It could be cuz I’m always staying in Chelsea when I go to NYC, but there don’t seem to be any grocery stores anwhere… The only place I can see to buy food are the little corner stores/markets with outrageous prices…
As a tourist I guess I can live with paying high prices for a few days if I have to, but what do people living in those areas of NYC do? I figure there must be chain grocery stores somewhere in Manhattan, but they sure seem well hidden…
Do people just grin and bear it? Do they beg rides from friends and find a Costco in the other boroughs?
ARE there grocery chains in Manhattan?
SFCanadian (Who has two more trips to Chelsea coming up and is fed up with corner stores charging a fortune for stuff)
If by “grocery store,” you mean big suburban style grocery stores with parking lots, I know of two.
There’s a really big one at 125th and the Henry Hudson parkway.
And another one on South Street near Chinatown.
When I lived in New York w/ my girlfriend, we used the neighborhood D’Agostino’s. Probably more expensive than the typical suburban supermarket, but in many ways more convenient.
Last time I stayed with friends there I remember a modest sized supermarket close to where they lived. It was on 8th ave. within a block or two of 17th st. That’s Chelsea isn’t it?
That one is still there, ticker. But for the North Chelsea people, there was an awesome Food Emporium at 26th and 8th. It closed after being open less than a year.
Man, pick up a phone book! Look up ‘Gristedes’, look up ‘Food Emporium’, look up ‘Waldbaums’, ‘Dagostino’. There’s plety of supermarkets in Manhattan, they just tend to be a bit smaller than you’re used to. (And due to the price of real estate, they ain’t in the middle of a nine-acre parking lot, either, so maybe that’s why you’re missing them.)
Seriously, though they are in short supply, big supermarkets can be found, often at the base of large, newer apartment bulidings. There’s an upscale one I can think of in the Chelsea area, called, I think Whole Foods, on Seventh Ave. in the tweneties, and I know you can find a D’agostino’s on 23 St. west of Seventh.
Oddly, I have been told by reliable sources that the lack of large grocery stores in NYC is part of a deliberate policy.
The idea was to protect the neighborhood grocery and the bodega from competition by putting some very restrictive rules into the zoning code regarding the size of food stores.
Of course the upshot is that New Yorkers pay more and have to go further out of their way for groceries.
Alright, Chelsea-native-and-grandson-of-supermarket-exec here to give you the tour.
I can think of about 10 supermarkets in the area bounded by 14th Street, 30th Street, 7th Avenue and the Hudson.
They are all substantially smaller than suburban supermarkets.
Two D’Agostinos: 23rd just W of 8th; 7th and 15th
Three Gristedes: 9th and 24th, 8th and 21st, 7th and 15th
One Associated: 14th just E of 8th
One Western Beef: 14th just W of 9th
One Strawberry Fields: 14th just E of 9th
One Whole Foods: 7th and 24th
One Garden of Eden: 23rd just E of 7th (very large gourmet market, really almost a supermarket)
You’ll note that only Whole Foods is a familiar, national brand. By and large, the big national chains (Albertsons, Krogers, Safeway) avoid the Northeast, let alone New York. Supermarket margins run about 1% even in the best of circumstances. In the Northeast, where land’s expensive, transportation’s difficult, and labor is often unionized, outside corporations don’t make it (other than Europeans: Royal Ahold of Holland owns a bunch of Northeast chains). Hell, even locals don’t make it: Grand Union’s gone, Pathmark went through Chapter 11 (and may still be there, not sure), and A&P has been beating a retreat: they’ve converted all of their stores to the upscale Food Emporium brand, and when that hasn’t worked - such as at 8th and 26th - they’ve shuttered 'em. They’ve closed at least four Manhattan stores since last year.
For fresh foods, your best bet is the Chelsea Market, a sort of gourmet shopping mall in a converted Nabisco factory - the block of 15th between 9th and 10th. The produce market there is the cheapest and best south of Fairway on 74th, much better than any supermarket. And there’s good fish and meats.
When I was in high school, there used to be a moderately-sized A&P in the bottom of Zeckendorf Towers – those triangular-topped buildings on the corner of 14th & Union Square. I think it closed though.
There are two grocery stores where I grew up in Park Slope, brookly: a Key Food and a D’Agastinos (well, three if you count the Met Food, but its more like a large corner-store). The largest is 1/4 of the size of the Kroger near my house in Ann Arbor, MI. None of them have parking.
Welcome to just one of the many things about NYC that are a royal pain in the tuckus.
I haven’t heard Zabar’s mentioned. I often hear New Yorkers gush over Zabar’s in the same way those Upstate adore Wegmans. Is Zabar’s a conventional supermarket, a New Yorkified Whole Foods-like chain, or something else?
Zabar’s is a gourmet-foods store, almost supermarket sized, with an excellent housewares shop attached. It’s remarkably reasonable and very high quality, but like most gourmet markets it doesn’t carry much in the way of, say, cereal or canned goods or paper products.
I didn’t mention it because it’s on the Upper West Side, six zip codes, eight subway stops and a lifetime from Chelsea ;).
I think Zabar’s is more like a super-Deli. Lots of imports, lots of freshly prepared foods, huge selections, personal service, definitely worth a special trip.
The big chains may have a couple stores sprinkled about but by and large it’s local chains like Gristede’s, Food Emporium, Sloan’s, D’Agostino’s, Associated, and a couple of others. None of them seem to have everything I need, so I always end up going to a couple of places to get my groceries. That and stuff like the Korean Deli across from my apartment has milk cheaper than the grocery store down the street, so I end up hitting the deli anyway. If I had to pick a favorite from the local chains I’d say D’Agostino’s. And don’t get me started on the cashiers.
Only if the idea was to protect the bodegas and groceries in Manhattan while leaving those in other boroughs to fend for themselves. I can’t think of any really big stores, or stores with large parking lots in Manhattan at all. No big home centers, no warehouse clubs. Since the other boroughs have large supermarkets, warehouse clubs, Home Depots, etc I suspect it has more to do with the price of real estate (and the lack of parking lots probably has something to do with the low rate of car ownership in Manhattan as well as the real estate prices).
They are large, compared to the neighborhood grocery stores.They’re just small compared to suburban supermarkets. But there’s another difference between grocery stores and supermarkets besides the size- supermarkets have meat and fruit and vegetable departments.
I’ve never been to Zabars, but people upstate adore Wegman’s ? Is it just the size? The only thing special I’ve noticed is that I wanted to take a shuttle bus from one end of the store to the other.
One thing I really miss about the supermarkets in Manhattan is the shorter loaves of bread. You could still buy Roman Meal, Wonder, etc. but they had a loaf that was only half as long as a normal suburban store’s loaf.
As a single person, this was great as it made the bread/freshness factor work. Now I end up throwing half a loaf away because it gets stale before I have had a chance to eat it (and I don’t like freezing bread and microwaving it either, thanks).
What I don’t miss is that there is usually only one version of many products offered.
I don’t know if there are stats on this, but anecdotally the answer is way more. A little while ago the Times did a story on some newly-built apartments that pretty much omitted kitchens. I wish I remembered the details, but in any event this particular builder portrayed these units as perfect for the non-cooking Manhattanite - and the article suggested they were legion.
One indicator: I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I’ve been invited to (or given) a meal in a private home in the last year. With my parents, who live about 35 miles NW of DC, it happens all the time.
