Remember the early days of the pandemic? When acquiring staples like milk and toilet paper was a challenge, and many customers were fearful to even enter stores, and when they did, the shelves were often almost bare? These conditions caused a frenzy of remote ordering, overwhelming the big chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, while sending New Yorkers scurrying to smaller stores with local delivery, third-party delivering services, wholesalers, and a whole crop of direct-to-consumer suppliers like CSAs, fishing fleets, and cheese makers.
Well, a lot of that angst is behind us, but our buying habits have been changed forever by the pandemic, as we continue to order things over the internet and by cell phone, where once we might have shopped in person. And crowded stores — despite vaccines and masks — can sometimes still feel like a threat. So here is a list of establishments that offer the delivery of groceries, household supplies, meal kits, and prepared foods. Some are small scale and involve bicycle or hand cart delivery, or delivery by dedicated truck, so remember to tip — delivery, kitchen, and grocery store workers remain among the most vulnerable populations in the city right now.
Local supermarkets
Local grocery chains have long provided free or inexpensive delivery service within their neighborhoods, usually with hand carts pushed from the store to your apartment.
Butterfield Market: This Upper East Side family owned grocery offers same day local delivery of fresh produce, frozen yogurt, particularly prized baked goods, and other grocery items, as well as prepared foods. Call 212.288.7800 extension 0, or email orders@butterfieldnyc.com, or Mercato for further away.
D’Agostino: The prices at D’Agostino are not cheap, but the selection is large. There are 11 stores in Manhattan, all south of 90th Street. The website provides contact numbers for all stores, and the cell phones of store managers in case something goes awry, though a note warns of delivery delays.
C Town: There are 140 independently owned C Town stores in the NYC Metropolitan area, and the one in Park Slope, for example, offers local delivery of the usual groceries, cleaning supplies, prepared foods, and beer. Check with your nearest C Town supermarket.
H Mart: With five stores in eastern Queens and two in Manhattan, it stocks a beguiling range of East Asian groceries. H Mart offers a delivery service too, the drawback being that it only delivers to zip codes in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and northern New Jersey. Order must be over $35, and a delivery fee of $5.99 applies for orders under $50.
Westerly Natural Market: This long-running Hell’s Kitchen grocery offers organic produce and other natural foods and non-food items for delivery. Orders are taken only by email. If the delivery is in Hell’s Kitchen and adjacent areas, it will be done by the store; anywhere else in the city, the delivery will be UPS.
Manhattan Fruit Market: This family-owned grocery, located in the lower level of Chelsea Market, stocks a wide variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables. Customers can order online via Mercato.
Sunrise Mart: From humble beginnings in the East Village’s Little Tokyo, Sunrise has grown into a mini empire, providing a vast range of Japanese groceries, running to sashimi-grade fish, multiple grades of soy sauce, fresh produce, packaged ramen, candy, and cosmetics. Delivery via Mercato.
Mitsuwa: Facing Manhattan across the river in Edgewater, New Jersey, Matsuwa is a Japanese marketplace that also provides a food court and home furnishings in a shopping mall setting. The grocery store is particularly well-stocked, Delivery via Instcart.
Patel Brothers: Though many Patel stores — massive supermarkets specializing in South Asian groceries, with in New York City and New Jersey — were closed temporarily during the early part of the pandemic, all are now up and running. Most individual stores offer curbside pickup of orders made by phone or online. Begin by locating the store nearest you.
Morton Williams: With most locations in Manhattan, plus one each in the Bronx and Jersey City, the supermarket chain offers a delivery program that seeks to provide same day delivery for orders placed by 2 p.m. on that day by email. Fees apply.
Zabar’s: The Famous Upper West Side grocery will ship throughout the city by UPS or sometimes by truck with a sliding scale of delivery charges, depending on total purchase. Vinegar, spices, olive oil, sauces, pickles and preserves, deli meats, smoke fish, breads, coffees, cheeses, and cooking tools are all stocked. Periodic scheduled delivery of things like coffee and groceries can be scheduled.
Westside Market: This slightly upscale grocery chain with seven locations in Manhattan between 12th Street and 110th Street, some of them 24 hours, will make same day local deliveries by hand cart, depending on distance from the individual stores. Sandwiches, roast chickens, and other prepared foods available.
