Online grocer Fresh Direct has launched a healthy foods and grocery service in Center City Philadelphia, and plans to expand deeper into the region early next year.
The company's provides next-day delivery of locally grown fruits and vegetables, fresh seafood, prepared dinners and some supermarket staples ordered at freshdirect.com. Philadelphia is Fresh Direct's first market outside metropolitan New York City, where its annual sales have reached $500 million. Initially, the company will serve zip codes 19102, 19103, 19106, 19107, 19123, 19130, 19146 and 19147.
The company buys directly from local farms, trucks produce to its own warehouse, matches them with Internet orders and delivers them to customers in its own refrigerated trucks. It also offers a variety of fresh (not frozen) prepared meals, some of which come in microwave-ready containers.
Customers pay fees of $7-$9 per delivery, or they can pay $59 for six months or $99 for a year of unlimited deliveries.
Fresh Direct will compete with peapod.com, which is affiliated with Giant Food Stories and delivers throughout Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs.
