then, FreshDirect has experienced
multiple CEO changes. Jason Ackerman stayed as CEO of
FreshDirect for a little over seven months, until Dean Furbush
succeeded him in that position in September 2004. Ackerman
remained vice chairman and chief financial officer. The tenure
of Dean Furbush lasted a little over two years. Steve
Michaelson, president since 2004, replaced Furbush as the CEO
of FreshDirect in early 2007.9 In 2008 Michaelson left for
another firm, and FreshDirect’s chairman of the board, Richard
Braddock, expanded his role in the firm and took over as CEO.
Braddock said, “I chose to increase my involvement with the
company because I love the business and I think it has great
growth potential.” Braddock previously worked at private equity
firm MidOcean Partners and travel services retailer
Priceline.com, where he also served as chairman and CEO.
While business started out relatively slow, FreshDirect had
hoped to capture around 5 percent of the New York City grocery
market. The company was originally slated for availability
citywide by the end of 2002. However, to maintain its superior
service and product quality, FreshDirect had chosen to slowly
expand its service area. By the spring of 2011, FreshDirect had
delivery available to selected zip codes and neighborhoods
throughout Manhattan and as far away as Westchester,
Connecticut, New Jersey, and the Hamptons on Long Island (in
the summer only).
The company had employed a relatively low-cost marketing
approach, which originally consisted mainly of billboards,
public relations, and word of mouth to promote its products and
services. FreshDirect hired Trumpet, an ad agency that
promoted FreshDirect as a better way to shop by emphasizing
the problems associated with traditional grocery shopping. For

7. example, one commercial stressed the unsanitary conditions in a
supermarket by showing a grocery shopper bending over a
barrel of olives as she sneezed, getting an olive stuck in her
nose, and then blowing it back into the barrel. The
advertisement ended with the question “Where’s your food
been?” Another ad showed a checkout clerk morph into an
armed robber, demand money from the customer, and then
morph back into a friendly checkout clerk once the money was
received. The ad urged viewers to “stop getting robbed at the
grocery store.”11 As of 2011, FreshDirect enlisted celebrity
endorsements from New York City personalities such as film
director Spike Lee, actress Cynthia Nixon, former mayor Ed
Koch, supermodel Paulina Porizkova, and chef Bobby Flay.12
Recently the company planned to change its marketing strategy
by launching a new testimonial-based campaign using actual
customers, rather than celebrities. FreshDirect was number 70
in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. In 2010 the company
claimed revenue of more than $250 million, an increase of $20
million from the previous year and had grown its customer base
in the range of 20 percent to 25 percent.13
Operating Strategy
FreshDirect’s operating strategy had employed a make-to-order
philosophy, eliminating the middleman in order to create an
efficient supply chain.14 By focusing its energy on providing
produce, meat, seafood, baked goods, and coffees that were
made to the customer’s specific order, FreshDirect offered its
customers an alternative to the standardized cuts and choices
available at most brick-and-mortar grocery stores. This strategy
had created a business model that was unique within the grocery
business community. A typical grocery store carried about
25,000 packaged goods, which accounted for around 50 percent
of its sales, and about 2,200 perishable products, which
accounted for the other 50 percent of sales. In contrast,
FreshDirect offered around 5,000 perishable products,

8. accounting for about 75 percent of its sales, but only around
3,000 packaged goods, which comprised the remaining 25
percent of sales.15
While this stocking pattern enabled a greater array of fresh
foods, it limited the number of brands and available sizes of
packaged goods, such as cereal, crackers, and laundry detergent.
However, FreshDirect believed customers would accept a more
limited packaged-good selection in order to get lower prices, as
evidenced in the success of wholesale grocery stores, which
offered bulk sales of limited items. Jason Ackerman identified
the ideal FreshDirect customers as those who bought their bulk
staples from Costco on a monthly basis and bought everything
else from FreshDirect on a weekly basis.
FreshDirect’s website not only offered an abundance of
products to choose from but also provided a broad spectrum of
information on the food that was sold and the manner in which
it was sold (see Exhibit 1). Web surfers could take a pictorial
tour of the FreshDirect facility; get background information on
the experts who managed each department; get nutritional
information on food items; compare produce or cheese based on
taste, price, and usage; specify the thickness of meat or seafood
orders and opt for one of several marinades or rubs (see Exhibit
2); search for the right kind of coffee based on taste
preferences; and read nutritional information for a variety of
fully prepared meals. A large selection of recipes was available
depending on the items chosen.
Exhibit 1: FreshDirect Website
Exhibit 2: Example of FreshDirect Seafood Selection

