Is Fairway getting greedy?

It's hard to figure out where TJs will open, because their strategy in all the rest of the country is to find the cheapest, saddest little shopping center or big strip mall near relatively upscale populations, rather than any overtly "good" location. So there's little logic like "14th St. is near a youngish, leftish population featuring students who don't cook, and also near the big farmer's market" or "locating near Fairway, Citarella and Zabar's will make the corridor even more of a destination for people who eat food, so all boats will be lifted." No. I haven't been to the Queens one, but it sounds more a part of the national store-siting strategy.

I didn't know about the 6th Ave one, but that's good news for me even though I'm not a huge huge TJs fan.

Also, we do know that TJs is owned by a German multinational corporate entity that's owned by two crazy brothers, right? And not by Joe/Jose/Giovanni/Whatever is French for Joe? Right?

I once made a "quick stop" in the Plainview Fairway on the way to the Hamptons. Never again.

[TJs is right near there, too, if you have three hours to kill on the way out.]

The Plainview Fairway is "nasty ass" on training wheels. These are the daughters of the "nasty ass" crowd on the UWS. They are simply training so that when mom dies they can hope to take her coop and her husband won't have to commute to the burbs anymore. Now she is older and fully trained to take her spot next to me at the cheese counter. Say EXCUSE ME when you jam that cart into my achilles you nasty bitch. Welcome home. Didn't I know your mother?

I thought the moms live in Long Island, and their kids have invaded New York.

Tomato Sauce was $2.99 now $3.49
Olive Oil was $7.99 now $8.99
Ground Coffee was $7.99 now $8.99
---------------------------------------
That was two years ago..
Today Tomato sauce was just raised to $4.49
Olive Oil is the same $8.99
and that grind of Coffee is now $13.99
---------------
Guess CPI is slowing down.

so cream cheese went down?

Fairway may have good prices, but shopping there is crazy. I adore trader joes and shop whole foods (mostly sale items and private label) and feel they offer good value with minimal chaos. Maybe Fairways has to raise prices because business has dropped now that they have real competition. It's not just grestides, associated, pioneer and met foods.

Check prices on cream cheese in Columbia County:

Places for grocery stores near Columbia, NY

Price Chopper

351 Fairview Avenue # 3
Hudson
(518) 822-0017

Hannaford Supermarket & Pharmacy

2967 U.S. 9
Valatie
(518) 758-8800

Aldi

300 Fairview Avenue
Hudson

Main Street Grainery

15 Main Street
Chatham
(518) 392-5225

Big Lots

300 Fairview Avenue
Hudson
(518) 828-1084

Loveapple Farm

1421 New York 9H
Ghent
(518) 828-5048

Walmart Supercenter

localwalmartstor.es
1 Google review

460 Fairview Avenue
Hudson
(518) 822-0160

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oh riversider....poor, poor you. so much research....so much time.

for what?

poor poor columbiacounty. 2.5 hours just to get to Manhattan. Even in his expensive car ... none of the rest of us would make that decision.

Fairway always sucked imho, same with Zabar's, sorry, just my take. I'm aware they are mecca's for some on the UWS, but i just don't get it. they never failed to provide a horrible shopping experience every time i went.

i don't mind the prices on any of those, but the overcrowding? the zoo behavior that many display with their shopping carts that don't fit the tiny spaces... truly unpleasant. as for produce, i get better quality (fresher / local) even at Best Yet. yes, i know, i was surprised too.

i like trader joe's the best, but this week i make the mistake of going right after workers left their offices (guess htat's supermkt "rush hour"). it was a total mess! the queue traveled to every single corner of the main floor.

The lines in Trader Joe's are 1000 times worse. Shoppers agree to be treated like cattle if the price is low enough.

for the UES...fairway is by far the best place to shop in terms of quality and price.

I use to live uptown and always shopped Fairway at Bway and 74th St. It was always crazy there. One of the things I remember is that they never would give me a paper bag with fresh bread which means the bread would become soggy. I complained about it, but never got anywhere. I went to Zabars.

I now go to Whole Foods TriBeCa, what a difference.

