Is Fairway getting greedy?

fairway is not private, it has public investors, they need to satisfy a number of metrics, cash flow , earnings, and sales growth. Not many people drill down, and rising prices might produce rising sales, but lower unit growth. It's further complicated by opening more stores. I haven't checked, but wonder if they publish same store sales(unit growth). They raised prices at like 30% YOY or Year over last two years. They cannot repeat that.

Same-store sales up 1.4% over year ago: http://investors.fairwaymarket.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=783767

"fairway is not private, it has public investors"

Yes I am aware, which is why I was even able to post links to their financials.

But anyway, their same store sales stats are basically....wait for it...in line with overall CPI.

yes indeed.

can you imagine.

sales up 1.4% yet prices up 30%?

Meanwhile, whole foods SSS up 7.5% YOY. Kroger's was up 4.2%. Fairway's up just 1.4%. Still not seeing this greed you are SURE exists.

C0C0, what kind of price action have you been seeing at the Piggly Wiggly?

Is the Fairway in Harlem cheaper than the other Fairways in Manhattan?

Is the Fairway in Harlem cheaper than the other Fairways in Manhattan?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

They recently ran a special on Corn on 76th, but not in Harlem. Some premium coffee are $1 a pound cheaper than the West Side location but still several dollars more than the same coffee at Zabars. What they did do in Harlem is offer some White Rose products at lower prices, for a while, but lately they started marking those up too.

how ridiculous are you?

I'm with c0lumbiac0unty on this one.

If you are looking for the best deals, they will be at the new store openings. Grocery stores exact pretty sharp deasl from manufacturers for store openings and Fairway wants to make a splash at each opening.

Funny to see multimillionaires sitting on huge NYC RE gains (supposedly) complain about $1 ears of corn.

This apple farmer will focus on my next harvest. You ladies go on and clip your coupons and listen to Team RE.

Go team RE!

And leave the Piggly Wiggly out of this, Greenberg. I swear, some people have no sense of propriety.

More price increases. russet potatoes up 50% now $1.49 lb lemons are now $0.75 50% more than TJ's

Do you keep a list of prices and dates?

http://nypost.com/2014/02/07/fairway-shares-sink-amid-ceo-exit/

Fairway plunged $3.24, or 29 percent, to $8.11 after reporting a loss in its fiscal third quarter and said its CEO is stepping down.

The grocery store chain, which went public last year, reported a loss in its fiscal third quarter and announced that Herbert Ruetsch is retiring after two years as CEO and 15 years with the company.

The management changes come as the company said it lost $31.3 million, or $0.74 per share, for the three months ending Dec. 29. Sales at stores open at least one year fell 1.7 percent.

>it lost $31.3 million

Sounds like they should raise prices.

Or Fairway could open a store in HI. and call it "Faraway".

Dark side of private equity. They invest in a private business, juice up the numbers short term, insiders cash out, and then the inevitable occurs when they run out of financial engineering tricks.

but...isn't this basically obama's fault?

There goes C0C0, blaming Obama.
Obama has nothing to do with this. I'm not even sure what the crime is that Riversider is ranting about but C0C0 takes the bait and blames Obama.
Now if they pass the JOBS Act, that's a recipe for fraud - I'm sure C0C0 will be in favor of that.

I agree with hb, clearly they have been pricing too low. Other high-end chains have expanded without losses.

I think at $8 it's a good buy, picked some up on Friday and will continue to do so if the price falls further.

Just my opinion, make your own investment decisions.

Fairway hasn't booked a profit in years, certainly not as a public entity and considering the current snap-shot of the company, most likely unable to borrow. Even when they did borrow before the IPO I believe they were paying over 800 bps over libor. What you can expect now is lots of cost cutting in an attempt to slow the bleeding. CEO stepping down so soon after going public is not a sign of cofidence, only thing worse would be if the CFO quit. And now you have the potential of investors wondering if they got duped(see below)..