9. or example, if you wanted to purchase chicken, you were first
asked to choose from breasts and cutlets, cubes and strips,
ground, legs and thighs, specialty parts, split and quartered,
whole, or wings. Once your selection was made—let’s says you
chose breasts and cutlets—you were given further options based
on your preference for skin, bone, and thickness. The final
selection step offered you a choice of rubs and marinades,
including teriyaki, sweet and sour, garlic rosemary, poultry
seasoning, lemon herb rub, and salt-and-pepper rub.
Throughout, the pages offered nutritional profiles of each cut of
meat as well as tips for preparation and storage.
FreshDirect employed several different delivery models.
Customers within the city were attracted to the FreshDirect
service because it eliminated the need to carry groceries for
possibly a substantial distance from the closest grocery store or
to deal with trying to park a car near their apartment to unload
their purchases. Orders made by customers within the city were
delivered directly to their homes by a FreshDirect truck during
a prearranged two-hour delivery window.
Suburban customers were served in a slightly different manner.
Many suburban customers worked at corporations in the tristate
area that could arrange for depot drop-off in the office parking
lot, creating a central delivery station. FreshDirect would send a
refrigerated truck, large enough to hold 500 orders, to these key
spots during designated periods of time. Suburbanites could
then exit their office building, go to their cars, swing by the
FreshDirect truck, pick up their order, and head home.
FreshDirect could also provide delivery to the parking lot of
football or concert events to provide for tailgate or picnic
needs. In addition to providing delivery, FreshDirect allowed
customers to pick up their orders directly from the processing
center. Orders were ready at the pickup desk five to ten minutes
after they were called in.

10. Business customers in Manhattan could also order for delivery
at the office. Chef-prepared breakfast and luncheon catering
platters and restaurant-quality individual meals were available
for business meetings and upscale events. FreshDirect provided
dedicated corporate account managers and customer service
representatives for corporate clients; however, FreshDirect only
provided delivery, not set-up and platter-arrangement services.
The corporate delivery minimum order was $50, and delivery
costs were $14.99 (see Exhibit 3).
The Retail Grocery Industry
In the United States in 2009, according to the U.S. Department
of Commerce, supermarket chains made almost $556 billion in
sales. The typical supermarket store carried an average of
48,750 items, averaged just around 46,235 square feet in size,
and averaged just over $18 million in sales annually.17 The top-
10 supermarket chains in the United States commanded a large
amount of the total grocery industry business (see Exhibit 4).
Exhibit 4: Top-10 North American Food Retailers
Source: Supermarket News. 2011.
supermarketnews.com/profiles/top75/2011/.
The supermarket business had traditionally been a low-margin
business with net profits of only 1 to 2 percent of revenues.
Store profits depended heavily on creating a high volume of
customer traffic and rapid inventory turnover, especially for
perishables such as produce and fresh meat. Competitors had to
operate efficiently to make money, so tight control of labor
costs and product spoilage was essential. Online grocery
retailers, like FreshDirect—because of the flexibility of
information control, automated order fulfillment, and reduced

