RWRetailWire
Back to Discussions
DISCUSSION

Will locals choose Brooklyn over Bezos?

Written by Tom Ryan

Photo: RetailWire; Source: cinchmarket.nyc

With a tagline “Shop Brooklyn, Not Bezos,” Cinch Market is a newer online marketplace aggregating the inventory of local Brooklyn businesses to support same-day delivery. The platform emerged from the ShopBrooklyn Movement, which is designed to help local stores partner to better compete against national online sellers, such as Amazon.com. The end-goal, according to its website, is keeping “our neighborhoods strong and money in our community.” Cinch Market, launched in June, cited three beliefs. From the website:
  • Community > Profit: Businesses don't pay to join the team. The community sends them orders and they're asked to share (up to) nine percent of the sale, to help cover costs of delivery, etc.
  • Take Good Care of Each Other – Delivery staff are paid $20-$25 an hour (plus tips).
  • We Are Better Together – There is no "secret" to this mission. Using scale lets us reduce costs for everyone. When we team up, we all succeed by keeping money in our community.
Described as an “Everything Store,” CinchMarket.nyc offers only about 20,000 items from 31 stores, compared to “hundreds of millions” promised from Amazon. However, about 30 additional stores will soon be added to provide a deeper range of Brooklyn-based product, according to a Wall Street Journal profile. A Manhattan-based portal is set to launch later this month. The service gives consumers an easier way to purchase locally, as doing so has increased in appeal during the pandemic. Customers are charged a $5.95 delivery fee that’s waived for orders over $59. Orders placed by 10 a.m. are delivered that day. For businesses, the nine percent fee compares to the 15 percent cut Amazon takes on the majority of product sales. Stores expand their reach and benefit from one-stop online shopping. “I have a beautiful website but I don’t get any hits from it,” Anthony Fauci, co-owner of Runnin’ Wild Toys in Carroll Gardens, told Brooklyn Paper. “On Cinch, shopping is easy. That’s the beauty of places like Amazon, where you can get your gift card, your children’s school supplies, your shoes, all in one place. It’s just like you’re standing in a mall.”

Discussion Thread0