Pour one out for Fairway

[Steve_Manzi]

I hear they have a fantastic new approach where you can buy your fruits, vegetables, etc at prices that are unreal. You just have to be willing to wait a few years for delivery. But everything I have bought on “futures” has come in. I highly recommend their new program. And, they basically are storing your food until it is ready to eat. I think they call it their Premiere Crudite Program, or PCP for short.

[mmarcellus]

@Brent C l a y t o n

@Jay Miller

Does Food Emporium still exist after the A&P bankruptcy?

The ones by me in midtown are closed. Not sure if A&P intends to rebrand & reopen them.

Chapter 7, A&P no longer exists as an ongoing business. If any of the A&P names reappear, they will owned by a different entity that bought the names from the dust heap.

[mmarcellus]

@Peter Hirdt

I’ve shopped at Fairway’s Plainview location regularly since it opened in 2001. The decline in quality over the last three years, particularly in produce and cheese, has been disappointing. The managers who replaced those who were moved to newer stores have shockingly inadequate knowledge of their products. Recently the number of cashiers has dropped and the length of checkout lines have grown.

Time is running out, which will be a shame. Nothing on Long Island could match the combination of full-service supermarket and source for hard-to-find items that Fairway provided in its first 10 years of operation. Then they tried to become Waldbaum’s, and ironically they succeeded, if you know what I mean.

All true, but I’m trying to remain optimistic and hope that this will hasten the arrival of Wegman’s on Long Island.

[Rick_Smith]

@Jay Miller

@ybarselah

i was really excited about fairway opening in kips bay, but it’s generally pretty bad. we use it almost exclusively for staple items. most everything else is average, but priced aggressively. i can’t imagine this is a sustainable proposition.

last time i was there, i asked why there weren’t any carts (store wasn’t full at all) and the manager said the homeless took them all. i asked if they were getting replacements and he wasn’t confident one way or the other.

to my mind, the future of urban food is a combination of high-end specialty (and i would include whole foods here to some degree because if you look at their layout, there’s a ton of prepared food and mixed used space (beer hall, sushi, etc.)) such as Eataly, Chelsea Market, Grand Central, etc, and several delivery options for the basics; Amazon, Fresh Direct, Jet, etc. That doesn’t leave much room for terrible experiences like gristedes, etc.

Interestingly, drugstores seem to be moving heavily into the grocery category. The Downtown Pharmacy which opened across the street from us has a small but high end selection of foods (expensive organic yogurts, high end chips, free range eggs). The A&P Fresh which closed is now an ACME Pharmacy which is indistinguishable from the old supermarket other than taking out the self-service lanes and adding a pharmacy counter. I try to frequent the small corner shop next door to us since they are the only place I know of which carries the brand of Indian style yogurt I like.

you also have C Town.

[Brent_C_l_a_y_t_o_n]

Dude, .99/lb pork shoulder at CTown, sometimes $.79 on sale. Don’t be hating.

[Brad_Kane]

@Peter Hirdt

I’ve shopped at Fairway’s Plainview location regularly since it opened in 2001. The decline in quality over the last three years, particularly in produce and cheese, has been disappointing.

Speaking of the decline in produce, my Fairway hasn’t had rutabaga, butternut squash (other than that pre-peeled stuff) or celery root all week, they’ve been out of their normal loose carrots and have resorted to opening up the normal bagged carrots and putting them in there instead and the parsnips have looked old and beat up all week. Clearly a conspiracy to prevent me from making my roast chicken and veggies!

[mmarcellus]

Another Moody’s downgrade according to the local LI rag (there may be a paywall):

Fairway Group's debt downgraded again by Moody's

“Fairway’s operating performance and liquidity continues to be weak and we expect the company to breach its financial covenants in the fourth quarter ending April 3, 2016,” Moody’s senior analyst Mickey Chadha said in an announcement Wednesday that it was downgrading a $267 million loan and a $40 million line of credit.