11. real estate costs—could potentially have operating margins of
up to 10 percent, rather than the 3 to 4 percent of traditional
supermarkets.18 Because capital investment costs were
modest—involving mainly the construction of distribution
centers and stores—it was not unusual for supermarket chains to
realize 15 to 20 percent returns on invested capital.
The Online Grocery Segment
Total online grocery shopping sales were estimated to be about
$8.4 billion in 2010. However, this number accounts for less
than 2 percent of total grocery sales. Online grocery shopping
had been slow to catch on, and industry newcomers had
encountered high start-up and operating costs. Sales volumes
and profit margins remained too small to cover the high costs.
The problem, according to industry analysts, was that
consumers had been largely disappointed in the service,
selection, and prices they had gotten from industry members.
This, coupled with the extensive investment needed in
warehousing, fulfillment, and inventory control, meant that the
“pure play” e-grocery business models were risky. There was a
belief that better success would come from traditional grocery
retailers that chose to venture online.19
However, some analysts expected online grocery sales to grow
at a rapid pace as companies improved their service and
selection, personal computer penetration of households rose,
and consumers became more accustomed to making purchases
online.20 An article in Computer Bits examined the customer
base for online grocers, looking specifically at the types of
consumers who would be likely to shop online and the kinds of
home computer systems that were required for online shopping.
An Andersen Consulting report identified six major types of
online shoppers (see Exhibit 5), and Braddock predicted that
online grocery sales could account for as much as 20 percent or
more of total grocery sales within next 10 years.21 A MARC
Group study concluded, “Consumers who buy groceries online

12. are likely to be more loyal to their electronic supermarkets,
spend more per store ‘visit,’ and take greater advantage of
coupons and premiums than traditional customers.”22 By 2014,
online grocery sales have been estimated to reach a value of
$13.5 billion.
One of the problems with online grocery shopping was that
consumers were extremely price sensitive when it came to
buying groceries, and the prices of many online grocers were
above those at supermarkets. Shoppers, in many cases, were
unwilling to pay extra to online grocers for the convenience of
home delivery. Consumer price sensitivity meant that online
grocers had to achieve a cost structure that would allow them to
(1) price competitively, (2) cover the cost of selecting items in
the store and delivering individual grocery orders, and (3) have
sufficient margins to earn attractive returns on their investment.
Some analysts estimated that to be successful, online grocers
had to do 10 times the volume of a traditional grocer.24
Potential Competitors in the Online Grocery Segment
When online grocers started appearing within the industry,
many established brick-and-mortar grocers began offering
online shopping in an attempt to maintain and expand their
customer base. Two basic models were used for online order
fulfillment: (1) to pick items from the shelves of existing stores
within the grocer’s chain, and (2) to build special warehouses
dedicated to online orders. The demand for home delivery of
groceries had been increasing, but in many market areas the
demand had not yet reached a level that would justify the high
cost of warehouses dedicated to fulfilling online orders.25
Safeway began an ambitious online grocery venture by
establishing GroceryWorks, an online shopping system that
included a series of warehouses dedicated to filling online
orders. Unfavorable returns forced Safeway to reevaluate its

13. system, and it eventually chose to form a partnership with
Tesco, a UK-based grocer. Tesco filled its online orders from
the shelves of local stores in close proximity to the customer’s
home. Safeway and Tesco worked together on GroceryWorks in
Portland, Oregon, where they received a positive initial
response from customers.26
The craze over health food had created room in the grocery
industry for organic food suppliers to enter as an attractive
substitute to traditional groceries. When asked what kept him up
at night, FreshDirect’s former CEO Dean Furbush said that
Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s moving into a FreshDirect
neighborhood was his biggest threat, as that hurt FreshDirect
the most.
Whole Foods, the Austin, Texas–based supermarket chain with
the organic health food focus, had already threatened
FreshDirect’s sales in Manhattan. Trader Joe’s, another
specialty food retailer, was also opening a store in downtown
Union Square, prime territory for FreshDirect.27 Although
commentators believed there was enough room for all, including
the street farm markets, FreshDirect focused on organic foods to
respond to the threats of Whole Foods and other specialty food
stores.28 With the shift among some customers to paying
attention to local, sometimes organic, suppliers, FreshDirect
highlighted its support of and partnership with the local
companies that provided produce, poultry, fish, cheese, milk,
eggs, and specialties such as wine (Exhibit 6). However, its
efforts have been inconsistent in that area. For example, in
order to facilitate shoppers and checkout operators to
distinguish between organic and nonorganic produce,
FreshDirect wraps organics in plastic, which in itself is not
organic. FreshDirect chairman Jeff Turner recognized that such
an approach seemed incongruous.

