Naturally, the great Park Slope Fresh Direct debate continues on Park Slope Parents, where our dear and valued friends are pleased to raise issue of import to the community at large. We’re going to highlight several more opinions as to the Satanic or God-like nature of FD before we stop beating this dead horse. We go to the copy & paste:

I’m late to this, but as a transportation professional (I own a moving company), I really appreciate Fresh Direct. All of their trucks run on B20 Biodiesel, so they don’t give our kids asthma when they’re driving through the streets. As far as professional delivery people go, their drivers are safe and law abiding and rarely block traffic. Driving a truck in a densely populated area with little available parking makes that no small feat. Also, as the owner of a moving company, I frequently suggest to people that Fresh Direct boxes are perfect for packing books.

The problem with suggesting people use local stores is that they’re really not a better alternative. My little family lives in the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood. The Met on Henry Street is a couple of blocks away, and we go there in a pinch, but never with our girls because they stack things in the aisle and I can’t get my stroller through. This isn’t something that has happened once. It’s happened over and over again. Plus, while they have a good selection of basic foods, a half gallon of organic milk is $4.98, compared with $3.19 for Fairway’s grass fed, relatively local organic milk. There’s a small grocery on the corner of President and Columbia. It smells as though something died in there, and the cans of food are dusty. Granted, I have been in there only a couple of times in four years, but nevertheless, that’s not a local business I want to support.

Trader Joes, while local, really isn’t as local as Fresh Direct. I first encountered TJs in Tempe, AZ around 1990, and shopped there almost exclusively through college and when we lived in Los Angeles in 2003. And TJ’s has an extremely limited selection of items. Granted, they’re all great, but one cannot live on cheese cake and gyozas alone. And their packaging tends to be somewhat wasteful, come to think of it. We bought pita there one time. It comes in a plastic container, inside a plastic bag. One is enough. Every little bit counts. And while their organic milk is under $6 a gallon, it’s not grass fed, and I don’t think it’s local either. It’s been pointed out already, I’m sure, but if you go to Fairway or Costco, you either have to drive your private car or hire a cab to get your purchases home. I’ve never had Fairway deliver. I know they do, but I don’t know that it’s the same efficient, low emissions enterprise that Fresh Direct has going for it.

In sum, there are a lot of options for buying food, but the fact a store is in one’s neighborhood doesn’t really compel me to shop there, as supporting my local Met Foods isn’t really supporting local business. People who live in Fort Greene or Prospect Heights aren’t buying local when they shop at Target or Pathmark. And I don’t want to even get into the business of bodegas.

I love the idea of being able to buy local and within walking distance of my home. And there are great local businesses that are community supporting (Pizzazz Toyz on Court Street runs fundraisers for PS 58 and PS 29, for instance, during December). I always prefer Margaret Palca over Starbucks, but if I have two whiny girls who want a hot chocolate, and we’re confronted with a long line and no available tables, we quickly find ourselves trudging a couple of blocks north and across the street. Unfortunate, but true. The ethics of how we shop are important, and it’s good to have a conversation about it. But Fresh direct is off target. It makes a huge effort to be environmentally and socially responsible.

And there is this:

Reading all the posts on this thread, I came to the conclusion that in this economy, I think I would love to work for Fresh Direct. I do not own a car, but miss driving and I might enjoy running around in the big trucks. While they do bother people and take up a lot of space, I am sure they are more energy efficient that and entire supermarket, that takes up so much space that could be used for a daycare (or a theatre!!!!) and waste so much electricity and fuel. At my current job I do not have picnics with my co-workers and appreciation day, and I get no tips, especially tips that end up doubling my hourly rate. It would also be rewarding feeling that not only I am providing customers with quality food at reasonable prices, but also I am giving them back the most precious asset New Yorkers have: time with their loved ones. I used FD in the past, but now feel a renewed passion for it and will place an order right away.

And, finally, this before we stop flogging:

This is a really interesting discussion, and I feel honored to live in
an area so environmentally/socially aware. But it seems kinda relative to me. When I get oats in bulk at the coop re-using the plastic bag from my bulk flour purchase, I don’t think to myself (until this FD conversation, that is!) “Gee, why would anyone ever go to a regular grocer and buy a bulky container of non-organic Quaker that will end up in the land fill…” Is reusing the bag, buying local/organic and in bulk and schlepping stuff home by foot (and then feeding the excess to our composting worms) a really responsible way to shop? Sure. Is it the only way to be environmentally responsible? Nah. It seems like a bit of a slippery slope. If FD is a sin, what about eating meat? Driving a car? Having multiple (or any) kids? As my husband and I have debated having a second child (my firstborn has been begging for a sibling for almost two years!) overpopulation has been a huge issue in our discussions (we’ve kicked the car and meat, so we have to have something left to feel guilty
about :). But I’m hoping everyone as worried about overpopulation as we are isn’t scowling at parents everywhere 🙂 If we toss future caution to the wind and reproduce yet again, I’m guessing (as someone who lives beyond the coop’s walker’s range and up three flights of stairs etc) that we may screw the environment even more with ordering from Fresh Direct. Will my heart be heavy? Yes. Will I do everything possible to make up for doing what I need to get through the first few months? Undeniably, yes. Do I hope that my neighbors won’t scowl and judge? Oh, yes!

And we lay this issue to rest, concluding that Park Slope LOVES Fresh Direct and retiring to an undisclosed location so the PSP anti-information dissemination squad does not come around and take a swing for the center fields stands at our head with a Louisville Slugger.