A festive new entrance at Fairway Market at 74th and Broadway.
Some noticeable changes have been made at Fairway this week: fake yellow carnations now decorate one of the entrances, and a retractable steel gate has been installed on the second floor, blocking access to the beer section in the evening—even though the store remains open and beer sales are still legal.
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ILTUWS first spotted the gate on Monday, September 30, at 11:30 p.m. Fairway, formerly a 24-hour grocery store, now closes at midnight. Seeing the gate blocking the beer section brought to mind the locked-up deodorant, body wash, and toothpaste at certain drug stores. Quick, convenient purchases that usually take just a few minutes now face an unwelcome obstacle.
A Fairway staff member opens the beer gate.
ILTUWS spoke with several employees at the first-floor checkout kiosks, who explained that the gate serves two purposes: to keep those under 21 out and to deter theft. They noted that the gate goes up at 10 p.m., meaning anyone needing beer after that time must locate an employee to unlock it.
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The New York Post reported in May that shoplifting complaints had increased by 5%, with 21,578 incidents recorded at that point in 2024—up from 20,552 during the same time period in 2023.
“This is terrible,” said Susan, a nearby neighbor attempting to buy beer on Tuesday night. “It took me about ten minutes to find someone to open this thing.” Her frustration was evident as she lamented the difficulty of locating an employee to retrieve the key. Who can blame a New Yorker for wanting to accomplish something simple in a New York minute? Even with Fairway Market Mobile available for checking out on her phone, the gate completely undermined that convenience.
“You come upstairs, then you have to go downstairs to find somebody because there’s no one up here. Then you have to come back up. It’s a lot of running around,” said Susan. She hopes the gate will be removed and is considering buying her beverages at a local bodega instead.
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Fairway has installed cameras throughout the store and employs facial recognition technology on customers, allowing them to collect, retain, convert, store and share all their customers’ biometric information. So, why do they need a gate? “All the technology in the world, and they got to put up a wall?” said a customer sarcastically as they stood at the upstairs gate unsure about what to do next.
ILTUWS reached out to Wakefern Food Corporation on Wednesday, October 3. The New Jersey-based company acquired Fairway in 2020. We inquired about the necessity of locking the beer section during store hours, given the presence of cameras and facial recognition technology. Additionally, we asked about the intended closing time for the gate, their gate policy, and any messages for customers who find the gate to be a significant inconvenience.
We got in.
ILTUWS did not receive a response from Wakefern Food Corporation immediately, so we made another trip to Fairway to speak with more employees on Thursday, October 4 around 2 p.m. “One night in mid-September, eleven cases of beer were stolen at once,” said a Fairway employee, expressing deep remorse for the inconvenience customers faced with the gate up. “The stealing has been bad,” they added.
Wakefern Food Corporation issued a statement to ILTUWS at 5:10 p.m. on Thursday, October 3. “The store will be installing a call button to help customers quickly purchase beer during hours when the upstairs registers are closed. An increase in theft of beer prompted the decision to limit access to alcohol after 10 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
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Anyone who has shopped at Fairway just before closing knows they run a tight ship. The floor manager is well-known for reminding customers that the store closes at midnight and urging them to wrap up their purchases. On multiple occasions, we’ve walked in just before closing, heard the manager’s reminder, and happily complied, eager to respect the team’s time. While these interactions are enjoyable, we worry about the day we might have to request the gate to be opened when there are only a few minutes left. Although the process is straightforward, the presence of the gate could lead to missing the closing deadline altogether.
“This is the city now,” said Jason Stevenson, another local picking up a case of Sierra Nevada on Tuesday night. “If you don’t lock it up, someone’s going to take it. Maybe they should consider hiring security?”
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You know who doesn’t lock items up or use biometric data collection?
Your local bodega. Go there instead.
What incentive would this company have to change if you’ll run up and down stairs in frustration and give them money in exchange for making you miserable? No incentive. They’ll just keep making your experience worse and worse.