Coffee has gone up all over. Fresh direct actually used to have great prices starting at 5.99 a pound now they start at around 8.99. I wait for the sales and buy a lot. I think it's based on the commodity prices of coffee though - must have been a bad year weather wise for coffee. Prices are up all over.

Pencils are so expensive... I buy #2s in bulk when on sale....

heard on "collegeeasy" blog.

FLMOAzzzz

Hi 67 - been a while!

> Pencils are so expensive... I buy #2s in bulk when on sale.... heard on "collegeeasy" blog.

lmao!

fairway is bad managed and overpriced

the one at w 127 street in manhattan is very ugly and crowded, dont understand why it's been hyped for so many years

I have been shopping at Fairway on 74th & Broadway for 7 years and I frequently go to the other grocery stores in the area like Trader Joe's, Zabars and even Jubilee since I lived on Riverside Boulevard for 6 months. IMO, Fairway is by far the best deal especially for people like me who cook. Yes TJ's is cheap, but the quality isn't there with the produce and there is no meat or fish counter. I only go to TJ's if we're having a party and I need affordable premade finger foods. The 'fairway' difference is they offer store brand merchandise that is much more affordable than the expensive brands offered at the other grocery stores. And the produce is usually better and restocked more often.

dont understand why it's been hyped for so many years

--

simple parking lot and access to west side highway

Fairway is expanding like crazy. They're probably raising prices to help pay for all that new construction and store expansion.

The fairway in Harlem is quite over-priced although they have some unique items. The Best Yet on FDB has great prices on produce.

I like the Fairway in Harlem for the convenience of driving loading up and leaving. Beats carrying a ton of bags or getting deliveries with smushed items.

Missing an f notadmin.

What up ccccccccccharley?

I frequently shop at the new Fairway on East 86th Street because it's the best option in the area. It's organized much better than the one on the UWS and if you shop at off times. the crowds in the store and the line at the register is not terrible. It is a good place for basic items. I don't find anything that it particularly interesting in the store, but it's fine for basics. Better prices and selection than Gristedes or Food Emporium. Much better prices than Eli's or the Vinegar Factory. Probably Citarella on Third is a nicer shop, but it's smaller. But unless you want to travel, this is the best option in the neighborhood and it's good that it's here.

fairway is expanding fast and I can easily see the inattentivness to the details and the quality for that matter. I still think it kicks the butt of WholeFoods. I am not crazy about the UES store layout but, you take what you get.
I am still amazed at all those New Yorkers, knowing what they know about contaminants and contagen, still line up with their little petri-like boxes and spoon in the PseudomonasParmigiana, Mersa Marsala and Streptiricepialaf. It's a clinical test of the human bodies immune system. You can play to pay everyday!
Tip from falco: Try the Purell Soup

Looking forward to the new Westside Market opening up.

the best yet in harlem is much much better than fariway

even the wholefood in uws is better than this fairway

fairway's product is not better than c-town

McCan's steal cut oats up over 10%

here you go stupid.

http://queenbeecoupons.com/2011/12/new-1-off-mccanns-irish-oatmeal-coupon-as-low-as-2-29-at-trader-joes/

Oh, Queen Bee Coupons!

i thin cc is on to something. non-unionzed stores are a much better consumer deal. Trader joe's undercuts fairway by an average of 10-15% on many items, sometimes more.

> the best yet in harlem is much much better than fariway

second that! their produced is mostly locally sourced, which helps with freshness and great pricing. it would be great if they could expand. i think the harlem location is the only one in Manhattan, it's mostly a Long Island chain right now.

Westside market taking the Subway shop space too. This is gonna rock!

When the heck is Westside Market opening??

Looks like Fairway is getting better. Recently they've been running some good specials on items that you can stock on. A few weeks ago, they dropped $2 off the price of Olive oil and now Tomato Sauce is back to normal price $3.50 a bottle down from $4.49. Competition is a good thing.

Price rises continue: Sugar in the Raw is now $5.50 vs $3.69 roughly a year ago. Similar price rise on a premium tuna brand.

ALL food prices are going up everywhere.