Farm-based suppliers
These services seek to eliminate the string of wholesalers who stand between you and individual farms, and if you shop from them are likely to enjoy much fresher produce than you would at the chain supermarket.
Strega Provisions: Having once acted purely as an intermediary between upstate farmers and chefs, Strega Provisions now offers seasonal produce boxes delivered anywhere in the tri-state area by truck. Pickings are slim early in the season, but increase as things are harvested upstate. Order here.
Wild Kale: Call itself an “online farmers market,” Wild Kale acts as an intermediary between regional farmers and consumers. It asks that zip code be input, then lists the farms that will ship to that area, with color pictures of the products. The site is currently rich in meats, poultry, prepared sauces and condiments, sourdough bread, and a few wintering-over vegetables like kale and carrots.
Farm to People: Brooklyn based Farm to People provides farm boxes to all of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Jersey City, and Hoboken. It seeks to provide non GMO and pesticide-free produce, and the larder also includes a seemingly random selection of prepared foods, meat, dairy, and sustainable seafood. Delivery by truck, with orders totaling $50 or more free.
Rustic Roots Delivery: This Long Island-based outfit specializes in home delivery of organic farmstead products. Yes, there are fruits and vegetables available for one-time or for repeated scheduled delivery, CSA style, but there are also dairy products, frozen goods, fresh meat, beverages, and a wealth of other things, often of a contemporary sort (e.g., riced cauliflower). Order for delivery the following week.
Local Roots: This service functions in much the same way as a CSA, except that it draws its produce from multiple farms, with a weekly selection offered at pickup points but also via a delivery service in much of the metropolitan area. Weekly boxes vary according to season, mainly priced at $27 to $91 per week.
CSAs: “Community supported agriculture” is a system by which one pays up front for a growing season’s worth of vegetables and fruits, often from a single farm. This means you have no choice about what is provided, but can depend on it being seasonal, and the direct connection with the farmer is an added plus. No wholesaler profit! CSAs are explained here, and to find one with a proximate pickup point, consult the Just Food website, which lists dozens of CSAs in the city, many in neighborhoods underserved by grocery delivery services.
Shushan Valley Hydro Farm: This Salem, NY, hydroponic farm illustrates an important point: It’s a good idea to contact farmers represented at the Greenmarkets directly (their emails and phone numbers are not hard to find) and make side deals for shipping of products by various delivery methods. Shushan Valley has been in the Union Square Greenmarket for the last 12 years, growing heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, greens, and herbs, and are willing to ship directly from the farm via FedEx or UPS. Email: peunderwood8@gmail.com
Our Harvest: This farm-to-home delivery service sells fresh produce, meat, seafood, dairy, baked goods, and prepared foods, with an emphasis on Long Island delivery, though locations in Connecticut, Brooklyn, and Queens are also included. Orders are placed online by entering the relevant zip. The service offers weekend deliveries by location.
Restaurant wholesale suppliers
Many sources of raw materials for restaurants have switched to selling to the public. Most will ship by FedEx or UPS, and have minimum orders that may run to $100 or more, so consider clearing some room in the refrigerator or freezer to stock up on meat, seafood, vegetables or other perishable items. Some suppliers deliver by truck within the city, so check the list carefully. See the full list here.
Restaurants-turned-grocery stores
A handful of restaurants are using their connections with wholesalers and farmers to become de facto grocery stores. Some are delivering produce and other groceries, including in weekly installments, while others offer contactless pickup for locals living in the neighborhood. The selection at these restaurants are largely more limited than that of local grocery stores, but for those struggling to get delivery times from bigger players, it’s both a possible alternative and a way to support a cherished local restaurant. See a running list of those options here.
Miscellaneous
MTC Kitchen: A supplier of nearly everything seen in a Japanese restaurant, MTC provides knives, carryout containers, rice steamers, and other hardware necessities. Perhaps more to the point here, they started supplying Japanese groceries to consumers when the pandemic began, including tofu, noodles and soup bases, nori, 20 different misos, pickles, dumplings, sushi grade fish, and fresh vegetables. Delivery zone: Manhattan, Westchester, and select areas of Brooklyn and Queens. Input zip code to see if you are in the delivery area.
