Fairway Market Kips Bay

THANK YOU FAIRWAY! I ordered from Fairway catering at the Kips Bay store. My brunch was planned for the Saturday that the blizzard hit. The catering person was friendly and professional on the phone. The food arrived right on time, just a few hours before the governor shut down travel in the city. The order was correct and the food delicious. I’ve also shopped in this store, always having a positive experience.

Salmon and jumbo shrimp purchased Sunday. Gave me a surprise in the toilet monday morning.
Lesson learned… This is truly a dump.

No clue how they advertise cheap prices, pricing is as high as whole foods and nowhere close to Trader Joes.
Their inventory is very good and you can find almost everything you’re looking for. Their steak selection is also very good.
For the price, I’d rather go elsewhere. The only reason I would go here is because the lines are short and move fairly quickly.

Despite all the crappy reviews, we really liked this store. We were visiting from the West Coast and found this market to be full of personality, especially when compared to the large, cold supermarkets we’re used to in California. We were spoiled with their selection of prosciutto and cheeses… our markets at home are lucky to have one brand of prosciutto, if any at all. Yup, we liked this store quite a bit… maybe we just don’t know any better when it comes to NYC grocery stores, haha.

This store started out as ⁴⁄₅ stars — but has slowly devolved into a Hoboken DMV — staff that would rather talk to each other than man the counters, stockers who block entire isles, and everyone avoids eye contact with shoppers who it is clear are an inconvenience to them — not a customer.
I have to guess that management either broke a union or just hires bottom of the barrel people — I swear that even 12 months ago this store was a great place to shop. The quality of the stock is fine — although definitely going down — gourmet items like duck fat and nicer cheeses and meats are slowly giving way to Associated Market-​level faire. Maybe the neighborhood can’t support a fancy Fairway — and that is too bad.

I don’t ever want to shop here again!
First, there were no employees on the floor to ask for help to get items that are out of reach. If you’re going to have shelves that are so high, you need to have help accessible especially on busy weekends, but this was not the case.
Produce section was the worst. It seemed whoever works in that section is a hot mess.
First item — The sign noted 2 for $ 5 for Florida Avocados. When I checked out, they were $ 2 each. Fine this was a good deal.
Second item — The sign noted $ 1.99 EACH for papaya. When I checked out it was actually $ 1.99 per pound. Deceiving.
I went to customer service to return the papaya. I would like to mention that the 2 employees I spoke to were respectful and nice. However, their remarks were aggravating. They told me I cannot return the papaya because this item is usually sold by pound and not each and I should have known that. That is not the point… FAIRWAY made a mistake on their part and had the sign for EACH! How dare you pin it on a customer? Anyways, the customer service said they cannot process a return and have to go through the Manager. So they called for him twice, the manager did not come. Finally they called him and they got the approval for return. I overheard and the manager stated in an irritated voice that he was busy and why he was being interrupted. Holy moly! Overall, I was a victim but it was made that I was at fault. No apologies were made and no attempts to correct the signage in the produce section.
This should have been an easy process, but instead was an extremely frustrating experience. This is why people choose other retailers to shop. FAIRWAY IS NOT SO FAIR!

This store is great! It has a huge selection compared to the tiny stores usually founding manhattan. The service is pretty good, especially the deli and sushi departments. I have never had an issue with the people working here, despite what the other reviews say. Also, there’s express checkout to makes things faster, but even so, it’s really fast during the day. I would recommend this store. Definitely the best Fairway location! (and I would know, I’ve been to nearly all of them several times)

Worse Fairway location in the chain. Horrible employees and horrible management.
That includes senior management and store level management. Apparently, they don’t know how to schedule employees/​cashiers and lines are longer than the lines for Shakespeare in the Park. Incompetent and the cashiers and other store employees are rude. Worst Fairway in Manhattan.

I have been to a few Fairway Markets like many of the people who have reviewed the Kips Bay location. There is just so much to be desired for this particular store in terms of customer service and customer appreciation. I tried, I really tried, to just ignore how rude most of the employees are. Don’t get me wrong — there are a good handful that are pleasant, welcoming, and very kind. But after today, I think I will go out of my way to shop at a different Fairway.
My parents very graciously gave me Fairway giftcards for Christmas. I went in today to buy a couple of things on my way home from work, knowing that this card had more than $ 20 left on it. My total was $ 5.31 and I tried to use this card twice — it was declined. The man at the register called over a supervisor who questioned me about it, and said that I was probably wrong. He checked the balance and said it was $ 0.00. How the heck did that happen? I am positive that I didn’t use the whole card yet, I had only put about $ 3 on it. His response? «Yeah. Oh well.» Add a shrug, and he walked away.
I wouldn’t be writing this review if he had said something along the lines of «I’m really sorry, but it’s not going through. Maybe we should check the balance by calling?» I would’ve been fine. But after that I don’t want to shop at that particular store again.

Let me start by saying, I LOVE FAIRWAY. It is a great store in NYC, and I have been a patron of theirs for YEARS. Love, love, love them.
But this location… Something about it is just terrible. It has no soul. Everyone who works there just doesn’t care. I don’t know why, but there is no pride in the place. Even though it’s huge and well-​stocked, (as well as almost any other Fairway,) everything is just a bit off. The smoked salmon trimmings are full of scales and bones and stuff that simply isn’t edible. The cheese department hardly knows what they are doing, and are completely unprofessional. No one says «hello» or «thank you» or smiles or has any human reaction whatsoever. I, as a customer, felt like an inconvenience. I will never go there again. Not worth it. I will stick to my beloved 86^th street Fairway, or the UWS ones. They all ROCK. (Esp. 86^th st.)
I wouldn’t be surprised if this one doesn’t make it very long. Whoever the manager is, really needs to look into customer service and employee morale.