"The USDA kept its projected food price increase for 2012 steady at 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent, saying average retail food prices were flat for the first half of 2012 thanks to unusually low fruit and vegetable prices as well as lower prices for milk and pork."

It's only beginning...

Blame the drought. Food futures are skyrocketing.

"Corn Jumps To Record As Worst Drought In Decades Hurts U.S. Crop"

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-30/corn-jumps-to-record-as-worst-drought-in-decades-hurts-u-s-crop.html

"West Australia’s Grain Harvest Seen Dropping 40% On Weather"

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-30/west-australia-s-grain-harvest-seen-dropping-40-on-weather-3-.html

...And so on.

Food prices may be rising, but not 30% YOY. What we're seeing is an attempt to make margins look better than they are and some very short term thinking. But as far as food prices go, I do believe the CPI understates price increases to some degree. It really depends on what diet you eat, if you eat healthy or mathematically switch from chicken to pork or are just as happy with frozen imported vegetables from China as fresh from California or New Jersey.

do you really think that frozen vegetables come from china?

Hi Ciao Nima/CC
Nice that you follow my posts. Well the label says made in China , but your guess as good as mine.
Enjoy your Summer!

CC: if you look hard enough & scour through 14 items, you will find the Chinese frozen vegetables too. You just are lazy and aren't motivated enough to find them.

http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-money/2011/05/11/china-imports-in-the-grocery-store-a-cause-for-concern
>> Even so, China still accounts for only seven percent of the overall market of frozen fruits and vegetable — up from two percent in 1999, notes Corey Henry, vice president of the American Frozen Food Institute.

Great post Ino.
Explains why Trader Joe's apples taste like crap. I tried one and was so disgusted I vowed not to even feed to my dog. Fortunately they are much better when it comes to blueberries and raspberries which come from South America

you're damn right.

riversider has spotted a definite trend. from 2% to 7% in thirteen years---its only a matter of time till they force everyone else out of the market.

i was wrong. wrong, wrong, wrong.

Riversider, what kind of dog do you have?

A great one or course!

and a friend, no doubt.

The Chinese eat dogs, but when I was in shanghai they wouldn't eat their own vegetables wo rinsing them in a tub of 1% chlorox. Give me 30% increases in cream cheese prices wo the fear of death from my USDA chked food any day.

But you are a manhattan coop owning billionaire, who cares about the dropping Benjamins on alpo, cream cheese, and imported wines? But if the $1000psf to $500psf drop in your coop starts to make your SS look smaller, just eat your dog. Cheap protein, and you do know owning/feeding a large dog is a 'luxury' outside of manhattan. Or do you swing the mini bicon in a purse to fairways?

>The Chinese eat dogs, but when I was in shanghai they wouldn't eat their own vegetables wo rinsing them in a tub of 1% chlorox.

How did you feel about them eating dogs? Were you worried for your kids?

Well now that profit margins are now 30% higher after the price rises....
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Aug 3 (Reuters) - High-end grocery store chain Fairway Market said it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering of its common shares with the U.S. market regulator on Aug. 2.

Reuters reported in May, citing sources familiar with the situation, that the company was considering going public.

Where does it say profit margins are 30% higher? And since most grocery stores have after tax margins in the LOW single digits, you are talking a 1% margin becoming a 1.3% margin...harly oil company or MSFT levels...

See http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=SWY+Key+Statistics

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=KR+Key+Statistics

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WFM+Key+Statistics

I'll be glad when they IPO. +5 years and they'll be belly-up, all locations shuttered, no more $18/lb. family packs of skirt steak. Making room for the Piggly Wiggly chain to expand to all corners of the galaxy!!! At last.

i do so love me a piggly wiggly.

Well it's only about six months since tomato sauce went up to $4.49 from $3.99, now it's up to $4.99. That's up 11% and annualized that's even higher.

and yet you still buy it. who's the fool?

You think the extra $1 breaks him? Would it break you?

Agree Riversider. $.50 increase in tomato sauce iz outrageous. My family of four needs like 2x more sauce than you. Over a year that's like 50x $.50= OH LORDY. I'M BROKE.

