Retail Watchers

Original report (keeping in mind this is a tabloid product owned by News Corp):
Fairway planning to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, close all its stores

Follow up company denials are all over the web, including Supermarket News:
Fairway Markets says it has no intention to liquidate
Post follow up:
https://nypost.com/2020/01/22/fairway-m ... operating/

It's a second bankruptcy, so I would be as skeptical of management as I would the Post.

Update: Petition to the court to sell 5 stores (and the name), distribution center to another operator.
Other 9 stores are also for sale apparently.
Progressive Grocer report

New York Times report:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/nyre ... osing.html

The stores that are to be sold are going to see major downgrades unless an operator like Wegmans picks them up (and if so, the store would be substantially remodeled). With the only other options being something like Stop & Shop or ACME, the prognosis for the closing stores (likely the ones outside the immediate NYC area) isn't good.

pseudo3d wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2020, 2:25 pm The stores that are to be sold are going to see major downgrades unless an operator like Wegmans picks them up (and if so, the store would be substantially remodeled).

Not necessarily. The five core Manhattan stores being sold to Village Supermarkets will retain the Fairway name and format. They are a well run family business and not private equity owned so at least those stores have a fighting chance. I agree the rest will probably see major downgrades or just close altogether.

A Shop-Rite operator probably has the best chance to make a go of these. Wegman has stayed away from center city locations in their expansion from their old territory---they're opening a store in Northwest DC which I think is their first departure from this---it's in a repurposed office complex and someplace w/o the parking and delivery hassles of amore truly urban location. NYC would be a big departure for them and NYC has a long history of major chains who ultimately withdrew from the city, esp. Manhattan because of its challenges--Grand Union and Finast among others. A&P, which grew-up in the NYC area was the major exception.

klkla wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2020, 2:36 pm

pseudo3d wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2020, 2:25 pm The stores that are to be sold are going to see major downgrades unless an operator like Wegmans picks them up (and if so, the store would be substantially remodeled).

Not necessarily. The five core Manhattan stores being sold to Village Supermarkets will retain the Fairway name and format. They are a well run family business and not private equity owned so at least those stores have a fighting chance. I agree the rest will probably see major downgrades or just close altogether.

I meant the non-NYC locations of Fairway Market that will be sold to other operators and inevitably downgraded. I could almost imagine ACME taking a few but, ACME's expansion/competitiveness aside, unlike other divisions (Pavilions in SoCal, Tom Thumb in South, etc.) ACME has no real "upscale" stores or legacy of being a better store.