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The Upper West Side specialty supermarket battle may be claiming an early victim. In a move to be more competitive against the soon-to-open Trader Joe's, nabe mainstay Fairway is considering closing the beloved, but money draining, second floor café. The closure would create room for groceries (or as our sister site Eater reported, a coffee department) and also relieve overcrowding in the grocery-cart-combat-zone and labyrinth of aisles otherwise known as the first floor.
Loyal and longtime Fairway Café patrons aren't taking this threat lying down. Neighborhood activists have created a website savefairwaycafe.com and started gathering signatures for petitions. They have also mobilized volunteers to pass out informational fliers in front of Fairway at 5pm today. However, Fairway chief executive Howard Glickman ominously tells the New York Times, "For every person I have in the cafe, I’ve got 100 customers who are shopping in the rest of the store, and we’ve got to take care of those 100 customers also.” Sounds like the café supporters have quite a battle ahead of them.
· Talk of Fairway Cafe Closing Prompts Patrons to Mobilize [New York Times]
· Neighbors Rally to Save the Endangered Fairway Cafe [Eater]
· Save Fairway Cafe [Official Site]
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