14. Rivals in the NYC Online Grocery Segment
YourGrocer.com
FreshDirect’s most geographically significant competitor in the
online grocery industry was YourGrocer.com (see Exhibits 7–
10). YourGrocer was launched in New York City in 1998 with
the goal of being the leading online grocery service for the New
York metropolitan area. By November 2001 the company ran
out of money and was forced to shut down. In the spring of
2002 new capital resources were found, and the company
reopened for business. However, the second time around,
YourGrocer’s approach was a little different.
Exhibit 8: Comparison of Prices for Selected Online Grocers
Exhibit 9: Yourgrocer.com Website
New YourGrocer focuses on providing three benefits that
families in the area most value:
1. Easy ordering over the Internet or on the phone to save hours
of thankless shopping. You can use your last order as a starting
point to save even more time.
2. Delivery right to the home or office, which eliminates the
burden of lifting and transporting heavy and bulky items each
month.
3. Significant savings with everyday low prices—not short-
duration specials—which reduce what you pay for stock-up
groceries and household supplies on average by 25% to 30%
below local supermarkets.
Source: www.yourgrocer.com.
YourGrocer was created with a bulk-buying strategy, believing

15. that customers would order large, economical quantities of
goods from the website and the company would make home
deliveries in company trucks. During YourGrocer’s first life,
the ambitious business plan covered a large service area and
included the acquisition of another online grocery company,
NYCGrocery.com.30 But the business plan was modified in the
second life. The company reduced the size of its staff, got rid of
warehouses, decided to rent instead of owning its delivery vans,
and scaled down its delivery routes.31 Nassau County and New
Jersey were eliminated from the service area, leaving only
Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Rockland,
Westchester County, and Fairfield County (Connecticut).
YourGrocer offered a limited selection of items that could be
purchased only in bulk. Deliveries were made in varied time
slots, depending on the customer’s location in the New York
area. There was a $75 minimum order with a $9.95 delivery
charge (see Exhibits 9 and 10).
Peapod
Founded in 1989 by brothers Andrew and Thomas Parkinson,
Peapod (see Exhibits 11 and 12) was an early pioneer in e-
commerce, inventing an online home-shopping service for
grocery items years ahead of the commercial emergence of the
Internet. With its tagline “Smart Shopping for Busy People,” the
company began providing consumers with a home-shopping
experience in the early 1990s, going so far as to install modems
in customer homes to provide an online connection.
Exhibit 11: Peapod Website
Exhibit 12: Peapod Product Selection
From its founding in 1989 until 1998, the company’s business
model involved filling customer orders by forming alliances
with traditional grocery retailers. The company chose a retail

16. partner in each geographic area where it operated and used the
partner’s local network of retail stores to pick and pack orders
for delivery to customers. Peapod personnel would cruise the
aisles of a partner’s stores, selecting the items each customer
ordered, pack and load them into Peapod vehicles, and then
deliver them to customers at prearranged times. Peapod charged
customers a fee for its service and collected fees from its retail
supply partners for using their products in its online service.
Over the next several years, Peapod built delivery capabilities
in eight market areas: Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Boston; San
Francisco/San Jose; Houston, Dallas, and Austin, Texas; and
Long Island, New York.
In 1997, faced with mounting losses despite growing revenues,
Peapod management shifted to a new order-fulfillment business
model utilizing a local company-owned and -operated central
distribution warehouse to store, pick, and pack customer orders
for delivery. By mid-1999 the company had opened new
distribution centers in three of the eight markets it served—
Chicago, Long Island, and Boston—and a fourth distribution
center was under construction in San Francisco.
In the late spring of 2000, Peapod created a partnership with
Royal Ahold, an international food provider based in the
Netherlands. At the time, Ahold operated five supermarket
companies in the United States: Stop & Shop, Tops Market,
Giant-Landover, Giant-Carlisle, and BI-LO. In September 2000
Peapod acquired Streamline.com Inc.’s operations in Chicago
and the Washington, D.C., markets and announced that it
planned to exit its markets in Columbus, Ohio, and Houston,
Dallas, and Austin, Texas. All of these moves were made as a
part of Peapod’s strategic plan for growth and future
profitability. Under Peapod’s initial partnership agreement with
Ahold, Peapod was to continue as a stand-alone company, with
Ahold supplying Peapod’s goods, services, and fast-pick
fulfillment centers. However, in July 2001 Ahold acquired all

