Cuba, recreated
I refuse to shop at Whole Foods in Greenwich because of the horribly rude shoppers and their behavior both inside the store and when careening their Lexus SUV’s through the parking lot; in fact, I avoid the Starbucks in that same shopping center for that reason, too, so I’ve tried the new Fairway a few times to find some of the better stuff I can’t find at ShopeRite: bread, olives and cheese, mostly.
Fairways does sell a delicious baguette for just a buck, best bargain around, I like their olives, and their fish is fresh – far fresher than the poor creatures who land in ShopRite weeks after their demise, eyes flat and opaque and a sorrowful look on their face.
But I doubt I’ll be returning because the service is so bad. Today I picked up one of those baguettes and some decent vegetables but the olive oil section was bereft of bread slices, essential for tasting, the Portuguese oil I’d liked before was still prominently advertised but nowhere on the shelves and there was no one around to look for more (and forget getting advice from one of these minimum wagers, even if you could find one – I made that mistake when the store first opened, asking the clerk pretending to be the store olive oil expert which of three varieties he liked best: “they’re all great”, was his non-reply. Moron).
The meat department, usually pricey, offered hanger steak on sale today but coupled that with just one man to take the orders of the seven people in line, so I passed on that deal and headed for the registers. Most were closed, Fairway offers no automated check-outs and the only manned “express Lane” took five minutes to navigate.
Fairway does offer New York style service, but if I wanted that ambience I’d live in Manhattan. As it is, I’ll forego their baguettes and shop elsewhere.
