via Google Street View
Supermarket Western Beef, located at the rental complex West End Towers at 75 West End Avenue (between 62nd and 63rd Streets), is expected to close by the end of December. The building landlord – the Brodsky Organization – confirmed with Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal that another supermarket would be replacing it.
Rosenthal wrote a letter to Daniel Brodsky, the real estate company’s CEO, with the goal of preventing this closure. In a tweet Rosenthal sent out on Friday, she indicated that she plans to meet with the company.
The letter reads (in part) that “For years, and particularly during the height of the pandemic, residents of both Amsterdam Houses and Amsterdam Houses Addition have relied on the proximity and affordability of Western Beef. Many neighbors have shared with [her] their fears over losing a beloved community staple.”
The letter continues to state that “At a time when people are struggling to put food on the table, it is crucial that affordable grocery options remain available. The West Side is not in need of another upscale boutique grocer or another niche store – the community desperately needs a full-service supermarket with lower price points to ensure that low-income New Yorkers can continue to afford food in the neighborhoods they live in and helped build.
Linda Rosenthal’s full letter can be read here.
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I wish I had gone there more often!! Maybe that’s why… Kidding aside, I’m very upset, especially for the people who live very close by. That was the only such store with prices that made sense for most people! What a loss! This is worse than losing Fairway uptown, because Fairway is not a good alternative—really not all that affordable—it just looks like it.
this is extremely disappointing. many deals to be had here… lines could be a bit tricky at times but the value usually makes it all worth it. this closing is a bad deal for the neighborhood, indeed.
The place was not clean at all. I never trusted buying deli or meats there. Just only when I needed detergent or something like that. There were always towels on the floor soaking up leaking floors. Very dirty!! This neighborhood deserves a better market with more organic and healthy options. Good riddance to that filth roach motel!
Western Beef was a dump. They had lower prices to match their inferior quality of food. This doesn’t excuse the landlord’s greed and exploitation of tenants especially during a pandemic. What’s needed is a market that provides quality and healthy food to all of our residents at reasonable prices. If that means a wealthy property owner has to give up some of his/her bottom line to help not as fortunate neighbors, so be it.
Can we please restore some civility to our values than just have the world be a numbers crunch?
That won’t happen. Maybe there is a way to keep it open. I wonder why it’s closing. Having compassion for the less wealthy, elderly, disabled and others who don’t find it easy to travel down to 42nd Street and 9th to save money, only to have to lug it all back home again a couple of hours later, is also a good thought.
Then perhaps you should stick with Morton’s, Whole Foods and or Trader Joes…a lot of ppl depend on Western Beef. Esp, minorities considering they carried most ethic food items.
Fairway is an overpriced dump. That said, I don’t want it to close either, on the UWS. However, many of the same exact things are offered at WB for much less. I don’t eat off the floors, so… Morton Williams is also overpriced, especially for many people living nearby. That’s sad.
The turnoff at WB is checking out. Too few registers. The first thing I check when entering the store is the lines at the registers. If the lines are long, as they are more often than not, I take my business elsewhere.
A Trader Joe’s would be a great addition to the area! Please make it happen!
TJ blocks away on 72nd. Nearby.
If they can place a Starbucks/Chipotle right around the block from each other…..they can put a TJ’s where WB is right now. Besides, 72nd is always crowded with people! If people want a low price point, lower quality food supermarket, then you only have KeyFood/Bravo/Associated or any other of the places that are all over the outer Boroughs. Not sure if they’ll do well in this area if WB didn’t make it.
Western Beef is the best option +/- at least 30 blocks in the West Side. I can afford Morton Williams’s absurd prices, but refuse to pay them.
WB had major room for improvement in checkout — always too few open.
But this is bad for any reasonable people on the UWS.
Indeed I will extremely miss having access to all those international items I could never find in Morton Williams, Whole foods etc…not to mention the affordability especially when you have to live on a budget during this Pandemic or in general. I really do hope they replace it with a similar franchise that caters to everyone and not another upscale, overpriced store 🙁
There is a Santa Claus! What a great Christmas gift. Thank You! Hated this Western Beef, filthy, roach infested, meats looked horrible (brown not red), lines were too long. I enjoyed produce department when I had to go there! Good Bye nasty store.
I’d like to add this ….. I’ve s shopped at other Western Beefs, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and enjoyed shopping but this one on West End sucks big time!
To my fellow neighbors who prefer lower prices. Check out new supermarket between 42nd 41st on. 9th Ave. Small interior, prices are so-so but reasonable. also, there’s a Western Beef in Chelsea. I was raised if need be ……. travel to get quality foods @ reasonable prices. Personably I don’t mind paying higher prices for cleaner, quality, etc… I do Morton Williams once or twice a month for incidentals. I shop in bulk, and then shop locally for odds and ends.
Not only is Western Beef at a useful price point for residents of Amsterdam Houses, students from Fordham and teachers like me also shop there. Stores like Gracefully and Trader Joes (which I love) do not carry the same generic brands at reasonable prices. While Western Beef isn’t perfect, it serves this community well. I sincerely hope it is replaced with something of equal value and diversity of products that all neighbors in this part of the UWS can afford, and want, to shop in.
Well put.
The truth is a real shame that they close. The only thing we had left. For low-income people and many elderly people who live on Social Security do not have the necessary resources. Everything there is too expensive. We have taken all the Supermarkets for low-income people. That is an injustice. How far will we go.
The poor are the ones who pay the consequences.
I have been using this store since its opening. My budget does not allow me to use other supermarkets in the area.
… WHEN I LEARNED that the supermarket is closing, I just do not know how and where I will buy food.
… I AM AN OLD LONE PERSON !!!