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fairway-investigation-initiated-former-louisiana-030000688.html

Best time to invest is when there is blood in the streets. Unless they go bankrupt, I think it's a good time to pick up some shares, The stock is down more than 70% from it's high for the year which was back in July 2013.

As you say just your opinion, and just mine, nobody knows. But personally, i don't see the investors who came in just a year ago sticking around after the stock is declared a value story.

Here's the case the company made in their release.

Net sales increased 22.9% in the third quarter to $205.7 million

Gross margin and merchandise margin improve

Adjusted EBITDA increased from $12.4 million to $12.8 million

Customer transactions increased by 27.4% and excluding Red Hook increased by 23.6% over the prior year

Lease terms improved for flagship location on 74th and Broadway

Company initiated organizational realignment designed to enhance productivity and streamline operations

Private label continues to grow as a percentage of sales

On the lighter side here is Jim Cramer(frequently wrong)'s take on FWM

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000243993&__source=yahoo|headline|quote|video|&par=yahoo

Looks like investors are lawyering up

NEW YORK, Feb. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is
investigating potential claims on behalf of purchasers of the securities of
Fairway Group Holding Corp. ("Fairway" or the "Company") (NasdaqGM -FWM).
Such investors are advised to contact Peretz Bronstein or his Investor
Relations Coordinator Eitan Kimelman at info@bgandg.com or 212-697-6484.

Will you be lead plaintiff?

"Looks like investors are lawyering up."

Pretty standard when a stock takes a large dump. Seems to be holding steady around $8.

Never seen so many class action suits, at least for a company this size.
Bernard M Gross,
Robins Geler, Rudman,
Levi & Korsinsky
Holtzer & Holtzer
Glancy Binkow & Goldberg
Brower Piven
Pomerantz
Bronstein Gerwitz & Grossman

there could be more...

What is the conclusion we should reach based on your posts?

nice piece of misdirection.

c0c0, I bet you miss your good old days of Milberg Weiss.

Just read the court docket ,the company's registered materials and analyst call notes. Some interesting things.

--Fairway entered into an uneconomic lease for their Chelsea location
--New locations cannibalized sales from existing stores
--Recently hired CEO unexpectedly quit and there was no succession plan
--Trader Joe's is hurting Fairway
--Company has not been successful in their price optimization strategy(aka price increases)
--Company has a poor cost structure from opening new stores without infrastructure to support the stores.
--Same store sales growth has not been good
--Family team that grew Fairway is no longer involved.

Even after the massive sell-off there's been no dead cat bounce. On the contrary the stock is down to $7.50
West Side store is fairly dead, compared to the neighborhood Trader Joe's which has massive lines.

The suits allege that Fairway had a duty to disclose facts relating to Fairway Chelsea along with other things

Well, if c0c0 and Milberg Weiss allege, then those interesting things must be true.

I'm surprised to learn that the West Side store is dead. Whenever I go there it is packed.

>I'm surprised to learn that the West Side store is dead. Whenever I go there it is packed.

Accuracy doesn't have to be part of the strike suit formula. Right c0c0?

What was it Yogi Bera said? "Nobody goes there anymore, it is too crowded."

I think it was Riversider who said "They raised their prices, so now I search for the Fairway that has the cheapest corn."

I guess it started around 2011...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/26/idUS223968+26-Apr-2011+BW20110426

Pricing optimization is intended to allow Fairway Market to......improve the profitability of Fairway’s grocery stores

I feel like their hot prepared food might have been better a couple years ago

A great deal of the prepared deli items used to come from Mitchel London. I don't shop at the deli counter much these days, but when I the last few times I passed by the conter didn't notice the Mitchel London signs. Could be an oversight, perhaps they switched sources. But if they didn't then the problem is external

This is apparently a worsening situation. Thanks Riversider for the persistent reporting on this alarming topic.

Back up over $9 a share this morning. Hopefully will continue to climb over the next few months.

Why should we hope that the price of Fairway increases?

And bankrupt!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-yorks-fairway-supermarket-files-for-bankruptcy-1462261416