New York (AFP)

In New York, FreshDirect promises to deliver fruit, fish and bottled water on the internet within hours and relies on its high-tech warehouse in the Bronx to meet deadlines.

It's the peak of the Thanksgiving holiday, when American families gather around a big table. Everything seems set like a Swiss clock, the computer system watches over it.

On the ground, employees handle pallets, scan labels, sort products. But in the air, the brand's large orange or green plastic boxes seem to be leading their own lives, moving quickly through a maze of treadmills, spirals taking packages to the upper floors, amid countless shelves. rays.

As soon as a user starts shopping on the FreshDirect site, he is spotted. "We know what quantities he usually orders, which truck could be used, and in function, he is offered a schedule of delivery," says Timothy Knoll, the director of operations.

The orders are grouped by destination and boxes can then get started.

- 15 kilometers of carpet -

The treadmills run about 15 kilometers in the 37,000 square meter warehouse. But everything has been designed to limit journeys, which last between 25 and 30 minutes on average.

In the radius of small products, robots pick one by one the desired items in huge shelves and bring them at the desired time to six stations where employees scan them, pack them as needed, and deposit them in a box quickly returned to his course with a big red button.

Water bottles, the most requested items, are stored near the carpet. With fruits and vegetables, employees see the products to be selected on a shelf, and put aside those who are damaged. In a refrigerated room, other employees cut the fish of the day, still flexible in their ice boxes.

"About 90% of our fresh produce comes directly from producers," says Scott Crawford, Marketing Manager. This avoids middlemen and saves time.

"If you order a pound of cod seven days in advance, the fish is still swimming in the ocean for four to five days before arriving here," notes Timothy Knoll.

In order to better predict the supply and avoid waste, "we trust our suppliers and we know how to best manage our inventory," says the manager.

Each product has a barcode identifying its nature, location, and expiry date.

FreshDirect is also resting on the twenty years of data accumulated since its launch in 1999. The company knows how to finely anticipate consumer habits as well as traffic conditions, including depending on the weather.

- profitable? -

The group is not as hegemonic as it may have been in New York but still dominates: it has 68% of the market for fresh produce deliveries in the city, largely ahead of Instacart (13%), Peapod (9% and Amazon Fresh (9%), according to Earnest Research.

Its sales were hit by a slump just after the Bronx warehouse was launched in the summer of 2018. By the time the machine rode, customers complained about incomplete or late orders. FreshDirect has since regained some ground.

The online trade of fresh products "continues to grow and our operation has never been so good," says the company that offers since March delivery for the same day.

"The worst enemy of an online grocer is not Amazon, it's himself," says Paula Rosenblum, a technology specialist for distribution at RSR Research. "There is clearly a market but the question is whether it can be profitable," she says, noting that food margins are generally quite low.

FreshDirect does not reveal its numbers, indicating only managing "thousands" of orders per day.

The company has, in any case, already seen several economic cycles - the average size of turkeys ordered for Thanksgiving varies according to the growth - and various dietary patterns.

"Fifteen years ago, we probably saw more frozen fruits and vegetables, now people want broccoli and fresh Brussels sprouts," says Scott Crawford. "If you do not deliver them properly in New York," a city with a strong character, "then you will not last long."

© 2019 AFP