We've Seen This Before

The grocery store Josh works for is Fairway. It's catch phrase is "like no other market". It's based in New York but they have a store in Connecticut and a few here in New Jersey. They feature specialty foods that are hard to get elsewhere. They also sell alcohol. The most common comment I hear when I tell people Josh works in their cheese department is "I love that store! It's just so expensive! I usually only get something nice there if we're having company".

"Like no other market". That's the problem. In our area, we also have a Whole Foods. Most people here consider them the same type of store. Fairway doesn't think it's anything like Whole Foods. Few people do their primary grocery shopping at Fairway. If you are looking for organic, you do your primary shopping at Whole Foods. On average, most people go to Shop Rite or Stop N Shop for their primary grocery shopping.

Last week they filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The specialty foods are nice, but they don't carry enough of the every day foods to be that store where customers can do their primary shopping. Some stores are closing. As of now, Josh's store is being restructured but not closing.

We've seen this before, almost 12 years ago. The teacher's chain of stores we worked for was struggling. Originally, they said they would only close the stores that had been open within the last five years. One of them was the store Josh was the general manager for. That started in July of 2004. By October of 2004 they announced ALL stores were closing. Yup, right before our October 2004 wedding we got this news. Now THAT'S an interesting way to start a marriage!

I was the Assistant Manager at the nearby store. Ironically, the location of that store is now where the pizza place is where Josh works his second job. That retail space has been good to us. That second job has been a lifesaver as the grocery store goes through necessary changes. Hours are being cut. Pizza delivery makes up for those lost wages. But, we've see this before.

Fairway might be saying they won't close all of their stores. It's a ticking time bomb for the stores out of New York. There is a cost to doing business in multiple states. Multiple state laws to follow. The Connecticut and New Jersey stores aren't going to survive this. The corporate office is trying to make it work for stores like Josh's. But what they are doing is the retail equivalent to putting bandaids on a leak in the Hoover Dam.

Josh has been job searching but now he's treating it like Fairway has already closed. He's working very hard. We've seen this before. We've seen coworkers leaving in high numbers because the end is near. We've heard and said what retail associates or clerks say when their store is closing and the Corporate people aren't being honest about it. We've seen this before. We know what to do. We know what's coming.