N.Y. bodega owner says Silicon Valley startup Bodega 'should be illegal'

Story transcript

Freddie Rah says a new startup called Bodega "should be illegal."

He owns the Fresh Food Market Deli & Grocery in Lower Manhattan and he's joining a chorus of convenience store owners speaking out against the new venture by two ex-Google employees.

"They will take business from our stores," Rah told As It Happens guest host Jim Brown. "They're putting a lot of people's lives on the line. All those stores, all those employees [who] work inside the store."

Paul McDonald and Ashwath Rajan unveiled Bodega — named after the popular term for U.S. corner stores — in a Fast Company article headlined: "Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete."

Here's how it works. McDonald and Rajan aim to have pantry-like boxes full of non-perishable snack items installed inside apartment buildings. 

Customers can use the Bodega app to unlock the boxes and grab what they need, while camera sensors track what's been taken and charge the user's credit card.

But the company has faced intense backlash, both about the concept and the name.

"That's a fake name. They're not bodega," Rah said. "Bodega is totally different than this small machine, you know. It's a store that you walk in and you communicate with people."

Rah was speaking with As It Happens from inside his store when a customer walked in, and Rah greeted him with a boisterois: "Hey man, how ya feelin'?"

"Good!" the man chimed back, and the two engaged in some friendly banter before Rah continued with the interview. 

"I don't think a machine can tell him this," Rah said. 

"I mean, you don't have to walk to the store to know about me. If you come to the neighbourhood, even three blocks away from the store, just ask, 'Where can I find a bodega?' They will tell you go to Fresh Food Market. Why? Not because they just serve good food, but because they have good personality, they treat the customer as a family."

Bodega's founders, meanwhile, have gone on the defence. 

"Challenging the urban corner store is not and has never been our goal," McDonald wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

There are approximately 80 Bodega machines in operation on the west coast. The company says it plans to open more than a 1,000 by 2018. 

"We want to bring commerce to places where commerce currently doesn't exist. Rather than take away jobs, we hope Bodega will help create them. We see a future where anyone can own and operate a Bodega — delivering relevant items and a great retail experience to places no corner store would ever open."

But Fah doesn't buy it.

If people don't have to leave their building to pick up items, he fears they won't bother swinging by the shop.

But he holds out hope that, in the long run, the real bodegas will win.

"I don't think that customer will be able to deal with this store for so long because, at the end of the day, the customer has to communicate with somebody, has to talk to somebody," he said. "A machine can never be the place-in for a human."

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