Upper West Side: Fairway’s Steve Jenkins Takes on Trader Joe’s Threat
The Upper West Side’s supermarket wars are heating up. With Trader Joe’s scheduled to move next year into a location at Broadway and 72nd Street, you would expect Fairway, the neighborhood’s iconic specialty grocer perched two blocks north at 74th Street, to be feeling the heat.
Fairway Market. Photo: www.fairwaymarket.com.
But Fairway’s longtime cheesemonger, Steve Jenkins, says he isn’t losing sleep over the prospect of having to compete with Trader Joe’s discount prices and popular house-brand specialty products.
“As for Trader Joe’s, I really don’t know what to say to you,” Jenkins said in an e-mail.
“Will we respond? No. Will we change our product line? No. Will we lower our prices? No. Merchandising? No. Promotions? We don’t promote. Advertising? We don’t advertise. Anything else? Not that I know of.”
In addition to its website which displays videos, store history and other Fairway related marketing material, Fairway mails discount coupons to customers and conducts other store promotions.
Related posts:
- Upper West Side: New Trader Joe’s Store in Doubt (Updated)
- Upper West Side: Will Trader Joe’s Knock Fairway Off the Map?
- Upper West Side: Trader Joe’s to Open at 72nd and Broadway in 2010
November 24th, 2009 | Tags: 10023, 10024, 10025, Fairway, grocery stores, Manhattan, New York, Trader Joes, uper west side | Category: Fairway, New York City, Supermarkets, Trader Joes, food markets, grocery stores, upper west side
| 
Print This Post
| Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL
![[Google]]( http://www.foodandthings.com/wp-content/plugins/easy-adsenser/google-light.gif)
November 25th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Fairway has nothing to fear. Trader Joe’s sells garbage. Their produce, or what passes for it is no different than what is sold at a lousy Pioneer or Gristede’s, their cheese and meat is the same. Their house brand oils and vinegars are grocery store quality and their frozen own-brand foods are tasteless. Their success is a complete mystery to me. They’ll wind up making Fairway look even better, if anything.
November 25th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Fairway advertises and markets. Why do they say they don’t
They are on TV, Radio adds, they have weekly fliers.
I love fairway and respect Steve , but to say they do not do any of this is a misnomer.
Both stores have their Places.
Matthew
November 28th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Given the location, there is room for both. I’m not sure they are serving the same folks. Plenty of people cannot afford to really “shop” at Fairway (students, fixed income, etc.).
For those of us on budgets, Trader Joe’s represents significant savings. That said, there are, depending on season/timing, some good values at Fairway.
As for Trader Joe’s food being tasteless, I don’t agree. Depends on what you get.
I am happy to have the option and anything that can drive out over-priced, over-rated Whole Foods/Whole paycheck works for me!
November 29th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I don’t see why Fairway has anything to worry about. Fairway is strong with fresh produce and meat and they have a huge selection of European products. In contrary, Trader Joe’s carries mostly products of their own and have really good frozen food section. It’s like comparing apples to oranges. I would shop at both stores for different things.
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:30 am
Fairway will be fine because trader joes does not really sell fresh cheese, produce, and meat that is not packaged already, but I think Trader joes will do very well there because people want to shop there and stop going to the overrun 14th street location. Their prices cannot be beat, and the food tastes grteat! .19 cent bananas are cheaper than on the street, .99 cents for a whole bag of pasta that is $6 at fairway? Also their frozen foods are amazing at the lowest prices I have seen for things like tamales, burritos, indian foods, waffles, stirfrys, vegetables, pancakes, not to mention a slew of sodium free and gluten free products for those who need them.
TJ’s is not competition, but I still see it doing extremely well.