Fairway Market is an American grocery chain, founded in 1933 by Nathan Glickberg. It is currently one of the store banners owned by the

Wakefern Food Corporation Wakefern Food Corporation is an American company that was founded in 1946 and is based in Keasbey, New Jersey. It is the largest retailers' cooperative group of supermarkets and the fourth-largest cooperative of any kind in the United State ...

, a company famous for its flagship supermarket cooperative network, ShopRite. The flagship store, which stands at

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and

West 74th Street 74th Street is an east–west street carrying pedestrian traffic and eastbound automotive/bicycle traffic in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs through the Upper East Side neighborhood (in ZIP code 10021, where it is known as East ...

, on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, is one of four surviving stores, as of 2020, that are currently operated by Wakefern cooperative member, Village Super Markets.

Sale to private equity

Fairway Market is a specialty market with four locations in Manhattan. Founded in 1933, Fairway Market is most known for its fine foods, including coffee, cheese, and olives. It also offers NYC's largest variety of organic foods. The supermarket has a "Gotta Have It Way" program, where customers can request products to be brought into the store. Sterling Investment Partners, a

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...

firm in

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census. History ...

, bought a controlling stake in Fairway Market in January 2007 and committed to substantially expanding the chain in the Greater New York area. Sterling made a $150 million capital investment in Fairway and enabled the enterprise to grow rapidly. In 2011, the chain had revenues of $550 million. It was spun off in an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on April 17, 2013, trading under its parent, Fairway Group Holdings Corp., on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "FWM".

Stores

The original Fairway Market at West 74th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side was a produce shop. By 1997, it had expanded with a café that became a steakhouse at night. In 2011, Fairway opened two more locations: one on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

of Manhattan, which opened on July 20, and the other in the Douglaston neighborhood of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, which opened on November 16. In 2012, Fairway Market opened three more locations: in

Woodland Park, New Jersey Woodland Park (formerly West Paterson) is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough's population was 13,484. What is now Woodland Park was formed as a borough under the name West P ...

, on June 6;

Westbury, New York The Incorporated Village of Westbury is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. It is located about east of Manhattan. The population was 15,404 at the 2020 census. History The firs ...

, on August 22; and

Kips Bay Kips Bay, or Kip's Bay, is a neighborhood on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by East 34th Street to the north, the East River to the east, East 27th and/or 23rd Streets to the south, and Third Av ...

in Manhattan in late December. In 2013, Fairway Market opened a location in

Chelsea, Manhattan Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The area's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, the Hudson River and West Street to the west, and Sixth Avenue to the east, with its northe ...

, and another at

The Shops at Nanuet The Shops at Nanuet is a lifestyle center located in Nanuet, New York. It is located at the intersection of New York State Route 59 and Middletown Road and is also accessible via exit 14 of the New York State Thruway. Built on the site of the forme ...

shopping mall in

Nanuet, New York Nanuet is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York, United States. The third largest hamlet in Clarkstown, it is located north of Pearl River, south of New City, east of Spring Valley, and west o ...

. As of 2020, all but five of these Fairway stores have either closed or sold to other retailers, including

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

. The sequence of all stores is as follows: *1930s: The flagship store, still occupies the original Broadway location in the Upper West Side. *1995: Fairway's Harlem store opened in a significantly larger space. This store had a enclosed space, known as the "Cold Room," which contained the store's meats, seafood, dairy products, and beer. Silver coats hung nearby for customers who wished to keep warm while browsing the freezer. Without a bidder after the company's second bankruptcy, the store closed in July 2020. *2001: The company opened its first store outside the city in the Long Island community of Plainview. *2006: The company opened its fourth store in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In July 2020 this store was sold to Bogopa Service Corporation to be reopened as a Food Bazaar supermarket. *2009: On March 25th, Fairway's fifth store opened in the

Fashion Center The Fashion Center is a shopping center located in Paramus, New Jersey. It opened in 1967 as a traditional indoor shopping mall. The mall slowly underwent a "de-malling" process over a period of several years prior to 2009, which resulted in the f ...

shopping mall in suburban

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

, taking up a majority of the mall's former interior space. This was the first Fairway store located west of the Hudson River and the first location ever to open in the entire state of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. In March 2020, it was announced that the Paramus location would close. The official closing date for the Paramus location was supposed to be May 15, 2020, but it was delayed to the summer of 2020 due to the effects of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. *2010: On April 14th, Fairway opened a new branch in a former

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

in the

Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

village of

Pelham Manor Pelham Manor is an affluent village located in Westchester County, New York. As of the 2020 census, the village had a total population of 5,752. It is located in the town of Pelham. History The Bolton Priory, Edgewood House, and Pelhamdale are ...

, directly across the border with

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. This became Fairway's third location in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

suburbs and sixth overall. Fairway opened its first Wine and Spirit store adjacent to the market. The second wine and spirit superstore was opened adjacent to the Stamford market. *2010: In November, Fairway's seventh and largest location to date at over opened in Stamford, Connecticut. *2011: Fairway opened a location on the

of Manhattan on 86th Street, between Second and Third Avenues. *Fairway also opened a location in Douglaston, Queens in 2011. In July 2020 this store was sold to Bogopa Service Corporation to be reopened as a Food Bazaar supermarket. *2012: In June, Fairway opened its tenth food store and third Wine and Spirits Store in

, in a renovated former

Pathmark Pathmark is a supermarket brand owned by Allegiance Retail Services, a retailers’ cooperative based in Iselin, New Jersey, USA. Pathmark currently has one location in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, which it has operated since 2019. From ...

Super Center store. The company closed business at this location on April 1, 2020, with the location replaced by an

Amazon Go Amazon Go is a chain of convenience stores in the United States and the United Kingdom, operated by the online retailer Amazon. The stores are cashierless, thus partially automated, with customers able to purchase products without being checked ...

market. *2012: In August, Fairway Market opened a store in the Roosevelt Raceway Center in Westbury in August 2012. *2012: In December, Fairway opened their

Kips Bay, Manhattan Kips Bay, or Kip's Bay, is a neighborhood on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by East 34th Street to the north, the East River to the east, East 27th and/or 23rd Streets to the south, and Third Avenu ...

location on East 30th Street and Second Avenue. *2013: In July, Fairway Market opened their 13th store in

at Sixth Avenue on July 24, 2013. *2013: In October, Fairway opened their 14th store in

, at

mall on October 10, 2013. The store closed on September 25, 2019. *2014: Fairway Market opened a store in the DSW Plaza in

Lake Grove, New York Lake Grove is a village in the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 11,163 at the 2010 census. History The area of Lake Grove was settled in the early 18th century along Middle Country Road, which wa ...

on July 23, 2014. This store was the first Fairway Market location in Suffolk County on Long Island and the 15th food store in the metropolitan area. The company closed the store after only two years. *2017: In January, Fairway opened a store in a Georgetown (Brooklyn) strip mall. In March 2020, the store was sold to

Key Food Key Food Stores Co-op, Inc. is a cooperative of independently owned supermarkets, founded in Brooklyn, New York, on April 20, 1937. Its stores are found in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida. The headqua ...

for $5 million.
Fairway Sells Georgetown Outpost to Key Food in Bankruptcy Auction
',Brooklyn Paper, March 27, 2020

References

External links

* {{Supermarkets of the United States American companies established in 1933 Retail companies established in 1933 1933 establishments in New York City Supermarkets of the United States Retail companies based in New York City Privately held companies based in New York City Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 2013 initial public offerings Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 Wakefern Food Corporation