NYC grocers gripe over fruit vendors so close to their stores: ‘Pick off our customers’
NY Post
City grocery-store owners are blasting Big Apple officials for allowing licensed fruit and vegetable vendors on the same block as their shops — in some cases fewer than 30 feet away — eating into their profits.
In Forest Hills, Queens, a fruit and vegetable stand is located just 25 feet from a Key Food supermarket on the northern side of Queens Boulevard between 71st Avenue and 71st Road.
“They know they can pick off our customers,” fumed Nelson Eusebio, political director of the National Supermarket Association, which reps 600 Key Food, C-Town, Associated, Bravo and other grocers in the city.
The window alongside the Key Foods has pictures promoting the sale of blueberries and asparagus — while the vendor sells the same fruit and veggies within eyeshot.
It’s just one one example of vendors and grocers operating almost cheek-to-jowl.
There are about 500 licensed fruit and vegetable vendors across the city aimed at providing fresh produce to neighborhoods that lack access, according to the city Health Department, which regulates them.
