Fresh Direct Cuts Prices to Win Back New York Customers
CEO’s strategy also includes speeding up delivery to battle Instacart and others in America’s largest online grocery market.
Fresh Direct’s plan to win new online grocery customers includes selling more alcohol.
Photographer: Gabby Jones/BloombergFresh Direct pioneered selling groceries online years before most Americans even considered shopping that way. But now the retailer isn’t even the market leader in New York, where it debuted two decades ago.
Enter Ahold Delhaize, which bought Fresh Direct in a deal that closed in January. The acquisition gave the Dutch retailing giant (2020 revenue hit 75 billion euros) a foothold in the $9 billion online grocery market, America’s biggest. And now it’s turning to Farhan Siddiqi, who is serving as Fresh Direct’s interim chief executive officer while keeping his role as Ahold’s chief digital officer, to better compete with Instacart and Amazon.