Fairway

04/29/10

Go off hours

by jdemetrios at Citysearch

The quality of the food is good to great. The prices are mostly reasonable and alot cheaper than the other ripoff places on the Upper West Side.

The first time I went to shop, I was run into by about 6 shoppers and it was stressful. I decided to go off hours, grit my teeth and do what I had to do and get my stuff. So I am a regular shopper. And the Coffee is more than reasonably priced. The staff is inconsistent-sometimes friendly, other times bored to death. So, take your chances and it is worth going to see for yourself.

• Pros: good quality, fair prices
• Cons: bumper cars

10/12/08

Customer service has dropped at the 74th Street location

by patrickkevin at Citysearch

I've regularly shopped here for 15 years and am accustomed to the extremely heavy crowds and the understandable waits in busy periods. Mostly the checkout clerks here are very nice. The folks who run the coffee bean area are great. So are most of the deli clerks except a hyper angry one I encountered in Fall 07. However, Fairway's processes and customer service seem to be continually dropping over the last year or so. People should not have to struggle to understand Fairway's changing checkout line procedures (one line used to feed into each lane. now apparently they have one for each side of the lane). And when you bring it to the attention of the management, they shouldn't turn their back and walk away.

The Express line still seems to work the old way and run fairly well. But I'm not interested in getting into fights with other customers over something so easy to correct (such as signs or routing customers as Whole Foods does).

So I'll take my business next door to Citarella's or down the street to Whole Foods or online to Fresh Direct. The feeling you get when shopping at Fairway is they're large and busy and they do not remotely care if you shop there or not. In 2008, too many other stores have their act together for an Upper West Side staple to not have something as major as checkout lanes running like clockwork.

• Pros: good variety. good turnover with produce and other perishables.
• Cons: heavy crowds, displays that make it tough to navigate, poor cooling for dairy area freshness

09/03/08

Truly awful experience!

by NYC123321 at Citysearch

Totally will have to second people's descriptions of store management. I don't think they could get any ruder. Last time I was there, the store manager was so disrespectful and insulting he actually made me cry! Would never, ever shop in this disasterous hell-hole again. Fairway totally gives new meaning to customer "service."

• Cons: Worst customer service ever. Terrible shopping experience.

05/07/08

Rudest service imaginable

by stack30 at Citysearch

The end of this story is that my friend -- who's EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT and was visiting NYC -- and I were told to stand up from our table and leave the cafe by the rudest, most obnoxious man whom I've ever encountered at a New York City restaurant. It was so shocking and upsetting. We were seated by a waitor at a large table, as we were waiting for a few other friends to make their way to the cafe from other parts of the store. Then the manager came over demanding to know why we were seated without our whole party. We told him that our friends were minutes away. He got in a fight with the waitor who'd seated us, yelling at him over our table in the middle of the restaurant. Then he told us that we had to get up. Motioning at my friend's pregnant belly, I said that if we had to get up we were just going to leave. He said, "You should do that." He stood back glaring at us until we stood up and walked out of the cafe. The manager of the cafe on Saturday afternoons is the type of guy who hurts New York's reputation. As a lifelong New Yorker, I would hope that Fairway doesn't support his kind of hateful rudeness... Apparently they not only support it but reward it by putting him in a management position. I can't review the cafe's food, but I can tell you that I for one will never be eating it.

04/10/08

Wide variety, but highly stressful

by vm61 at Citysearch

Fairway has a large selection of groceries and produce at good prices, but the store is poorly structured and the staff is unhappy. I have to be in just the right mood to venture into that store. For one thing, I hate how their food is always sitting on pallets outside on the sidewalk, creating traffic flow problems. Then it's terribly crowded inside and they always seem to be stocking the Fruit Loops during the busiest time of the day. Don't even get me started on the double-dippers in the olive oil section. If you're in there during off hours, it's fine for general shopping. If I want real quality, I prefer to go to Citarella next door and have a civilized shopping experience.

• Pros: Wide variety at decent prices
• Cons: Unpleasant shopping experience. Prepared food is unpalatable.