For years we've been discussing the fate of the Brooklyn Navy Yard's beloved 19th-century houses that make up Admiral's Row. Our own Jake Dobkin even risked life and limb to get inside and document the houses in their beautiful decay, as the city talked of plans for leveling them. Despite protests to salvage the Row, it looks like its destiny is destruction, and this Monday nine of the eleven structures will be cleared, with two—the Timber Shed and Quarters B—being restored "for daily use," according to the NY Times. These have now been "transferred by the federal government to the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, which manages the old 300-acre yard, now an industrial park of 275 businesses." more ›

Remember last month, when super-scary right-wing advocacy group One Million Moms campaigned to get "vulgar, repulsive" Ben & Jerry's Schweddy Balls ice cream off the shelves of stores across the country? Well, holy baby Jesus! It might have actually worked! more ›

The Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) is looking for a few good shoppers to snitch for them. For the past year the DCA has been aggressively seeking out (and fining) supermarkets who don't comply with basic rules (i.e. they have inaccurate pricing, incorrectly taxed products, and inaccurate scales and scanners). But of late they've been finding that our supermarkets are just dismal—seriously, back in January the compliance rate among checked shops was 33 percent!—so now it is asking for your help in finding scofflaw supermarkets. Specifically they'd like you to tweet @NYCDCA whenever you feel #nickeled&dimed. more ›

About six months ago, the Department of Consumer Affairs conducted a sweep of 700 supermarkets and found that one of out of every two stores failed inspection, for a compliance rate of 48%. Because of that abysmal performance, the DCA is doubling its number of inspections this year, and the percentage of shady supermarkets has already increased—more than $310,000 in fines have been issued in the past four months. more ›

At 8 a.m. this morning, the doors opened to the long-awaited Trader Joe's on the Upper West Side corner of Broadway and West 72nd Street. Leis and steel drum musicians greeted shoppers (some of whom were waiting since 7:30 a.m.) as they ventured down escalators to the two subterranean floors featuring the store's signature groceries and competitive prices. People were marveling how beautiful and open the store was—but we happened to go there right when it opened, so it wasn't crowded (DNA Info says there was a line halfway around the store by 9:15 a.m.). more ›

Many longtime, non-Asian residents of Flushing, Queens are feeling slighted with food choices ever since the Key Foods in the area shut down. The closure left Asian markets as the only local source for groceries, and locals are demanding that they start carrying normal, boring, Western stuff like bologna and bagels. Local Rosa Febles told the WSJ (paywall), "Most of the supermarkets in the area are Asian markets and all they have is just one single aisle of food for us. We feel a little left out." And don't ask them to go to the Met Food on Browne Street; apparently it caters to a "nearby Latino population." When will the white people catch a break? more ›

The NY Post is having a good time over the engagement of Christopher Cox, son of NY State GOP chair Ed Cox and grandson of Richard Nixon, and Andrea Catsimatidis, whose father is Gristede's supermarket chain billionaire (and one-time sorta mayoral hopeful) John Catsimatidis. Here's some choice snark: "Everyone's snickering behind their back...He brings her to these very staid Republican events and she's in a miniskirt. It's the political equivalent of 'The Addams Family.'" more ›

The Brooklyn Navy Yard wall (which the NY Post confusingly refers to as Brooklyn's version of the Berlin Wall) is coming down... well, at least enough of it to make way for the new ShopRite! Sigh. more ›

Members of NY's Urban Search and Rescue team used power tools to help pull four Haitians from the rubble of Port-au-Prince this weekend. Among them was a young girl who survived four days trapped in a grocery store. Another group, the Church of Scientology, used the texts of L. Ron Hubbard in their rescue efforts. more ›

A classic kosher luncheonette may have closed last month, but in grocery stores, kosher is all the rage. According to a Cornell University research project, 40 percent of the food sold at grocery stores is kosher. “It’s keyed into the issues of food safety and consumer fear,” said Larry Finkel of Packaged Facts, a consumer market research company. “The reputation of kosher is stretching beyond chicken, whether there is truth to it or not.” According to a NY Times piece, people think kosher products are healthier, fresher and taste better. There’s also the perception that kosher butchering is less cruel. Fact or fiction, kosher food has found its market. And according to the study, the majority—about 85 percent—of those who shop kosher don’t do it because their religion compels them. 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:

more ›

While the fate of a proposed Whole Foods in Gowanus Brooklyn remains an open question, a group of Upper East Siders are hankering for their piece of the Whole. NYC the Blog spotted this desperate entreaty on Lexington Ave between 86th and 87th Street. Did you know it's tough out there on the mean streets of the UES? It's true; the sign says so: "I'm sick of eating out! We need to take action! They have taken away many of our amenities, making it hard to live in this area! We should have a say in what stores are welcome in our neighborhood." The community urgently needs a tiny violin shop, for one thing. According to an article in Crain's last year, a Whole Foods on 57th and Second Ave is expected to be completed by 2012, so that's a start. Hang in there Upper East Siders! more ›

