Quick, what New York City supermarket's neighbors have the highest median income in the city? If you guessed Whole Paycheck, you might want to guess again! more ›

Forget the 46.2 million Americans who are living in poverty—when one of our nation's precious "job creators" is hurt, a bald eagle commits suicide. Billionaire Gristedes owner and relative to Dick Nixon by marriage John Catsimatidis may have to close the supermarket chain if the company can't afford to pay a $3.5 million settlement to 300 employees for back wages and overtime. "Gristedes is suffering," he tells the Post, citing a "squeeze play" by his vendors after rival Food Emporium declared bankruptcy last year. A "squeeze play" is also the technique for testing the ripeness of Gristedes produce, which involves gripping it tightly, pressing it to your face for a deep inhale, then placing it back amongst its brethren. (This technique is also an effective "negotiating" tactic when dealing with money-grubbing employees.) 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 ›

A Brooklyn supermarket is pumping the smell of tasty foods throughout the store as a way to entice customers into buying more food that we probably don't need. NetCost Market, which has stores in Brooklyn and Staten Island, installed "small, black wall-mounted" machines into its Sheepshead Bay store at 16th st and Gravesend Neck Road that pump out odors of "Smoky Bacon," "Rosemary Focaccia," and "Lindt Chocolate." "Because of the scents, I think fruit sales probably up 7 to 8 percent," a NetCost spokeswoman tells the Post. Heaven help us if these smells someday replace samples. more ›

For years now supermarkets have been trying to do away with checkout cashiers and bag people, instead asking us to do their job for them in the name of "convenience." And yet anyone who has spent twenty minutes watching helplessly as an old lady tries in vain to scan and re-scan a twelve-pack of Fancy Feast at Key Food knows that the new process hasn't quite led to the holy grail of a wait-less supermarket checkout. But that doesn't mean shopkeepers aren't working on it. To that end Stop & Shop has teamed up with a company called Modiv to take it to the next level, the smartphone checkout. As if our phones didn't know enough about us already. more ›

This week, the Department of Consumer Affairs announced the very disconcerting results of the latest fall supermarket inspections, and it turns out we're all getting ripped off: compliance rates have hit an all-time low of 33 percent, and there have been more than 750 charges against supermarkets in the last four months alone. They found that the most common violation was for a lack of item pricing, which according to the DCA resulted in city inspectors getting overcharged a third of the time (it's like their very own mini taxi overcharging scandal!). So in light of that, some are wondering if it's time supermarkets started getting letter grades. more ›

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% (violations include "inaccurate check-out scanners, lack of prices on individual items, taxation of items that are not taxable, improperly weighed food, and unavailability of scales for customers"). And in the poorest communities (all in the Bronx), the compliance rate was only 36%. more ›

Fresh on the heels of news that Trader Joe's is set to invade Chelsea, word is that the TJ's sister-slash-superstore, ALDI, will be opening in Queens. The Voice talks to a "supermarket consultant" who tells them to expect a dozen more ALDI locations to follow. The Wegmans count for the five boroughs sadly remains at zero. more ›