2 Grocery Delivery Centers Open 190 Feet Apart On UWS: Breakdown

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — You may have noticed a new type of business pop up on the Upper West Side in the past month. The storefront's windows are mostly papered over, but you can still manage to see different types of produce within.

You can't enter the store.

In some cases, teams of young adults in the same colored shirts stand outside trying to talk to passersby about the service.

The new businesses are known as quick-service grocery fulfillment centers, and two of them recently opened on the Upper West Side just 190-feet apart from one another.

The businesses' aim is to deliver a variety of groceries as quickly as possible through an app to your doorstep.

Companies opening the fulfillment centers include Gorilla, BuyK, Fridge No More, Jokr, and others that are using street-level retail spaces to exclusively store items for delivery.

On the Upper West Side, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer's office found that two of these centers recently opened on Broadway between West 102nd and 103rd Streets:a Gorillas at 2681 Broadway and a GoPuff at 2680 Broadway.

The two centers are 190 feet away from another near the northwest and northeast corner of West 102nd Street.

The two fulfillment centers join an area that already has a massive Gristedes grocery store between Broadway and West 103rd and 104th Streets.

Patch also found that a fulfillment center opened last month at Amsterdam Avenue and West 109th Street.

Brewer is questioning the fulfillment centers that "have seemingly sprung up overnight" and "are using street-level retail spaces to exclusively store items for delivery and are not open to the public."

On Thursday, she sent a letter to the New York City Department of Buildings, the New York State Liquor Authority, the NYC Department of Health, and the NYC Department of Planning about her concerns over the fulfillment centers.

"I am concerned that these services compete with existing supermarkets, bodegas and other food and beverage establishments, and occupy spaces that are now no longer available to the public," Brewer wrote. "They deaden our streetscapes, as windows are sometimes papered over and there is no ability to actually enter and shop, thereby reducing foot traffic, which ultimately impacts adjacent small businesses."

Brewer's letter also included at least 15 Manhattan locations of the new fulfillment centers.

The Manhattan Borough President also pointed to zoning issues with where the centers should be permitted in the borough, and concerns over some of the establishments selling alcohol without the required SLA licenses on public display.

Here is Brewer's complete letter.

VICE recently published an article about the new "15-minute grocery delivery" sites appearing throughout the city that features an explanation from Ralf Wenzel, the founder of Jokr, over his disdain for spending hours every time he grocery shopped in the city and it pushing him to create the service.

Wenzel also argues that the services will cut down on food waste.

You can read the full VICE article about the new fulfillment centers on its website.