17. the outstanding shares of Peapod and merged Peapod into one of
Ahold’s subsidiaries.
Peapod provided online shopping and delivery service in many
metropolitan areas, including Chicago, Boston, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island, and Washington, D.C.
Peapod employed a centralized distribution model in every
market. As of 2011, Peapod has extended its delivery services
to Baltimore, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, and southeastern
Wisconsin. In large markets, orders are picked, packed, loaded,
and delivered from a freestanding centralized fulfillment center;
in smaller markets, Peapod established fast-pick centralized
fulfillment centers adjacent to the facilities of retail partners.32
Peapod’s proprietary transportation routing system ensures on-
time delivery and efficient truck and driver utilization.
NetGrocer
NetGrocer.com was founded in 1996 and advertised itself as the
first online grocer to sell nonperishable items nationwide (see
Exhibits 13 and 14). NetGrocer served all 48 continental U.S.
states and the District of Columbia and had special service to
Alaska, Hawaii, APO, and FPO destinations. All customer
orders were filled in its single 120,000-square-foot warehouse
in North Brunswick, New Jersey. Orders were shipped by
Federal Express and were guaranteed to reach any part of
NetGrocer’s service area within three to seven days.
Exhibit 13: Netgrocer.com Website
Exhibit 14: Netgrocer Shipping Charges
NetGrocer offered its customers a large selection of brand-name
and specialty nonperishable items that were difficult to find in a
local supermarket. The key customer segment for NetGrocer’s
services were busy families, urban dwellers, special-needs
groups (e.g., dieters, diabetics), and senior citizens. Customers
purportedly enjoyed the benefits of convenient online shopping

18. from home 24 hours a day, access to thousands of products, and
delivery of their orders directly to their homes. Manufacturers
also benefited from NetGrocer, as they were able to distribute
their products nationwide, rapidly, and easily.
Most Recent Challenges
As the online grocery retailing business continued to mature, all
players needed to pay attention to customer perception. Online
retailing giant, Amazon.com had entered the dry-goods grocery
delivery business, posing a threat to other online retailers
because of its existing loyal customer base and legendary
customer service. Creating a grocery section in 2006, Amazon
offered over 10,000 nonperishable items, including “long-time
staples, from Kellogg’s to Jiffy Pop.”33 The selection of dry
goods rather than perishables meant Amazon, unlike
FreshDirect and Peapod, didn’t have to worry about delivery
costs on time- and climate-sensitive items. However, even
Amazon suffered grocery delivery failures, from out-of-stock
problems to delivery glitches and website technical outages.
Online grocery retailers needed to “serve their online customers
just like they would serve the customers who come into their
physical stores.”34
Even though FreshDirect had been able to woo local New
Yorkers, gaining a Fast Company “Local Hero” award, the
company had to absorb “hundreds of thousands of dollars in
parking tickets to get its customers its orders within the
delivery window.”35 And in 2007 New York City government
proposed a congestion charge for traffic entering Manhattan,
adding to FreshDirect’s delivery expenses. The rising cost of
fuel was also a potential threat, even though FreshDirect
included a fuel surcharge on orders, based on the average retail
price of gasoline.36 These expenses, coupled with penalties
accrued from parking violations, might have put significant
pressure on FreshDirect’s ability to achieve its target profit

19. levels.
Environmental concerns also started to creep in as a major issue
for FreshDirect. First, because of the conveyor packing system
at the processing facility, FreshDirect was forced to use lots of
cardboard boxes to deliver the groceries: Produce came in one
box, dry goods in another, and a single tube of toothpaste in its
separate cardboard delivery container. Although FreshDirect
had transitioned to the use of 100 percent postconsumer
recycled paper,37 the reusability of the cardboard boxes was
limited and the general public was increasingly becoming aware
that their tax dollars were used to “collect and dispose of the
huge stacks of cardboards that FreshDirect’s customers leave in
the trash.”38 As one environmentally conscious consumer
observed, “I was baffled by the number of boxes they used to
pack things. Groceries worth $40 came in five boxes. And after
I unpacked, I had to discard the boxes. There was no system of
returning them to FreshDirect to be recycled.”39
A second issue that environmentally conscious consumers
became concerned about was the additional exhaust fumes that
FreshDirect trucks contributed to the urban atmosphere.40
Third, FreshDirect trucks double-parked in busy city streets had
only made the traffic congestion problems worse. “It’s probably
no exaggeration to say that FreshDirect has built its financial
success on its ability to fob off its social and environmental
costs on the city as a whole.”41 Lastly, some city dwellers even
expressed concern about FreshDirect’s adverse effect on the
overall makeup of their neighborhoods: “It is not just the impact
they have on congestion, pollution, space, etc., but their very
adverse impact on the best of businesses in neighborhoods that
they can undersell because of their externalized costs. It is these
small businesses, farmers markets and local grocery stores, that
FreshDirect undercuts, that are some of the best businesses for
supporting and preserving our walkable, diverse and safe
neighborhoods.”

