Back in the good old days (a.k.a. the Clinton era), a thousand services were clamoring to bring you Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie in the middle of the night. New Yorkers will remember Kozmo.com, the most famous of them all. Sadly, Kozmo is now of interest only to collectors of those neat orange messenger bags or out-of-work bike couriers. They and UrbanFetch.com had the wild idea of shrinking NYC's already compressed streetscapes by using Internet-ordering and bicycle delivery to shuttle around snacks, videos, and other corner-deli items. BarnesandNoble.com was even same-day delivering books in Manhattan.

Thinking bigger, San Francisco's WebVan set up stations to deliver full-blown groceries at the mouse's behest. San Franciscans and others lucky enough to try out the service before bankruptcy will tell you it wasn't too bad. The fruits and vegetables were fresh and tasty. The delivery people were nice, and they didn't take tips. The only trouble was remembering to order the milk before it ran out.

Sadly, WebVan and many of its brethren are no longer with us. But the irony that many commentators highlighted at the time was that online grocery business actually works, just not everywhere. In fact, while Wal-Mart and Target are convinced that their low-margin, giant store businesses won't work in the dense quarters of NYC -- the opposite is true for the online services. Money-losing Kozmo was actually money-making in New York.

FreshDirect is back to show that high-volume, high-quality groceries is a workable business, and they have chosen LIC as their HQ. They have a huge facility near the water and within minutes of the Queensboro bridge in the LIC Industrial Park area to the West of 21st Street. They even have their headquarters nearby on Borden Ave.

Recent Press

A litany of stories recently quote CEO Fedele, the founder of that other gourmet warehouse, Fairway Uptown (at 125th Street), declaring victory for his newest project: