Lowe’s appears to be nearly complete with renovating the old Food Emporium on 68th street and Broadway, and is now looking for locals to fill positions in various departments, from kitchen and bath design, to pro services, in-home sales, and customer service. They’re also looking for cashiers.
If you know how to change a light bulb, might as well send in an application. If not, maybe you should consider another career.
The company said last year that it would open in the second half of 2015. Lowe’s reps have not yet responded to our inquiry on the expected opening date.
Given that the new location is just down the block from Loew’s theater, Zoe Pollack “suggests calling it Loews Square, or alternatively, Lowes Square. Maybe just Loews (or Lowes) squared.”
Thanks to Denton for the photo.
Ugh can’t believe it. An amazing supermarket replaced by a Lowe’s. Hopefully it goes out of business once management realizes that people need to buy food much more often than they need to buy hammers and washing machines.
There’s another supermarket around the corner (Gourmet Garage I believe?). I think Lowe’s will do very well… so well that you may see Gracious Home pack up and downsize, as some truly competitive prices show up in the neighborhood to compete with them. Broadway in the 60’s has become one big box store/chain store after another. I just wish it was the Container Store 🙂
Food Emporium was anything but amazing, unless you consider high prices and unfriendly employees amazing. This will be a much better alternative to Gracious Home’s if they have lower prices for home goods.
While I would prefer that that space harbor a supermarket, I would rather see this than another bank or drugstore. There are a lot of renovations going on in the nabe all the time, I’m sure they will do well. I personally am glad I won;t have to go to Home Depot in Chelsea or the East Side for stuff that small hardware stores don’t have.
I don’t understand people’s wish for a “supermarket” in this neighborhood. There are probably more places to buy food nearby than almost any other place in America. If you are on a budget, you go to Trader Joe’s. If you have lots of money, you go to Citarella. And then there is everything in between, which has bargains if you shop carefully and check prices and specials from week to week. (Even Fairway has been dropping prices, recently as they have figured out how much biz they are losing to Trader Joes.) Most all the supermarkets that have closed have been either dirty or overpriced and they simply cannot make enough money to stay in biz. Making money as a supermarket has always been a dicey biz. At best profits run about 1%, even in the suburbs. Here with shrinkage and very high cost of trucking the stuff in, I can’t imagine how anybody would enter that biz. The era of the “supermarket” is over, folks. Sorry.
And don’t forget Gourmet Garage, Jubilee, Western Beef, Pioneer, Whole Foods, and Gracefully are all located within a 10 block radius of the Lowe’s. Do people who say we lack food options even live in the neighborhood?
The count goes up to 9, with Fairway’s, West Side Market and Trader Joe’s.
We also have a large Jubilee’s at Trump Place. There is Pioneer on Columbus and Gourmet Garage across Lincoln Center.
There’s a world of difference between a regular standard supermarket and stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, which focus on selling mostly their own brands.
The era of the supermarket will never be over as long as people like to choose their own fruits, vegetables, meats, fish and so on.
Where exactly can I find the Trader Joes and Whole Foods employees who “choose my fruits, vegetables, meats, fish and so on” for me? What are you talking about?????
I don’t understand your comments. I find that traditional supermarkets (I still visit one in the suburbs from time to time) make it almost impossible to choose your own meat, veggies, etc. Everything is sitting on one of those styrofoam trays and then covered with plastic. It’s almost impossible to know what you have selected until you get it home. Our local variety of grocery stores allow you to pick exactly which apple you want, and exactly which chicken breast you want.
Jane, sadly, I believe that Harriet’s prediction is the likely one.
When I very occasionally shopped at the 68th Street Emporium, I found it to be a painful experience. I hurt as I passed the spoiling fresh produce, especially since it was clear that the managers were putting up a real struggle for the store’s survival: They tried to accommodate the neighborhood; they remodeled the premises many times; they made the store friendly and inviting — but the customers never came.
They failed, I suspect, because the middle class is gone.
We may wake up some day and find that our only option is either Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.
Is it going to be just a one-story store? Will its space be the equivalent of Home Depot at Third Avenue and 58th Street? I love all the plants and gardening supplies at that Home Depot, and the household goods, and the absolutely inexhaustible supply of hardware ‘solutions’ that you didn’t even imagine could exist. But I abhor having to set foot on the cold, concrete-y East Side. I’m relieved each time I’m back from the trek and ever, ever thankful for the public transportation of our blessed West Side.
So, I’m happy about Lowe’s locating right next to “Loew’s, except for one big reality: It will bring more traffic to the area, as the movie theater and Century-21 have.
Re: “If you know how to change a light bulb,….”
Which raises this ‘verrry intereshting’ (thank you Laugh-In’s Artie Johnson and his German Spy) question (p.s. If you’re under 30 you will not get that):
Q: HOW MANY UPPER WEST SIDER’s DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB?
A: Many, perhaps 20 to 30. Why?
