Media Advisory: NYC Grocer & Bodega Owners Announce Opposition to City’s Fresh Direct Millions

Press Contact: NYAGS (516) 880-8170

New York City grocers and bodega owners announce their strong opposition to the City and State’s indefensible and anti-competitive proposal to gift Fresh Direct with $127 million in economic development subsidies.

In February of 2012, New York City and New York State announced this massive subsidy package to finance the relocation of FreshDirect to the Harlem River Yard in the South Bronx. South Bronx residents and community-based organizations through the South Bronx Unite! coalition have opposed and filed litigation to prevent the move because, among other things, it would add thousands of car and diesel truck trips every day to a residential community with high asthma rates and a high pollution burden. Grocers and bodega owners join in opposition to this outrageous misuse of public funds that would give Fresh Direct an unfair competitive advantage leading to the closure of vital bricks and mortar stores, and the jobs that they provide, in the South Bronx and throughout New York City.

Hurricane Sandy’s impact on local supermarkets-see Fairway in Red Hook-dramatizes the importance of keeping neighborhood stores alive and thriving-something that the business plan of FreshDirect takes direct and deadly aim at. The supermarkets are the lifeblood of neighborhood commerce and it is outrageous for the city to subsidize a business that threatens their viability.  

Who: Supermarket executive John Catsimatidis, The New York Association of Grocery Stores (NYAGS), the Bodega Association, the National Supermarket Association, Marco Neira of the Sunrise Cooperative, joined by members of South Bronx Unite! and Willets Point United

Where: City Hall Steps: 250 Broadway, NY, NY 10007

When: November, 14, 2012

Time: 1 PM

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