Pros
- 20% off orders - Discount store (for those working in the Bronx facility) - New senior management with possibility for true change? - Unlimited PTO (but up to the manager) - Great AC in the hot summer months (32degrees)
Cons
My perspective comes from MANY years at Freshdirect throughout its growth from 100's of employees to 1000's. The business has stayed afloat due to a loyal customer base and recent influx of money after being acquired by Ahold Delhaize. The focus at Freshdirect has always been on the customer at the cost of its employees (who received little consideration during the pandemic). While I was considered a corporate employee, I interacted regularly with plant employees which comprise bulk of the workforce. Seems upper management was constantly disconnected from it's hourly workers and even middle management. Leadership in the plant was often incompetent which contributed to high turnover and constant waste in inefficient processes. While revenue has grown over the years so have the costs. Doing thing twice and sometimes 3x has been the unofficial motto at Freshdirect. After hemorrhaging money due to a poorly planned move to the Bronx (16k orders a day to 4k) it’s investors finally caught on and demanded changes. Unfortunately, these came in a series of layoffs which included loyal long-time employees. Founder/CEO Jason Ackerman was first to go- rightfully so - the buck stops here. As many reviewers posted- preferential treatment was common practice at Freshdirect. Hardworking employees were let go while manager favorites were saved. HR, often criticized for being puppets, have all moved on to other companies. (Says a lot about a company when HR leaves) Not sure if the departure of its entire c-suite (including 2 CEOs in 3 years) and several VPs has made a difference. During my time at Freshdirect I also learned the pay scale across the organization was highly inconsistent and lacked transparency. A manger in one department could make 2x that of another department. Allocated raise monies (1-3%) were divided to favor preferred teams even under the same VP/Manager. On at least one occasion I was asked to propagate the lie that there were no company raises while a select few received theirs.