Well:
— a few to debate “Does that light bulb really need changing or is this a capitalist scheme to increase income inequality by having the noble poor spend more of their hard-earned cash?” And, if the latter, how can we get the BdB administration to lessen the blow to the Noble Poor?
— a few more to discuss what should be done with the old light bulb: if recycled, is it glass or aluminum?; should the glass be smashed (takes up less space in the landfill) or left intact (because smashed glass can cause injuries and without a single-payer health care system how could the injured victim afford medical care these days, etc. etc. etc.)
— still a few more to discuss whether the replacement bulb should be standard incandescent or one of those new-fangled long lasting bulbs. Side topics include, but not limited to:
a) government subsidies to help the Noble Poor afford those pricey new-fangled bulbs;
b) was this administration right in banning the sale of incandescent bulbs, and, if so, should it ban other things…like Donald Trump;
c) are the new-fangled bulbs enironmentally safe or, if broken, will they emit a noxious chemical which will confuse everyone so that they vote Republican
–still a few more to discuss the old ‘Jewish Mother With a Broken Light Bulb’ joke (“it’s okay, I’ll sit in the dark) and debate whether it represents:
a)coded anti-semitism;
b)coded ageism;
c) an unrealistic fascination with comedians like the late Henny Youngman, etc. when one should be focusing on more serious world issues, such as “An Investigation into Greece’s Financial Melt-Down, Focusing on What Exactly Does a Grecian Earn?”
–AND, FINALLY, TWO MORE:
One to hold the bulb; and one to turn the ladder.
hahaha; the UWS of 35 years ago.
Q: HOW MANY UPPER WEST SIDER’s DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB?
Answer: None. Sell the apartment and buy another one.
and thanks for a HEARTY laugh!!!
Thank you Scooter Stan…for summing up the inconsistencies and idiocies of the UWS so beautifully. I laughed and laughed.
Having grown up across the street from the Historic Landmark, Loews Theater on 175st and Broadway over 50 years ago, I consider myself an expert on how to pronounce the theater name. The correct pronunciation for the Loews theater is Low-ees not Lowes. The hardware store can pronounce their name anyway they want 🙂
We need a real supermarket like Food Emporium in the neighborhood-NOT a Lowe’s. We need to buy food without the chaos And lines at Fairway and trader joe’s. We need brand names not store generics. Its a long walk from West End Ave to fairway. Funny how successful Food Emp is on the East Side-and we just get awful low end big box stores–Marshall’s–??? Waste of space-such junk.
Isn’t Fairway on Broadway? Isn’t West End Ave exactly 1 avenue away from Broadway?
That’s not a very far walk – at least horizontally.
I feel like there are too many grocery stores on the UWS. Within a few blocks of my apt there is west side market, fairway, trader joes, Citarella (sp?) or whatever it’s called. Then you can get some basics at places like Duane Reade.
And if you don’t want to go the store at all you can always do that Fresh Direct.
Also, you can order on-line from some of these stores.
“Christina says: July 15, 2015 at 5:41 pm
The traditional supermarket occupies a large amount of floor space …”
Christina, I don’t see how any supermarket could fill all those criteria and survive at West 68th Street rents.
We have 10 supermarkets within a 10-block radius of the old Emporium’s.
See 9 mentioned above, and add Morton Williams (Columbus 58-59th Street).
The stores mentioned are Not Supermarkets! They are Markets yes, but certainly not Supermarkets!
The dictionary definition of a supermarket is “a large retail market that sells food and other household goods and that is usually operated on a self-service basis.”
The traditional supermarket occupies a large amount of floor space, usually on a single level. It is usually situated near a residential area in order to be convenient to consumers. The basic appeal is the availability of a broad selection of goods under a single roof, at relatively low prices. Supermarkets typically are supplied by the distribution centres of their parent companies, usually in the largest city in the area.
Supermarkets usually offer products at relatively low prices by using their buying power to buy goods from manufacturers at lower prices than smaller stores can. They also minimise financing costs by paying for goods at least 30 days after receipt and some extract credit terms of 90 days or more from vendors.
This DOES NOT pertain to Trader Joe’s, Gourmet Garage or Fairway.
The only stores mentioned that are Supermarkets are Jubilee, Western Beef and Pioneer. 2 which are out of the way for a lot of people.
What are your criteria for a supermarket?
For me, many of these stores qualify.
We need a Lowes AND a traditional supermarket! Can’t wait for the Lowes to open! Now let’s get going on a supermarket for the people I know in that immediate area. I have Jubilee (68th St. and Freedom Pl.) which is a great supermarket but way out of the way for a lot of people that don’t live right there.
Since Emporium’s long struggle failed, our location can’t be attractive for another grocer to venture here.
Sadly, Lowe’s will occupy only one floor, I learned. So it won’t be one vast “city” of solutions like Home Depot at 58th and Third.
I’ll have to keep schlepping to the concrete-y East Side, each time returning thankful that I’m an UWSer.