Store Closing Signs Up At Fairway Market In Stamford

STAMFORD, CT — Signs indicating Fairway Market will be closing and "everything is on sale" have been posted at the Canal Street store and adjacent wine and spirit shop, and city officials have indicated the store will be closing down this month after more than half a year of speculation and warnings.

Various signs posted on the front of the market read "store closing," "everything must go" and "nothing held back" among other messages. It is not immediately clear when the signs first went up at the store.

According to Stamford Economic Development Director Thomas Madden, the company has been unable to find a buyer for the Stamford store after months of attempts. They now plan to close the Stamford store around Aug. 20.

"Fairway has been searching for a replacement operator since their January bankruptcy filing," Madden said in an email to Patch. "They have not been able to find a replacement operator and are now closing down their operations on or around Aug. 20."

Madden said he spoke with the building's landlord, Building and Land Technology, and they are "actively engaging" with prospective tenants to fill the space and bring in businesses that will complement the city's growing South End area.

"We will be working with the state's rapid response team on having a job fair here in the city," Madden said, "and we are reaching out to other employers to see if they would like to hire employees from the store."

Fairway has given notice about the Stamford store's closure to the state Department of Labor several times this year. The company's most recent letter, sent to the department on July 17, indicated the store was expected to close sometime between July 31 and Aug. 14.

According to the labor department's website, over 100 workers would be affected by the closure.

In June, Madden indicated the store would not be shutting down despite the company sending out a WARN notice to the department, and the company would keep extending the deadline for when a shutdown is expected until a buyer was found.

See also: Stamford Fairway Market To Remain Open Until Buyer Is Found

"These stores have not sold yet, so those WARN notices have to keep going," Madden said to Patch in June. "Ideally they are not shutting the store down, because why would you shut a store down as you're trying to sell it? Then it is too hard for [a buyer] to come in and restart the store back up again."

In January, company officials denied a New York Post report that the grocery chain would file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and shutter its stores.

See also: Stamford Market Denies Stores Will Close Amid Bankruptcy Reports

"Despite reports, Fairway Market has no intention to file for chapter 7 or liquidate all of its stores," a representative said in a statement.

Later that month however, Fairway indicated in a letter to the state labor department the Stamford stores could close. Charles Farfaglia, Fairway's senior vice president of human resources, also noted in the letter that Fairway Group Holding Corp. "filed voluntary chapter 11 petitions for relief in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York" on Jan. 23.

The company dug itself out of Chapter 11 proceedings in 2016 by borrowing money and shifting ownership from Sterling Investment Partners to a consortium led by Blackstone's GSO Capital Partners.

The iconic market has been providing New Yorkers groceries since 1933 when the Glickberg family opened a small fruit and vegetable stand on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, according to the company website.

The Stamford store is the chain's sole location in Connecticut.

Patch has reached out Fairway Market for further information.