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/682684-coop-333-central-park-west-upper-west-side-new-york

On the other hand my CPW C6 went from $2.4MM to $2Mm in 4 months whilst my sprint went from $2.40 to $5.26 (or $1MM gain)... so I'll console myself by buying my wife another 4 carat diamond. I let her decide the setting.. she gets such sweet joy from the little pleasures of life.

See it's my bday soon.. but sometimes I'll surprise her when she gives me a gift, BOOOM! I give her a gift to knock her thongs off.... when she least expects it... shazaaammmmmm... it's the least I can do for listening to my incessant rant that NYC RE was a bubble in 2004-2007. I hated seeing her expression when I said I wouldn't bid higher than $2MM for the Grand Mill flex 3. FK that borker. FK him and his partner. Eat fking cat food azzhole. And to all the other holocaust deniers... IO going from 7% to 3% and yet CPW C6 chopping chopping chopping... FLMAOZzzzzz happy bday to me!

Making $$$ billz y'all....

cuntzburger.. when's the last time you had sex?

looks like you stumped him with that question.

I did indeed. Fried his mind. Or her mind. :)

I get my staples delivered and buy fresh items locally. Works well and not as pricey.

At this point, I restrict my purchases at fairway to fruits and vegetables. Trader Joe's is great on olive oil, fresh juice, butter, cream cheese and nuts, but for fish the quality at Citarella is such that its worth paying up for, even if once in a while the staff makes mistakes on fish facts.

so...if you don't even buy the fucking tomato sauce, why are you complaining?

fish facts

w67thstreet, how can you be certain that I wasn't one of the thousands of people who touched your wife?

would your head explode if I was?

McCann's Oatmeal. $8.49 compared to $5.49 at Trader Joes and over apx $3.00 higher than approximately 1-2 years ago. WTF?

Riversider: May be the new at-home organic beauty trend of using oatmeal as a skin care product.

No Truth. Over the past two years, virtually every item has seen huge increases in price. With the exception of the weekly produce special most items are roughly 30% higher. Used to spend 100% of my food budget there, but now places like Trader Joes, Costco & Zabars are much cheaper. Didn't used to be the case.

I think that the original owners of Fairway sold a good part of the business and the new co-owners are pushing the price increases. The old guard is sitting back waiting for the new guys to fail This just means that we should vote with our feet. Buy stuff with good prices and avoid the rest, even if it is a little less convenient.

Well, since you can do Fresh Direct, Peopod, Whole Foods and Trader Joes, amongst others, if their prices really are "too high" they will soon find out. As I posted like 100 posts ago, their publicly available profit margin is NOT higher than the sub 5% level all other major grocery chains have.

Stop complaining and go to C-TOWN or Associated where u got all the welfare dominicans shopping at

just found out last week that chicken cutlets at citarella next door are now $2/lb cheaper than comparable ones at fairway. for meat and fish, citarella is hands down better quality (and perhaps better priced as well).

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/fairway-shares-surge-in-trading-debut/

Prices just keep rising.

Bigelow tea up 10%
Capers up 20%
Hot Sauce up 10%

So you like capers and hot sauce with your tea. Interesting.

Nanuet; Hudson Yards ... they just keep rolling them out.

It'll all end in tears.

Unless they're planning on converting them to liquor stores when the grocery industry's liquor-law lobbying finally comes to fruition.

You must be wrong inflation is less than 2% a year since 2008

I used to shop at Fairway on the West Side when it was just a small shop compared to Zabar's. They always had great "outside" specials, meaning the produce displayed outside the store. I'm rather disappointed with them now, especially the Upper East Side store as they don't seem to carry the same variety of fruits and vegetables as they used to, although the Harlem store seems to be better in that respect. I often just buy fruit from the street vendors now. The E 86 St store is unpleasantly crowded, especially during the early evenings. They seem to carry a lot of exotic and health foods now. (Although their own brand of spices are priced well.)

I must say that I've found their catering services outstanding. I've used them twice, once for a luncheon and the other for a dinner. People raved about the food. Everything was packaged beautifully and could just be set out on the table in the serving trays they supplied. They included everything, down to pickles, olives, mustard, mayo, etc....

