George Bromfield, 63, has certainly earned the title “Mr. Fairway.” He has been with the upscale grocery chain since 1985, two years after arriving in New York from Jamaica, and has never left.
“I love this company,” Bromfield said. “I came to this country with nothing. Everything that I have, my three daughters all went to college, is because of this company.”
Bromfield was the first security guard in the flagship location on the Upper West Side. When Fairway opened its Red Hook location 12 years ago (480-500 Van Brunt Street), Bromfield came with it as floor manager and then assistant general manager, his current position.
“I was here two months before the store opened and have never left,” Bromfield added. “Fairway loves to promote from within, and I love that about them.”
Moving up
In 1985, a young George Bromfield saw a classified job listing in the NY Daily News for a security guard with Epic Security. He’d been working odd jobs since arriving in New York, and decided to apply.
“I got my uniform and I went to work the same day,” Bromfield said. “When I went, there were three owners and I met all three. They were so impressed with my job the first day that one of the owners came to me and said do you want to work with me instead of working for the [security contractor]?”
This stroke of luck was a mixed blessing, however: the security contractor sued Bromfield for breach of contract.
“They sued me and gave me papers and I took it to Fairway,” Bromfield said. “Older Jewish man, love him to death, he said ‘Mr Bromfield, don’t worry.’ He took care of the case, it went to court and the judge awarded Epic Security one dollar. They had no case.”
Fairway was able to take care of the issue for their new employee leaving Bromfield without having to worry about anything. Bromfield speaks glowingly of Fairway, and Fairway’s owners handling his breach of security case is one of the reasons he is still so dedicated to the company.
Bromfield said that he spent about 20 years at the location on 74th and Broadway. He was a security guard for about five years and then became a front-end manager.
“The front-end manager takes care of the front, the cashiers,” Bromfield said. “I did that for a few years and then I became a floor manager.”
The floor manager assists the general manager and Bromfield excelled at that role for a few years before being promoted to assistant general manager. His role as assistant general manager keeps him on his toes as his responsibilities are wide ranging and multi-faceted.
“I focus a lot on the operations, a lot on the compliance, a lot on the maintenance and a lot on customer service,” Bromfield said about his position. “Those things to me are the fundamentals.”
Mr. Fairway can usually be seen walking around the store making sure everything is working the way it should be and making himself available to customers who may need assistance. The assistant general manager also prioritizes cleanliness, ensuring that no products have passed their expiration dates and that the store is following Department of Health codes.
“In regard to this store, I am a fixture. Of all the faces, I am the most recognized face.”
The Red Hook Edge
According to Bromfield, there are unique aspects about the location on Van Brunt that give it an edge over other branches.
“I am not knocking the others, but I think we are cohesive and work more as one,” Bromfield added. “I make a big difference, I know I do because I have been around a long time.”
The setting of this location also makes it unique.
“This is a destination,” Bromfield said. “People drive down here and have a view. There is no other supermarket in New York City that has what we have behind the cafe, where you can sit and look at the Statue of Liberty.”
Bromfield, who describes himself as a very friendly people person, very much enjoys the neighborhood of Red Hook and all the connections that he has made over the years.
“I love Red Hook,” Bromfield said. “I want to end my career here. I have a few more years. This is where I want to end because 99.9 percent of the people in this neighborhood are my friends.”
Area businesses that he is close to include Sunny’s, Brooklyn Crab, Hometown, the liquor store, the print shop and the kitchen fixture place on Van Brunt, among others.
According to Bromfield, in the last few years, partly due to the addition of Brooklyn Crab and Hometown BBQ, Red Hook has become a real destination and a hip neighborhood. He says that it changes even more on the weekend. In some ways this has increased business, but an obstacle has been the increased competition from similar businesses that have opened in neighborhoods not too far from Red Hook.
“We have competition with Whole Foods opening and Trader Joe’s,” Bromfield said. “When you have other stores, they will take away some customers. The customer count obviously is down because of competition.”
One regret that Bromfield has is that not as many low-income residents of Red Hook are shopping at Fairway as did in previous years.
“We used to get a fair share of the low-income residents,” Bromfield said. “I am thinking all of the time about how we can get more of the low-income people to come down and shop, because we have stuff that they want. I know our food quality is much better than the local super market.”
Bromfield added that the change started a little before Hurricane Sandy.
Sandy
Hurricane Sandy back in 2012 devasted Fairway Market as well as the rest of Red Hook—the only part of the store that survived was the building itself.
“Everything you see down here, the refrigeration, the shelving…everything had to come out,” Bromfield said. “We spent months down here cleaning up and then when the construction phase began, Fairway sent all of us to different stores since we were not needed anymore since the construction people were here.”
Bromfield, who lives in the Bronx now, was living in Long Island when Sandy happened, so when the construction phase commenced he served as an assistant general manager at Fairway’s Douglaston location.
It took eight or nine months for Fairway to open again after Hurricane Sandy. In the interim, Bromfield would come down once a week to check on the store’s progress.
“We had a grand opening,” Bromfield said. “It was like a rebirth. We had a big, big opening the day we came back. People were crying because they were so happy. The customers were hugging and crying and happy to see us.”
Remodeling
Fairway has recently done remodeling, including new visible signage in the store, to try to broaden their appeal. The new Fairway CEO is trying to come up with new and unique ways to reinvent the store, which is why they have a new marketing slogan.
“We had ‘like no other market’ before and now we have ‘a place to go fooding’, everything food, all emphasis on food,” Bromfield said. “It makes a lot of sense and it is good to try new things. People love the new ads. The change was driven to attract new customers and re-energize the old customers. This is the most major remodeling {Fairway has done} since it is in print and in the radio.”
Bromfield emphasized that this ‘a place to go fooding’ and emphasis on food signage is a way of reminding New Yorkers that they were first, and that Fairway was first to introduce many things that can now be found in other markets.
They were first to introduce the mass amount of olives and the wide assortment of coffee, cheese and olive oil from many different areas.
