A power outage at Fairway on Wednesday afternoon sent the bustling Red Hook supermarket into pandemonium, causing confusion among shoppers and employees in the darkened aisles.
“I had a shopping cart full of stuff, but just as I was about to check out, the lights went out and they told us all to get out,” said one shopper.
“I never got a chance to go back in and pay, which was really disappointing because boneless sirloin was on sale for $3.99 a pound and I had really loaded up!”
The blackout was limited to the grocery, at the foot of Van Brunt Street, because the store has its own energy supply, rather than buying juice from Con Edison.
It was unclear for how long the store went without electricity, but a spokeswoman for Fairway described the incident as a minor problem that was easily fixed.
But to restore power and avoid spoiling vast amounts of perishable foods, Fairway asked the electric utility for temporary service, a spokeswoman for Con Ed said. She added that the store, which reopened on Thursday, was still drawing electricity from Con Ed.
The temporary loss of power apparently ruined some of the less resilient produce that perhaps could not withstand the brief exposure to summer heat. A Brooklyn Paper photographer saw some shopping carts with discarded fruits and vegetables outside the converted Civil War-era warehouse.
The boneless sirloin sale continues through Aug. 21.