20. FreshDirect served only selected neighborhoods within New
York City. As the neighborhood selection process was highly
arbitrary, many people who lived in neighborhoods that
FreshDirect did not serve had started to accuse the company of
discrimination. As one customer put it, “FreshDirect is the most
convenient way to shop for groceries in NYC … unless you live
in a Public Housing building—they won’t deliver to you!”43
Others echoed similar concerns in terms of FreshDirect’s
decision to not serve specific neighborhoods: “These are
neighborhoods that FreshDirect deems underserved, or in plain
terms … not worth the bother.”44
Some of the recent challenges FreshDirect faced were union
related. FreshDirect’s 500 truck drivers recently joined Local
348 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Some
of the reasons cited by the workers for this move were that
“they made us work 12 and 14 hours a day, then … when some
of us refused we were suspended for three days without pay.”
Also, the workers complained that the wages were pretty low as
compared to wages at other grocery chains in New York.
According to the workers, the initial beginning salaries at
FreshDirect were just higher than $7, with the average per-hour
pay being around $8.50. Workers also claimed that the health
benefit premiums were high and not easily affordable. A firm
spokesman replied to these complaints that “we have incredibly
generous benefits that are more than competitive.”45
Just a few days before Christmas in December 2007,
FreshDirect asked its 900 plant workers to provide legal papers
proving their immigration status.46 As a result, many workers
left immediately, some of whom had been associated with
FreshDirect for 5 to 6 years.47 Surprisingly, the majority of the
workforce rejected the proposal of unionizing (around 80
percent voting against unionization). However, the number of
workers voting was only 530, not 900, because so many
employees had left the company after the immigration-status

21. audit was announced.48 FreshDirect was successful in
suppressing the union revolt, but remaining workers were
demoralized and the company’s image was tainted among its
customers.49
Aside from the labor challenges, FreshDirect was working hard
to woo its customers. FreshDirect started a line of four-minute
meals. These fresh meals were packed in microwavable
containers, and, as the name implies, they could be ready to eat
after four minutes in a microwave oven.
FreshDirect had teamed up with some well-known Manhattan
restaurants and chefs to introduce the four-minute meal concept.
The lineup included Rosa Mexicano for Mexican cuisine,50 chef
Floyd Cardoz’s Tabla for Indian cuisine,51 chef Tina
Bourbeau’s Presto Italiano line of Italian cuisine, and several
others. Another promotion was FreshDirect’s “Valentine’s
Dinner for Two,” which allowed customers to “prepare an easy
and romantic restaurant-quality meal for a special someone in
the comfort of their own homes.” The menu had a variety of
options, including appetizers, desserts, entrées, wines,
champagnes, and so on. This menu came in the price range of
$69 to $99, and the meal needed less than 20 minutes of
cooking time.52
FreshDirect expanded its delivery options with a fixed-price
unlimited-delivery program in addition to the standard per-
delivery fee program, which cost $5.49 to $6.79 depending on
location. The unlimited-delivery program gave customers an
unlimited number of deliveries for a set fee of $59 for six
months or $99 per year.53 FreshDirect also reduced its
minimum order to $30 from $50 in late 2008. Another
innovation was the company’s online customer-created shopping
list. Customers could create and save their own shopping lists,
such as a weekly list, mother-in-law list, and party list. In
addition, the company offered its own tailored lists, such as