And a California based retail analyst had this to say:

Phil Lempert, national food marketing expert from Santa Monica, California-based SupermarketGuru.com., said the Fairway ambience didn’t travel well from Manhattan, where the chain was founded, to the suburbs into which it expanded.
“The culture of Fairway — with the hustle and bustle especially in the checkout lanes — is a very Manhattan thing,” Lempert wrote in an email Thursday.

Has he even been in a LI Fairway? The experience is very different from the Manhattan based stores. I will say that his description does perfectly fit the ambiance of the thriving Westbury Costco that’s down the street from the Westbury Fairway, which provides a rather desultory shopping experience. About the only thing the Westbury Fairway copies from Manhattan ambiance is the crowded checkout lanes.

[Peter_Hirdt]

Correct, Mark. Fairway might be failing but Lempert’s rationale is asinine.

The company lacked the personnel needed to expand so quickly. As I mentioned upstream, employees with little knowledge of the breadth of Fairway’s product were placed in management positions with predictable results. Quality suffered immediately in ways that could not be missed by their customers.

[David_K_o_l_i_n]

Bummer. I used to love shopping at the original store when my sister lived on CPW. Granted, that was 30 years ago, but . . .

[Jorge_Henriquez]

@David K o l i n

Bummer. I used to love shopping at the original store when my sister lived on CPW. Granted, that was 30 years ago, but . . .

By no means an expert or analyst, but I highl doubt the original store will close.


At least, I hope it won’t.

[mmarcellus]

@Jorge Henriquez

@David K o l i n

Bummer. I used to love shopping at the original store when my sister lived on CPW. Granted, that was 30 years ago, but . . .

By no means an expert or analyst, but I highl doubt the original store will close.


At least, I hope it won’t.

I would say it’s a distinct possibility. Refinancing as a going operation is going to be tough in this environment and the Manhattan real estate is probably their best asset. If it comes to Chapter 7, that real estate may be worth more as an empty lot. About the only thing that could save the site in that scenario is political pressure.

And I’m assuming they still own the property. Given all the “help” they’ve gotten from Wall Street, that might not even be true.

[Jorge_Henriquez]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-19/new-york-grocer-fairway-on-the-brink-of-default-as-losses-mount

Analysts are basically saying: “close down all stores outside the 5 boroughs”.

[Jay_Miller]

@Jorge Henriquez

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Analysts are basically saying: “close down all stores outside the 5 boroughs”.

Are these the same analysts who were previously saying “you have to expand”?

Interesting that they don’t mention the decline in quality that everyone who shops there knows about.

[Jorge_Henriquez]

Analysts are the meteorologists of the finance world.

[Victor_Hong]

@Jorge Henriquez

Analysts are the meteorologists of the finance world.

I resemble that comment.

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

@Jay Miller

Sorry to read this. They won’t be the first business done in by overly ambitious plans for expansion.

nor the last. Syms. A&P multiple times. K Mart. WAMU. Just to name a few.

[Brad_Kane]

@J a y H a c k

@Jay Miller

Sorry to read this. They won’t be the first business done in by overly ambitious plans for expansion.

nor the last. Syms. A&P multiple times. K Mart. WAMU. Just to name a few.

I still don’t know where to shop since Syms closed. Where’s an educated consumer supposed to go these days?

[Michel_Abood]

@Brad Kane

Where’s an educated consumer supposed to go these days?

You should ask one.

[Michael_Sopher]

I’m in Fairway last night, 74th and Bdway, at the deli counter and a woman asks for some of the best turkey breast they have. They have on the bone store roasted, the Fairway brand etc… he points to Boars Head… she asks for smoked… he is mystified… the staff has really gone downhill. And yet it is still my best option… TJ’s two blocks away has lines to get into the store… and the goods there are lower quality???

[Michael_Sopher]

@Brad Kane

@J a y H a c k

@Jay Miller

Sorry to read this. They won’t be the first business done in by overly ambitious plans for expansion.

nor the last. Syms. A&P multiple times. K Mart. WAMU. Just to name a few.

I still don’t know where to shop since Syms closed. Where’s an educated consumer supposed to go these days?

Bloomingdales Outlet on 72nd and Bdway has some good stuff well priced… Just got a nice suit in there