Gowanus-area residents, there may be a Whole Foods in your future—maybe! After an earlier report that the supermarket was abandoning its plans for a Third Street location, the company sent a memo to Community Board 6. Via Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, Whole Foods manager Mark Mobley writes: "I am writing with just a quick update to let you know that recent reports of Whole Foods Market's demise in Brooklyn seem to have been greatly exaggerated! As you may have seen, the Brooklyn Paper published a story this week that inaccurately suggests we have definitively decided not to pursue the development of a store on our property at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue and further that we are planning to sell the property. This is simply not true and we have sent a letter to the Brooklyn Paper editor clarifying our position and requesting a correction. You may recall that last Fall I sent you a memo explaining that Whole Foods Market had begun re-evaluating our plans for our property and that we would be working to identify potential development partners for a Brooklyn store. That is exactly what we have been doing in recent months and we are continuing these efforts in hopes of arriving at a potential development scenario that will enable us to finally come to Brooklyn..." more ›

Back in 2006, Whole Foods held a groundbreaking ceremony for its first location in Brooklyn, in Gowanus on Third Street. Now, the high-end supermarket chain is abandoning those plans. Brooklyn the Borough reports that a Whole Foods spokesperson said, “At this juncture we do not have immediate plans to open a new store in Brooklyn but do hope to be there someday soon." The Brooklyn Paper also mentions that a spokesperson "suggested that the land would be sold." The demise of Whole Foods had been rumored for a while, given the polluted nature of the area, and there was opposition to the size of the proposed parking lot. more ›

The Municipal Art Society attended a meeting today at which the negotiations between the National Guard, the owner of the property, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) discussed the future of the buildings at Admiral's Row. The meeting was part of the federally-mandated Section 106 process that requires federal agencies to study the impact of their actions on important historic buildings. Sadly, it seems their minds were made up, the Brooklyn Paper reports that they will save two of the historic buildings in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and destroy the others, making way for a supermarket. more ›

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 ›

Long have the houses on Admiral's Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard been crumbling, and long have the preservationists fought developers who would like to tear them down and put in their place a supermarket. Crain's is now reporting that "a compromise deal between the National Guard and the Brooklyn Navy Yard's operator is set to raze all but one of the crumbling historic homes." Word comes from unnamed sources at this point, who say the plan will be revealed in late April and will salvage the structure known as the Timber Shed (which is allegedly "the oldest surviving wooden timber shed in the United States"). The supermarket will bring jobs and fresh produce to the surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods, the developers have argued, but the preservationists have noted that all ten houses could be saved even if a supermarket moved in. Just no one tell Wal-Mart about the soon to be vacant lot. more ›

In these desperate times, even basic necessities like groceries are becoming a luxury for more and more New Yorkers. Thankfully, there's a way to adapt to a reduced income without sacrificing your appetite—assuming you don't have any ethical qualms about theft. One local freelancer who often subsists on a very limited budget has for years eaten like a gourmand by stealing groceries from fine supermarkets. This person agreed to speak with us on the condition of anonymity, for obvious reasons, and shared some invaluable tips for hungry shoppers in search the best five finger discounts in town. more ›

After a multi-year investigation, attorney general Andrew Cuomo has announced a $750,000 settlement for wage violations by a company that owns supermarkets in Chinatown, Elmhurst and Flushing. According to City Room, employees at the three stores worked 13 or 14 hours a day, seven days a week, totaling 90 hours a week in some cases. But most of them were paid just $360 a week, about the equivalent of $4 an hour. (The labor department says they should have made $714 a week at those hours.) In a statement, Cuomo said, "Employers who line their pockets instead of paying workers the wages and overtime they’ve earned will be brought to justice by my office." The Times tried to get a comment from Long Deng, the owner, but he's in China (hopefully not sourcing more labor). And Deng is not to be confused with the supermarket executives arrested in October for paying their grocery baggers with the tip change shoppers (sometimes) leave at the checkout. more ›

You know those sad little plastic cups of loose change at the supermarket checkout you never drop money into because, what, now you have to tip grocery baggers too? For some baggers, that's their only source of income. Yesterday two executives at an Associated supermarket in Bushwick—which workplace justice activists have been protesting against for years—were arrested on charges that they've cheated workers out of more than $300,000 and falsified business records to cover their tracks. more ›

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. more ›

You'll recall that many of the city's supermarkets have been struggling to stay afloat due to high rents, skyrocketing electricity costs, and shrinking profit margins (here's a map). Today Albor Ruiz at the Daily News points to another factor: stiff competition from BJ's, the giant wholesale club store that will soon open two more locations in Brooklyn. But because of the $45 membership fee and BJ's refusal to accept food stamps or subsidies under the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, the store is not an option for many lower-income residents. 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 ›

Blogger Flatbush Pigeon recently noted the curious case of Pomegranate, the enormous new supermarket currently in its final stages of construction in Flatbush/Midwood. The food store takes the place of a kosher bakery, another store, and an auto repair shop. Giant pomegranates loom over Coney Island Avenue and Avenue L. The picture here belies the sheer size of the place—just take a look at Flatbush Pigeon’s photos. 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 ›