How does one steal 11 cases of beer at once??
Having cameras, and other technology accomplishes nothing in terms of dealing with shoplifters if they are not apprehended and penalized. If the goal is to prevent shoplifting, then the gates are the way to go. It does impose an inconvenience of customers, but the alternative may be that beer is no longer offered, or the store goes out of business or its hours are further curtailed or it raises prices to offset the losses from shoplifting. I think this is simply the reality of our current culture (or lack thereof). .
Fairway is not Fairway. It’s ShopRite, and it’s terrible now.
11 Cases stolen at once in one night? Clearly sounds like an inside job. Rather than inconvenience and eventually lose remaining customers to the plethora of other possibilities for purchasing in the neighborhood, perhaps the Wakefern Food Corporation should investigate its own Fairway employees, vendors, and distributing agents.
FIrst a virologist and now a law enforcement expert
‘Oppressive’ gate! What’s oppressive is trying to run and stay in business when you’re being robbed. What will be oppressive is when Fairway says no more and closes its doors and your grandmother has to walk out of her neighborhood to buy food(and beer). ILTUWS get a grip.
Oh Gosh….running up and down some steps? Have to wait a few minutes. Only in New York City. Imagine how the folks in Ukraine or the Middle East feel when they go to get liquor. Oh dear Lord, imagine how long that takes. Upper West Side privilege at its finest.
And Fairway has been gating vitamins and body soap upstairs at 7PM-ish for years now.
Fairway west 74th would probably have less of a shop lifting problem if it didn’t have such a high employee turnover. Wakefern (ShopRite) is clearly driving employees, both new and old, away.
The store is not run competently.
May be the most ridiculous analysis off a problem I have ever read..
Ira,
Clearly you’ve never worked in low wage retail for any length of time.
There’s not a great deal of incentive for employees to care, especially when management is incompetent and not interested in keeping customers.
Trader Joe’s on Columbus shrank its beer section to where it’s practically gone. I don’t know why I never saw any theft there.
Poor NY liberals whining about the inconveniences they brought upon themselves for being a sanctuary city that also demonizes the police
Precisely.
We’ll have to go to one of the 25 other places within walking distance to buy beer. Boohoo.
ok dude
Mike smyil,
What does “sanctuary” city status have do with anything here?
Um, the NYPD? You do realize that NYPD officers just shot up a subway station and train without understanding that other people besides the man they wanted to stop (who didn’t have a gun, and the cops had provoked) use the subway?
Welcome to Gale Brewer’s (and other uber liberal city council members) NYC… We live in a world where actions no longer have consequences. Jump a subway turnstile, steal a 12 pack of beer, ‘oh don’t worry about it.’ For however long the rest of us ‘accept’ this behavior and make excuses for it instead of hold people accountable we will suffer the consequences.
Ugh. Yet another bad thing about Fairway since the hedge-fund idiots bought it and then sold it to Shop Rite. (By the way, the Shop Rites in northern Westchester and Putnam County are excellent.)
You can never find anyone at the coffee station and now they’re locking up the beer.
When coffee and beer, two major food groups, are hard to get, something has gone very wrong with the universe. ?
Sam Parker,
Somehow Wakefern managed to drive away the competent, albeit hedgefund hired, James Governale, who ran the last hedgefund version of Fairway West 74th Street.
In his place, the now not new manager is akin an overwhelmed assistant frozen foods manager, who refuses to learn from her mistakes.
A few months ago, the store was out of the dried spice oregano, that’s utter incompetence. (Yes, I checked upstairs.)
Gustavo:
Gail Brewer doesn’t control the NYPD. Nor does she have any control over the DA’s office.
And look at the “consequences” of fare evasion.
Fairway at West 74th Street also stupidly chose to move the beer upstairs. This is in addition to Wakefern driving long term employees away — there’s been a massive exodus. Good reason for workers to not care.