‘We built this company’: Workers at Philly-based Gopuff mount one-day strike
A common complaint among protesters outside the company’s headquarters in Northern Liberties was that Gopuff workers earn much less than the company advertises.
3 years ago
Gopuff co-founder Rafael Ilishayev cuts the ribbon on a new distribution facility in Spring Garden, alongside (starting second from left) Philadelphia City Councilmember Mark Squilla, Gopuff cofounder Yakir Gola and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. (Tom MacDonald/WHYY)
Gopuff celebrated 10 years and 10 million orders.
The Philadelphia-based company cut the ribbon on a new distribution facility in Spring Garden near the Ben Franklin Bridge Tuesday. The new location will help Gopuff make deliveries of everything from groceries to home goods quicker. The brightly-lit facility has aisles like a grocery store with quick pick items that can be delivered swiftly to customers.
Co-CEO Yakir Gola thanked workers during the ribbon-cutting and said they have been doing well in expanding their business.
“We’ve definitely come a long way, but we’re just getting started. And, you know, it took us about six years to get 2 million deliveries in Philadelphia. And now we’re doing it in two months,” he said.
Gopuff offers a variety of items that can be delivered within minutes with prices that rival convenience and grocery stores.
The new distribution center will give the company’s drivers access to items that can improve profits for the company since they are in stock and do not have to be procured from outside vendors as the company initially did in many instances when they started a decade ago.
Mayor Jim Kenney congratulated the company’s contributions to the city.
“I really want to thank them not only for all of this, all of you, and for the reputation that this company has given to Philadelphia,” he said. “It really was the beginning step of the change of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, the demographics, the college feeling town.
Kenney did credit his own work in government with helping the business that caters to hungry college students thrive. “I will take a little bit of credit because I was the person who decriminalized marijuana in the city. So it started to take off right after that,” he said.
The company hasn’t been without its problems. Workers held a one-day strike outside the company’s headquarters in November calling for higher pay and better hours.
The company also received a $39 million tax break through New Jersey’s Grow NJ program, even though it omitted federal labor violations from its successful application.
A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on both issues at the ribbon-cutting.