iFresh Inc., an Asian American supermarket chain and online grocer, has engaged Western Union Co. for money transfer services.
Effective Jan. 16, four of the six iFresh locations in New York City will provide Western Union services, including money transfer, money order and bill payments. The services will be rolled out in the remaining two iFresh locations in New York City during 2018.
Long Deng, iFresh chairman and CEO, said, “By working with Western Union to provide global payment services, iFresh is continuing to engage the local community by providing a fast and easy payment solution for customers allowing them to send money in the U.S. and overseas to more than 200 countries and territories.”
Rocco Pilla, Western Union regional VP, added, “We want to make it convenient for consumers to move money wherever and whenever they need to. Our collaboration with iFresh supports our network expansion strategy of operating in the communities in which our customers live and work.”
iFresh Inc., headquartered in Long Island City, New York, has nine retail supermarkets along the U.S. eastern seaboard, two in-house wholesale businesses strategically located in cities with a highly concentrated Asian population and six iFresh-managed stores.
iFresh says it “aims to satisfy the increasing demands of Asian Americans (whose purchasing power has been growing rapidly) for fresh and culturally unique produce, seafood and other groceries that are not found in mainstream supermarkets.” It says it has strong relations with farms that produce Chinese specialty vegetables and fruits so it can offer fresh, high-quality specialty produce at competitive prices to its growing base of customers.
Additional iFresh stores in Glen Cove, Miami and Connecticut are expected to open soon.
Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. As of Sept. 30, the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services were offered through a combined network of more than 550,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories and 150,000-plus ATMs and kiosks, and included the capability to send money to billions of accounts. In 2016, The Western Union Co. completed 268 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $80 billion of principal between consumers, and 523 million business payments.