22. Simple Suppers, Pantry Basics, Top 20 Most Popular
FreshDirect Items, Healthy Snacks, and Entertaining Essentials,
to help customers create lists of their own.
Neither labor strife nor economic downturn had stopped
FreshDirect’s growth. Looking into the future, there was
speculation that FreshDirect might want to “seek public funding
to underwrite growth possibilities.”55 Since Whole Foods
Market’s acquisition of Wild Oats Markets, analysts felt that
some private players in the New York market, such as
FreshDirect, might consider pursuing investment capital through
an initial public offering.
Another major issue for FreshDirect was their customers’
concerns about how fresh the produce and meats really were.
One of the biggest obstacles to the growth of online ordering of
groceries had been the inability to view and touch food,
particularly fresh produce and meat. Online customers couldn’t
pick up and thump a melon or peel back the leaves on a head of
Romaine lettuce to check for freshness the same way they could
in the grocery store. FreshDirect received numerous inputs from
consumers which basically stated, “I can’t see, touch and smell
the products. I have to rely on you.” This lack of control over
identifying the freshness of the food caused major concerns for
the customers. The company recognized the problem and spun
this negative aspect of online shopping into a positive one by
creating a food-quality rating system. Consumer feedback jump-
started a new way of doing business for FreshDirect.56
In order to accommodate online food shoppers who wanted more
product detail, FreshDirect created its own food-quality rating
system to resolve this challenge. The company introduced a
Daily Produce Rating System that ranked the quality of fruits
and vegetables available for delivery the next day. The five-star
rating system gives shoppers “a foolproof way to ensure that the
ripest fruits and crunchiest veggies are consistently delivered to
their doorsteps,” as advertised in the company’s website. The

23. Daily Produce Rating System is based on a daily inspection of
all produce in stock by a quality assurance team. Rating criteria
include taste, color, firmness, and ripeness. Rankings are based
on an easy ratings scale:
• five stars signify “never better, the best we’ve seen”;
• four stars indicate “great/delicious”;
• three stars mean “good/reliably decent”;
• two stars indicate “average/inconsistent quality/generally
OK”; and
• one star signals “below average/expect wide inconsistency in
quality/probably out of season.”
Results are updated each morning on FreshDirect’s website to
let customers know which fruits and veggies are the best bets
for deliveries to be received on the following day. FreshDirect
also offers the same five-star rating service for seafood, and
some 50 percent to 70 percent of its customers have used the
feature.58 The system aims to simulate the in-store shopping
experience, allowing the grocers to showcase their best stuff
and customers to decide what looks good. “Not everyone is an
expert on the seasonality of a fruit or vegetable, so this system
takes the guesswork out of choosing the best available items,”
said FreshDirect chief marketing officer Steve Druckman. “Each
of the buyers and managers who rate the produce have years on
the job, so they have great expertise. I am not aware of any
other online or conventional grocer that’s developing a system
such as this.”
owever, the strategy came with a big risk: to gain customers’
trust, FreshDirect would have to acknowledge that not every
item it stocked was picture perfect every day. Not everyone at
the company was enthusiastic about the idea. Many feared
backlash from the consumers about FreshDirect’s products not
always being top quality. “Was it scary? Yeah!” recalled Glenn
Walsh, the produce manager. “I thought it was insane in the
beginning.”59

24. Despite the risk, the company claims that the rating system has
changed consumer buying patterns. Around 70 percent of
customers have said they purchased something they wouldn’t
have if it wasn’t for the rating system. Druckman asserted, “One
hundred percent of customers changed buying patterns. The
rating system works. If we put something out like black seedless
grapes or golden pineapples with four stars, we’ll sell twice as
many of those because of their rating than otherwise.”60
Rick Braddock also decided to upgrade FreshDirect’s website,
using the company’s internal database to profile customers and
serve a customized online experience. For example, the site’s
software could now analyze order patterns, reminding customers
of their favorite products and suggesting other items they might
like, a marketing tool that had worked well for Netflix and
Amazon. In addition, the database recognizes whether a visiting
customer is a new, infrequent, lapsed, or loyal customer—and
serves appropriate messages and ads.
It remains to be seen whether FreshDirect can survive all the
changes. Given that only 2 percent of all purchases are made
online, FreshDirect still has a long way to go.