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The Times' Jennifer Steinhauer looks at the pros and cons of upstart online grocer Freshdirect versus venerable Upper West Side ubermarket Fairway. After outlining the bickering between the two, her experiences boil down to this:
FreshDirect
Pros: Convenient; items were high quality; accessed via new high-speed Internet; plus first $50 of purchases was free
Cons: Limited depth of selection; still some bugs with ordering
Fairway
Pros: Unparalleled variety of products (like McCann's oatmeal, "beloved" Steinhauer's household)
Cons: Traumatizing ("once again assaulted by someone ramming her cart into my ankles, and forced to dodge giant rolling carts of goods about to be stocked") and suspect ("fly-infested stack of corn")
Gothamist also looked at the Fairway-FreshDirect beef and as the uptown office is on the Upper West Side, we're very familiar with the insane crowds at Fairway. In fact, we carefully map out our purchases in order to make most efficient use of time there. And we steer clear of old people. Call us ageist, but they are mean at Fairway, vicious even. But we go because we like to browse, and sometimes, when the nectarines are looking really good, we'll realize we want nectarines. Or ice cream ("Ooh, a new flavor of Ben & Jerry's that incorporates peanut butter!").
Gothamist is also starting to think we'd really like Jennifer Steinhauer. Not only do we share an affection for McCann's oatmeal, she admits to going to Stew Leonard's in Connecticut because she and her family were "oddly obsessed with the promise of a free ice cream cone with $100 purchase." Talk about oddly obsessed: Gothamist went there just to see the dairy/milk assembly line thing a few years ago.
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Nothing can replace the fun of shopping for my own food? Wanna bet?
I know, I know. I've come close to crying at Fairway many a time. It's best to go early in the morning. The worst is Sunday late afternoon/night. Bad bad bad bad things happen then. Bad.
I was once clocked - hard - in the back of the knees by an old lady with a shopping cart at Fairway and sent sprawling to the floor. She wouldn't apologize because she said that I "wasn't moving fast enough".
Then, a few days later, I was in H&H. There were only three customers - me, someone who was already being helped at the counter, and an old man in back of me. I was keeping a considerable distance from the counter, because - well - there was no need to do anything else since the store was empty. However, the old man had other ideas. He started to bellow in my ear, "Move up the line! Move up the line!" I calmly replied that there really wasn't a line and that I was going to stay where I was. And then he took a swing at me. He missed, but still - an old man tried to punch me in H&H.
I now live downtown. The end.
Jesus! I knew the old people on the Upper West Side were really scary and vicious, but I didn't know they actually would bare their knuckles. Now I won't feel so bad if I have to go head to head with a granny.
It bears mentioning that I was a 21-year old girl in a little summer frock at the time of said punching incident.
Why are people on the UWS so full of barely submerged anger? I've never understood why everyone (well, not the young people, but a shocking percentage of residents over 50) is so quick to react up there. I've heard all sorts of theories - old-school neighborhood denizens who are fed up with the gentrification of the UWS, immigrants who remember the days when it was a matter of life or death to get at the last tomato in the market, etc.
But still, the Carrie Bradshaw question of the day remains: In the land of abundance called the Upper West Side, why is there so much tension? Why does age seem to cause rage?
Jen--
Do you shop at the UWS Fairway, or the one on the west side up in Harlem? how do you compare the two?
I've shopped at both Fairways, and the one in Harlem is definately much saner, and has a better selection of actual supermarket items like cereal and cleaning supplies. Plus, the meat/fish/anything that needs to be refrigerated section rocks. However, the selection of "gourmet" foods is slightly more limited than downtown. But the prices are also a bit better.
But I've discovered that the best part about Fairway is their sorbet--absolutely amazing.
I think the biggest problem Fairway has with FreshDirect is the fact that people try to return FD produce to FW.
On my trips to FW, I've come across several people trying to make the poor immigrant stockers understand that they bought it from FD and why can't they return it here? After a 5 minute explanation (from me) about the FD/FW non-relationship, the lady seemed to get it but how many of these can FW be expected to handle? The poor lady had had several bad experiences with FD so...
That's why those big signs are there at the register explaining that FD and FW are not related and FD sucks and FD's founder sucks...
But I definitely like going to FW. I can't use $40 of groceries in a week, so they'd go bad.
And FW has cool British chocolates, like Aero and Snoflakes, right at the checkout counter and they'll cut your steaks anyway you want...
Though I share most posters' sentiments about the UWS, I must admit that I really, really miss Fairway, Zabars & H&H now that I live in Brooklyn. While Brooklyn is the most wonderful place on earth (and I can get my fix, if I ever need it, of SUV strollers and UWS transplants in Park Slope), it lacks the fresh produce emporium of Fairway and rediculously yummy and hot bagels from H&H. Though I'm ethically conflicted about it, I really am looking forward to Fairway opening in Red Hook.
I found, when I shopped at Fairway frequently, that the best tactic for a calm visit was to straddle the latest or earliest hours possible- after 11pm or right when they open at 6am.
Poor article on the pros and cons of FD and FW and this bitch calls herself a reporter??