Gristedes Supermarket Owner John Catsimatidis Comes To Roosevelt Island Town Hall Meeting - Hear's A Mouthful Of Complaints From Residents, But Some Compliments Too

Roosevelt Island Gristedes Image From Roosevelt Island 360

Gristedes supermarket chain owner, billionaire oil man, real estate developer and NYC Mayoral aspirant John Catsimatidis came to Roosevelt Island last night to discuss with Roosevelt Island residents the renovation and redesign of our long complained about Gristedes supermarket. David Kramer, a principal of Main Street Retail Master Leaseholder Hudson/Related Companies hosted the event which he described as a Town Hall Meeting, Customer Satisfaction Survey and/or Focus Group.

 Gristedes Owner John Catsimatidis and Hudon's David Kramer Town Hall Meeting

Mr. Catsimatidis began the Town Hall Meeting with a bit of history, recalling that he first came to Roosevelt Island over 20 years ago when his company bought Sloan's Supermarket which is now Gristedes. Mr. Catsimatidis introductory remarks focused on recent improvements made at Gristedes with the change in suppliers to Shop Rite which, he said and the audience agreed, provides higher quality products than what was previously offered. Also, improvements to be made at Roosevelt Island's Gristedes include offering more fresh produce and organic products at affordable prices. According to Mr. Catsimatidis, the new Gristedes slogan will be:

Supplying Organic Foods To The Community At Supermarket Prices Not Whole Paycheck Prices

Mr. Catsimatidis then said that he came to listen to Roosevelt Island residents opinion and asked for questions and comments.

Boy, did he get some.

Residents lined up to express their unhappiness with high prices at Gristedes compared to other nearby NYC supermarkets and Fresh Direct online (one resident even handed him discount price flyers from competing stores). Mr. Catsimatidis answered that the cause of their high prices was due to the rent and expensive cost of being in the New York City supermarket business citing the bankruptcies of a long list of NYC supermarket chains. Gristedes pays approximately $7 sq ft in rent for 25,000 square feet of space. Gristedes also pays it workers union wages.

Other long time complaints expressed to Mr. Catsimatidis included expired products on shelves, dirty floors, inadequate product offerings, counter conveyor belts not working, long lines at checkout counter, lack of a full service pharmacy, leaking roof, poor lighting among others.

Some residents complimented the Gristedes store for recent improvements and noted assistance provided by its staff and manager.



Mr. Catsimatidis expressed the intent to fix the problems described and urged any resident to contact him with specific complaints which will be addressed. He also asked for suggestions as to how to improve the store. I thought a great idea was suggested by resident Deborah Beck who recommended that the new store design include moving the store entrance from the dark tunnel like side entrance to better lit Main Street directly across from Manhattan Park.

The rest of the Town Hall meeting is shown in videos below. (Here and here too.) Unfortunately, the audio and video in second video are out of sync but I think you can still understand what is going on.





Time will tell whether improvements will come to the Roosevelt Island Gristedes Supermarket but I give Mr. Catsimatidis a great deal of credit for holding a public meeting with his customers and I hope for the best.

Now, if Gristedes will only stock the Goya Ginger Beer on a regular basis, I will be a more happy customer.