Arctic Char up 18.75%
Brook Trout up 37% If I recall the old price.

Either no inflation or someone's beefing up their margins.

Fairway lost money in the most recent TTM, had negative CFFO, and negative FCF and EBITDA:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=FWM+Key+Statistics

Whole Foods is apparently doing a whole lot better:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WFM+Key+Statistics

I am going to assume FWM had a kitchen-sink year or quarter so as to make the periods a year after their IPO look better. But still, even their projected results don't have them doing better than their peers.

Jason uses a lot of acronyms.

huntersburg: he also uses a lot of crayons.

Fairway has high borrowing costs used to in their expansion , although they recently renegotiated the down a little..
http://biz.yahoo.com/e/130506/fwm8-k.html

On May 3, 2013, Fairway Group Acquisition Company, a Delaware corporation (the "Borrower") and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fairway Group Holdings Corp. (the "Company"), entered into an amendment to its senior credit agreement to:

� provide for a reduction in the interest rate margin from 5.50% to 4.00% for LIBOR rate Loans and 4.50% to 3.00% for alternate base rate Loans;

� provide for a reduction in the "LIBOR floor" applicable to LIBOR rate Loans from 1.25% to 1.00% and applicable to alternate base rate Loans from 2.25% to 2.00%;

� reset the voluntary prepayment premium in connection with certain voluntary prepayments to apply only through November 3, 2013 rather than February 14, 2014; and

� eliminate the interest coverage financial covenant and modify the capital expenditures and maximum total leverage financial covenants.

These reductions are expected to reduce the Company's annualized interest payments by approximately $4.8 million. The Company further expects that the fees and expenses incurred in connection with the amendment will be paid back through reduced interest payments in approximately nine months.

I'm disappointed in the selection at the new Fairway that just opened on 6th Ave and 25th St.

They didn't have any of the "specialty" items I buy at the F'way on the UWS -- the nice jam, the gluten-free bread, the large organic produce section.

Big disappointment.

But that's like two blocks from Trader Joe's? And next to Whole Foods? What's the issue, you have great selections.

Every month or so, I buy chicken salad from Fairways which is usually $5.99 a pound. I didn't look the other day and asked for a pound. I was shocked to see it was now $8.99 a pound. I realize food had gone but but this shocking. A $3.00 increase in about one to two months time.

Jason, I just expected the new store to carry the same brands as the UWS store. But no such luck.

Fairway is a great bargain! For example, they manage to sell fully cooked broasted chicken for LESS than the price they charge for a raw chicken of comparable size. Phenomenal!

Of course, you don't get the "oook's treat", the liver, to eat while you're convecting the bird. :(

"Jason, I just expected the new store to carry the same brands as the UWS store. But no such luck."

Ok. I'm jealous though of the great stores you have all so close together, still.

Bummer - the chicken salad was one of the few prepared foods I love there. They put hard boiled eggs in the tuna salad so I hate it. Guess I can learn to make it myself. They do use good mayo -probably Hellman's. I bought what looked like great imported Italian canned tomatoes there only to open the can and see it was over half puree - I was not happy. I go to the one on 32 and 1st. It's certainly better than anything else we have down here but still not right around the corner. Much better produce than TJs but TJs has much better frozen. Just need to shop all over or do the Farmer's market now that it's in season.

W67 agrees. An apple went from $3.90 to $5.04 in 5 months. The nerve of them to raise prices like that. What do they think I'm made of? Gold?

Go team RE!

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bill_goes_to_the_rich_S4aIOyFGJIrK6vGgAs9J0J

Fairway has new masters. PE purchase then IPO. They need to show growth AND profits, and I don't think their new stores have the productivity the old ones did. I do know everyone there is working mighty hard, but they have to in order to expand 2-3 stores per year. (that is how many Wegman's opens a year and they are a much much larger company).

"They need to show growth AND profits"

Really, to be techical, no. They have to show cash flow, because PE shops fund such deals with debt and also often pay themselves dividends with debt. They don't need ANY profits, however. Just enough cash flow to pay their debt until the PE shops have made back there money and then some.

Jason the Retard is techically correct.