Price AND Service

You would have thought it was the second coming. Last week, a local news station devoted an entire segment to the opening of a Fairway market on NYC’s Upper East Side. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t get it. Yes, I’ve visited the Upper West Side’s Fairway, which advertises itself as a neighborhood grocery store . . . on steroids. However, as far as I was concerned, bottom line, it’s still a grocery store.

At least, that’s what I thought until I shopped Fairway on Sunday, four days after the store opened. I scoped out prices and quickly realized that Fairway’s are slightly lower than those of the other grocery stores located nearer to my apartment. Price, however, is not the most significant differentiator. What really makes the UES’s newest grocer stand-out is the level of client service all of their employees demonstrate. When I strained to reach for a box of cereal, some young man rushed over, stretched for it and handed it to me. As they rang up shoppers’ purchases, checkout clerks made a genuine effort to connect with store customers. Contrast this to a very ritzy and expensive grocer nearer my apartment where I needed to wait for a clerk to turn off her smart phone before she checked me out.

Interns, summer associates and new hires about to start work could learn a thing or two from this new store. Price may encourage potential customers to walk through the door. But it’s service that will keep them coming.
 

 

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