Tragedy for Food Lovers: Fairway Market in Trouble

Fairway Market has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptacy–just awful news. (?? it must have been really badly run...)

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160503/red-hook/fairway-market-files-for-bankruptcy

Geo

Well, at least it's Chapter 11 -- so they'll reorganize, but they shouldn't vanish.

Fairway Seeks Quick Exit From Bankruptcy

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/busin ... uptcy.html

Geo wrote:Fairway Market has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptacy–just awful news. (?? it must have been really badly run...)

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160503/red-hook/fairway-market-files-for-bankruptcy

Geo

They went public and announced grand plans for nationwide expansion. Seemed ridiculous for a small chain that had specialized sourcing. Their stock price fell from $24 a few years ago to less than 8 cents. If they're smart they'll stay small and try to recover whatever good will they used to have.

The Plainview store (between Hicksville and Farmingdale on Long Island) is about ten minutes from my MIL's place. A genuine oasis, and, I'm sure, a commercial success. Others of their stores must have been less successful.

Geo

Fairway files for chapter 11 again.
https://www.newsday.com/business/fairwa ... 1.40926928

I like the Fairway Midtown, I have heard from a friend that managed a department at the Harlem location that the experience sucked. And, not for nothing, I am friends with the creator of their famous cheese department. Twice in four years they are in bankruptcy. They seem to walk this vertiginous line between bodega and upscale perishables. As a New York institution they should offer better; more customer engagement, more knowledge of higher-end product, less of an industrial grist mill feel.

New York Times story Fairway Is So Crowded! How Can It Be in Bankruptcy?

Short version: one blunder after another including getting involved with private equity firm and piling on debt.

As restaurants go, never confuse busy w/successful.

Jazzfood wrote:As restaurants go, never confuse busy w/successful.

Except this is a much beloved grocery store - not a restaurant.

lougord99 wrote:

Jazzfood wrote:As restaurants go, never confuse busy w/successful.

Except this is a much beloved grocery store - not a restaurant.

So the margins are even thinner and disaster lurks around every case of over priced lettuce.

Fairway IS beloved among New Yorkers. Online ordering is killing all sorts of specialty perishables markets. Not to mention, poor management, poor hiring, lack of interest of knowledge of specialty goods among the clerks who aren't incentivized, or trained properly. Who would have thought Dean and Delucca would perish even 5 years ago? I passed by the original location this afternoon and seeing the shutter on the door was sad.

FAIRWAY AND WHAT WE MOURN IN A STORE

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-co ... in-a-store