Saxelby Cheese: Specializing in cheeses produced in New England and New York, Saxelby Cheese offers free shipping on orders $50 and over, with a very large selection offered.
Vermont Cheese Council: This organization of cheese producers offers a list of makers that will ship directly to the city, with a broad variety of assortments and arrangements.
Barney Greengrass: The Upper West Side’s favorite preserved fish peddler can provide all the elements of a nosh — the nova, the cream cheese, the bagels — by truck delivery the same day in Manhattan, and maybe some other boroughs, too. Cheeses, caviar, olives, and matzoh ball soup also available. Call (212) 724-4707.
Gustiamo: Bronx combo retailer and wholesaler Gustiamo sells premium Italian groceries in bulk, so for those who don’t mind buying 51⁄2 pounds of spaghetti at one time, this may be a good option. Olive oil, canned tomatoes, dried porcini mushrooms, capers, pistachios, and balsamic vinegar, are only a few examples. Shipping via UPS anywhere in the city and continental United States.
7-Eleven: This national convenience store chain, with nearly 90 locations in the five boroughs, and more in nearby New Jersey and Long Island, provides free local delivery in “about 30 minutes,” according to the phone app that must be downloaded. Good for chips, beer, breakfast cereal, Slim Jims, junk food, and staples like sugar, flour, milk, luncheon meat, bread, and condiments. Typical delivery radius for each store: 1.5 miles.
Homemade by Miriam: A caterer specializing in Mediterranean and North African food and offshoot of the Park Slope restaurant Miriam, Homemade by Miriam offers gift baskets, pre-prepared foods (breads, bread dips, baked goods, soups, salads, and main courses of a beguiling sort) and wines from its website, homemadebymiriam.com.
Big delivery services
Many New Yorkers are still finding delays in getting groceries delivered, though the problem is not as bad as it once was. Here are some alternatives to delivery by the big chains.
Max Delivery: This service, which claims to pay its shoppers a living wage and benefits, says that 90 percent of its deliveries happen within one hour of ordering, fair weather or foul. All delivery by bicycles from specified suppliers like Murray’s Cheese, Davidovitch Bagels, Raffetto’s Pasta, and Pat LaFrieda Meats. Household goods and drugstore stuff also available. Input zip code to check availability in your area.
Shipt: Another of those third party shopping services, this one owned by Target, Shipt encourages you to input a zip code and see what stores are available to be delivered from in the area. Mainly national chains, the stores may include supermarkets, pharmacies, pet food stores, hardware stores, and big boxes like Target, and even Bronx zip codes have delivery options. This service allows direct communication with a shopper while they’re shopping.
Mercato: This Brooklyn based delivery service concentrates on smaller local groceries and specialty food stores, offering a decidedly quirky selection of goods, but one that just may satisfy dining needs and whims neglected by the bigger outfits. It’s also one of the easier ways to get delivery places like Japanese grocery Sunrise Mart, Middle Eastern grocery Sahadi’s, and British grocery store Myers of Keswick.
Fresh Direct: This 14-year-old grocery delivery service based in the Bronx is famous for its fleet of refrigerated trucks decorated with supergraphics, which can be seen idling curbside in many parts of town. It stocks not only groceries, but booze and prepared meals, too. Some delivery slots are in short supply, especially early on in the pandemic, when people would even try to place orders in the middle of the night.
Peapod: It offers truck delivery from Stop & Shop stores, with locations across Brooklyn and Queens, including groceries, household supplies, meal kits, prepared meals, and alcohol, with a contactless delivery option. Available through much of the city, though “limited delivery available” pops up for many zip codes.
Instacart: Instacart is a nationwide third-party delivery service currently available in parts of all five boroughs. Similar to Uber, individuals make your grocery purchases and then deliver them by car. Sources of groceries include Gristedes, Wegmans, Eataly, Foodtown, D’Agostino, Key Food, Food Emporium, and Western Beef. Payment for the service is either a lump sum or per delivery. Fee structure explained here.
Amazon Fresh: Free for Amazon Prime subscribers, Amazon Fresh offers a selection from Whole Foods, with a sliding shipping rate depending on method. As with most Amazon products, delivery may be piecemeal at times. On the positive side, shipping is to any zip code in the city or adjacent areas.
This post was originally published on Monday, April 6, 2020 and has been updated with new options.