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I love Fairway. It has everything I need and more. We are considering a move to L.A. I wish there were a Fairway there. Are you listening Fairway folks?
All the best,
Linda J Atamian
NY Foodie

it is called The Ace Bakery and it is in Toronto

My favorite supermarket for regular groceries is Steve's C Town at 5th Ave and 9th street in Park Slope. The new Union Market on 9th street is great, and the Fairway in Red Hood has a great selection of high end products, but for weekly load ups of canned goods, meat, milk, veggies, etc. it's got to be Steve's (friendly yet sassy teenage checkout people gossiping about the ins and outs of high school life an amusing plus).

My 98 1/2 year old grandpa would choose Food Emporium too but I would take Fairway any day. True that Fairway is great for certain things, it doesn't always come through for ordinary staples. I was recently reflecting upon the fact that I have been living without regular trips to Fairway for a few years now and although I have been managing, a trip up to Fairway always yields some fabulous finds to supplement the ordinary. If only I lived two blocks away..

re: automatic checkout lines

my favorite setup for maximizing store profits is at the gowanus pathmark where every lane but one (not counting the self-checkout corral) has a sign saying that it is for people who "prefer to bag their own groceries". i'm pretty sure that NO ONE prefers to bag their own groceries.

i don't mind the self-checkout ones if i have to buy 2 or 3 things and there is no line but i guess that's damning with faint praise.

Ed: Automatic check-out lines are nothing to be impressed with. My first encounter with them was in the late '90s in Portland, Oregon. They were buggy then (always having some problem that called for the attendant), and they're buggy still, almost 10 years later.

When you scan something, these machines require that you place it in a plastic bag situated atop a scale. If for some reason you screw this up, it thinks you're up to no good and calls over the attendant. This happens almost inevitably.

And don't even try to use one if there's a line—even if it's only one-person deep. The person in front of you will not know how to use the machine, will swipe his card wrong, put the money in wrong, or have his credit declined. Meanwhile, the person in the human-powered checkout line will be done and gone by the time you saunter up to help yourself at the machine.

Stores bill this thing as a convenience for customers, when really it's just a cost-saving measure on their part—they can put four of these things in and hire only one human to scamper among them.

The only thing these machines are good for is if you're making an embarrassing combination of purchases and you don't want to face the cashier.

The Red Hook Fairway is one of the best supermarkets I've ever been to (Stew Leonards being the most fun). I've found every Food Emporium in the city to be insultingly overpriced, or the quality of food so poor that I wouldn't serve it to my dog.

Fairway seems to have everything I've ever needed - with several options for quality/price. I also find that (for the most part) their prices are fair for the quality of food you're getting. Its not like Whole Foods, that charges 5 times as much for something labelled 'organic' which tastes worse than the 'conventional'.

Also, Fairway has decent specials. You're lucky to get $1 off your $23/lb salmon at Whole Foods.

And don't get me started on Gristedes. I feel like I need to shower after going into one of those rodent/mold/assorted filth infested stores. How/Why anyone ever shops there is a mystery to me.