, Columnist
How Private Equity Wrecked New York's Favorite Grocery
A firm with no retail food experience expanded the company too quickly and loaded it with debt.
It expanded too far too fast.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
Have we finally reached the point where we automatically assume that every new retail disaster has been caused by a private equity firm? Yes, I believe we have. When the New York Post published a report on Tuesday contending that New York’s Fairway Market grocery chain was going to liquidate — a claim denied by the company, which subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday — I began exploring whether private equity was indeed responsible for its problems.
It was.