Results tagged “gristedes”

Undercover cops have nabbed another would-be pedophile who thought he was meeting a minor for a sexual rendezvous. This time the alleged perv is an executive for the Gristedes supermarket chain, 59-year-old Michael Seltzer. Investigators say Seltzer, the chain's treasurer, had been exchanging salacious online messages with the "teen" for about a year and was finally supposed to meet her for the first time on Tuesday for a sexual encounter in Douglaston. But the 14-year-old girl didn't actually exist, and Seltzer, using the irresistible screen name LOVE775419, had been communicating with undercover cops the entire time. He was arrested when he approached an undercover female officer, and police have seized computers at his home and at Gristedes' Manhattan headquarters. Seltzer is being charged with attempted rape and could face up to four years in prison, the Daily News reports. And back in 1999, Seltzer was arrested for attempting to bribe a tax warrant investigator in return for eliminating nearly $200,000 in outstanding City and State taxes owed by the supermarket chain.

Yesterday afternoon, two coworkers at an architecture firm were walking on East 37th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues when a Gristede's delivery van, driven by an apparently drunk man, jumped the curb and slammed into them on the sidewalk. A 29-year-old mother of three, who was also three months pregnant, was killed while a 37-year-old woman was seriously injured.

The Gristede’s supermarket chain could be forced to pay $25 million to more than 400 current and former managers who've successfully sued the company for refusing to pay overtime. Last week a federal judge sided with the employees, dismissing Gristede's argument that they were "salaried executives who, under federal and state law, are generally exempt from receiving time-and-a-half pay for overtime," the Times reports. In his decision, Judge Paul Crotty wrote that “Gristede’s clearly sought to treat workers as ‘hourly’ for some purposes, (i.e., docking them for hours not worked during the workweek), but ‘salaried’ for other purposes (i.e., not paying them overtime for hours worked in excess of the workweek).” Naturally, Gristede's plans to appeal, since billionaire owner John Catsimaditis (pictured) is going to need every cent to run for mayor.

The billionaire owner of Gristedes is getting his ducks in a row for a possible mayoral run in 2009. NY1 reports John Catsimaditis is "hiring staff and launching an exploratory committee," per a letter to the city's GOP officials. Like the current billionaire mayor, Catsimaditis shed his Democratic affiliation for the Republican party. Last year, Forbes listed him at #220 on the Forbes 400, noting his estimated fortune of $2.1 billion. And for reference, Bloomberg spent about $74 million to get elected in 2001.

Crain's reported some surprising supermarket news this week that would have made the Montagues and Capulets proud; Walter D’Agostino, one heir to the grocery store, has signed on with arch-rival Gristedes! He says he just wants to help save an ailing business, but his brother, the current president of D'Agostino, icily referred to his flesh and blood as “a competitor" when he heard the news from a reporter. Gristedes owner John Catsimatidis expressed confidence in his new hire's abilities, and declared "that this focus will lead to a significant change in the performance at [under-performing] stores."

    

Yesterday afternoon, a fire broke out at the Gristedes at Henry and Clark Streets in Brooklyn Heights. All shoppers and employees were evacuated and there were no reported injuries. According to Brooklyn Heights Blog, there was an electrical malfunction in the deli section. McBrooklyn found out from a police officer, "what the fire didn't get, the water from the Fire Department did" (the basement is flooded).