They’ve got a corner on the market — but that might not be enough.
Fairway Market will be Georgetown’s only grocery store when it opens in neighborhood’s eponymous shopping center next month, but it may have trouble attracting business, area shoppers say. A Waldbaum’s occupied the site until late last year, and in the months since, locals found new places to buy milk and eggs, said one patron perusing Georgetowne Shopping Center.
“Nobody is really excited about it. It’s been closed for so long,” said Michael, who declined to give a last name.
The Waldbaum’s shuttered last November when parent company A&P went belly-up, and shoppers who frequented the market found an alternative at the Key Food in Mill Basin and the Foodtown in Marine Park, locals said.
The new Fairway will be neighbors’ most conveniently located big grocer, but that may be its only draw, because the company has a reputation of higher prices than most nearby stores, according to an area mom ambivalent about the coming market.
“I’m not dying to go there, because I heard that Fairway is expensive,” said Marilyn Zwas Mack-Joshua, who lives a few blocks away. “I’ll go in and look since it’s close.”
Fairway filed for bankruptcy in May — just after signing a 20-year lease on the Ralph Avenue space. The company eventually filed a petition for bankruptcy protection to save all its stores. A court approved the plea last month, and the company reorganized its board and closed just one location on Long Island.
Fairway’s management delayed the Georgetown supermarket’s opening during the proceedings, a spokeswoman said.
Contractors are still renovating the building’s interior, and when it is done, it will be Brooklyn’s second Fairway after the one in Red Hook.
