Fairway Rep: No One is Using the Fairway Shuttle

On Wednesday afternoon, three people sat sweltering under the red awning of Windsor Terrace's now-shuttered Key Food, waiting for a shuttle that promised to take them to the Fairway Market in Red Hook.

Of the three, two were interns for the grocery store's marketing department. The sole shopper was a middle-aged woman who spoke little English.

At ten minutes past 1 p.m., one of the interns whipped out a cell phone. Modern technology has eliminated the necessity of ever suffering fruitless Godot-style waiting, and within moments, his manager had confirmed what already seemed pretty obvious: Since only one person showed up—and no one had —the shuttle would not be coming.

Jacqueline Donovan, Fairway's vice president of marketing, said in the three weeks that the shuttle's pick-up program has been in place, only two people have taken advantage of it.

"I had the driver just kind of sitting there idly for an hour," she said. "It was like 'Wow, maybe people don’t want it.'"

Presented as for residents left stranded after , Donovan said the shuttle's lack of reception in Windsor Terrace is an exception to its wild popularity in other parts of the city, particularly in Harlem, home of Fairway's flagship store.

She said that for seniors—the shuttle's target demographic—the opportunity to take a free ride to a luxury supermarket is frequently the highlight of their day.

"At other stores, we have such a high demand that we almost have a hard time scheduling the shuttles," said Donovan. "They live for it."

A former Windsor Terrace resident herself, Donovan said Fairway has no plans to pull the shuttle based on low ridership, which she suspects is due more to lack of knowledge that the shuttle exists than disinterest.

"We realize for senior citizens there are not a lot of options. That's why we were trying to say 'Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you,'" she said, adding that she plans to try other marketing techniques like distributing fliers and running ads in local newspapers to get the word out.

"I’m just trying to find different ways to get to them," she said. "I don’t want them to lose hope."