Union Market, the Brooklyn-based grocery chainlet that bills itself as offering "organic, local and all-natural products," is allegedly selling misleading bargain-bin meat in their butcher department, according to a story in this morning's Post—but now the Market's owner is firing back. more ›

If you're a Whole Foods employee who's been stocking up on the 365 brand quinoa and tofu, then you're in luck. The grocery chain has just introduced a "weigh less, pay less" discount plan that will allow the company's healthiest employees to knock an additional 10 percent off of in store purchases in an attempt to "encourage and reward Team Members for making healthy, positive lifestyle changes and to reduce the costs of our health plan." more ›

A group of Queens residents is bringing its version of the Park Slope co-op to the "food desert" of Long Island City. Fifteen foodies are currently in the planning stages for the grocery cooperative, which they hope to have up and running by 2011. "People are very interested in food in this borough," said Leah McLaughlin, publisher and editor of the food magazine Edible Queens. Like its Brooklyn inspiration, the Queens Harvest Food Co-op will be staffed exclusively by members and funded by member contributions, as well as grants. "We hope the food co-op will increase access to affordable, fresh, healthy foods," organizer Maggie Ornstein told the NY Daily News. "The hope is to have what you'd find in your supermarket. The main difference is as a [co-op] member, you have decision-making ability." more ›

Police are searching for the three men who robbed a Bushwick bodega on Jan. 11. The perps — one of whom was carrying gun — entered the Evergreen Avenue grocery at around 4:30 am and assaulted a clerk and a customer, the Village Voice reports. They also disabled a security camera, but not before two of the suspects were caught on film. The camera-breaker and his accomplices are described "as Hispanic and between 5'6" and 5'9" and 20 and 30 years of age." Here's the video: more ›

A soaring number of supermarkets, delis, even drugstores have been overcharging for a wide range goods by using inaccurate scales, according to an investigation by the Department of Consumer Affairs [DCA]. City inspectors have issued 2,976 violations so far this year to retailers; a 58 percent increase over last year's 1,882 tickets. The culprits include basically everyone: Whole Foods, Fairway, Gristedes, Associated, D'Agostino's, Pathmark, Key Food, Food Emporium, Met Food, Stop & Shop, Waldbaum's, Foodtown, C-Town, Pioneer, and Western Beef. At the Whole Foods in Columbus Circle, undercover inspectors bought eight pieces of cheesecake weighed with a scale that didn't adjust for the weight of the plastic containers, overcharging $8.58. more ›

Workers at the DUMBO grocery store Foragers spent about a week installing what was supposed to be a vastly improved salad bar at the Front Street location. It finally debuted last Friday, but it looks like they've decided not to install the customary plastic shield that protects consumers from strangers' unhygienic snot spray. The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene directed our questions to the state's Department of Agriculture and Markets, so here's Section 271-8.2 about salad bars from the state's regulations for retail food stores:

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Acting on last year's study showing that many lower-income neighborhoods desperately need decent grocery stores, today Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson have announced a new program to encourage "the establishment and retention of neighborhood grocery stores in underserved communities in Northern Manhattan, the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn and Jamaica, Queens." It's called the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) Food Stores program, and the mayor's office predicts it will "help create an estimated 15 new grocery stores and upgrade 10 existing stores, creating 1,100 new jobs and retaining 400 others over 10 years." more ›

The upscale gourmet grocery Balducci's is closing its two NYC locations. The Post reports that Lincoln Center-area West 66th location and the 17,000-square-foot store on Eighth Avenue at 14th Street will shutter at the end of April. Back in 2003, the longtime Balducci's location on 6th Avenue at 8th Street closed, after the store was sold to a larger supermarket chain, Sutton Place, after some Balducci family in-fighting. But now Sutton Place is closing other Balducci's locations—one in Ridgefield, CT and one in DC—a Balducci's marketing director told the Danbury Times, "Right now we are restructuring our company. We had to close some of our under-performing stores." Perhaps the store's prices weren't helping these days: The Post article leads with, "There will be two fewer places for Big Apple foodies to buy $39.99-a-pound triple-cream goat cheese and $23.99-per-pound veal chops" while a 2003 NY Times reader wrote, "If you wanted to spend $6 on a jar of imported marmalade that could be had for $4 elsewhere, then Balducci's was the store for you." more ›

550 workers who were illegally denied overtime at nine Amish Market gourmet groceries will divvy up nearly $1.5 million as part of a settlement with the state Department of Labor. At a press conference yesterday, Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith detailed the investigation of Amish Market and its related stores: Zeytinia, Zeytinz and Zeytuna. Acting on a tip from union officials, investigators conducted a simultaneous sweep of nine locations throughout the state in June 2007, arriving at the same time to prevent managers from coaching employees or destroying records. The investigation determined that many workers were clocking 45 to 60 hours a week but were not paid time and a half, while new hires often received subminimum wages during a so-called "trial period." Commissioner Smith told reporters, "It’s unfathomable to think that in this day and age—in these frightening economic times—an employer would actually believe it could get away with cheating workers out such an exorbitant amount of their hard earned money." more ›

A former barbershop on Broadway by the Williamsburg Bridge has become the latest addition to the expanding South Williamsburg culinary corridor, which includes (but is not limited to) Bridge Urban Winery, Marlow & Sons, Diner, Dressler, Miss Favela and La Superior. Now add Marlow & Daughters to the list; and before you get all "die yuppie scum!" please note that the barbershop closed only because the owner passed away over the summer, according to Brooklyn Based. (Of course it's possible he died from a heart broken by gentrification.) more ›

Jefferson Market, the neighborhood institution on Sixth Avenue near 11th Street, may be on its way out after almost eight decades in business. The Times has a preemptive obituary, pinning the imminent cause of death on competition from Whole Foods and Traders Joe's, regrettable management choices, and a new breed of locals. “A lot of these new families, with all this money, they don’t cook,” explains co-owner Louis Montuori, whose 87-year-old uncle Anthony Montuori "still rises at 4:30 a.m. to come to the store from his home in New Jersey and deliver groceries." Now Montuori is desperately seeking a new partner to pump some cash into the place, though he admits it's not really the best timing: “I picked the worst week in history to be looking for an investor.” more ›

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." more ›

Because of rising rents and lowering profit margins, supermarkets city-wide have been disappearing, according to a recent study. New York's boroughs have been especially hard hit, forcing low-income residents like Fort Greene's Della Dorsett to power her electric wheelchair several blocks uphill along Myrtle Avenue, "returning home with plastic bags dangling from handles and nestled between her feet." Something to think about next time the lines jam up at Whole Foods. more ›