Home » Fairway Market’s Howard Glickberg Retires
Executive News Northeast

Fairway Market’s Howard Glickberg Retires

Fairway logo

Last updated on December 10th, 2014 at 12:09 pm

Fairway Market’s Howard Glickberg, who was the grocer’s longtime CEO and more recently vice chairman of real estate development, has retired, effective Dec. 8. He remains on the company’s board.

Glickberg is credited for taking his grandfather’s fruit and vegetable stand on 74th and Broadway in New York City and building it into Fairway Market, which today has 15 locations in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state region.

“Howie has been indefatigable and indispensable to Fairway’s growth over the past four decades,” said Fairway Market CEO Jack Murphy. “It was his vision to bring together the corner butcher, bakery, cheesemonger, fish market and farmer’s market all under one roof and add in an unparalleled selection of traditional, specialty and organic groceries at the best prices. All this has brought Fairway iconic status and enabled the company to truly earn the moniker ‘Like No Other Market.'”

Fairway Executive Chairman Charles Santoro added, “On behalf of all of us at Fairway, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Howie for his great contributions and support over the many years we have all worked together in building Fairway. Although Howie has stepped down from his everyday duties, we are pleased he will continue to play an important role on our board.”

Glickberg, who began unofficially “working” at Fairway as a child when he would accompany his father to the original 74th Street and Broadway location and then officially while a college student, says it is simply time to step down.

“I’ve dedicated the past 40 years of my life to building the world’s greatest food store,” said Glickberg, 67. “It’s been my life’s work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the past when I would take a little vacation, I would somehow wind up visiting a supermarket.  And if I saw an apple out of place I would fix it. So I’ve never traveled anywhere without Fairway on my mind.”

Glickberg says he plans to spend his retirement traveling, as well as fishing, playing golf and “just relaxing.”

“I’ve earned the right not to have to fix that out-of-place apple anymore,” he added.

He notes that his grandfather Nathan would be “amazed” and “proud” that the “small fruit and vegetable stand he opened more than 80 years ago has evolved into a company that is beloved by so many people across the tri-state region.”

Glickberg says he shares Fairway’s success with the “tens of thousands of dedicated employees and the millions of dedicated customers” with whom he has had the pleasure of working and serving the past four decades and stresses that “without all of them, Fairway would not have become the icon that it has.”

Glickberg began his full-time involvement with Fairway Market in 1974, six years after he graduated from C.W. Post College and after a stint as a stockbroker and a part-time staff member at a fish market. In 1975, to build the company, he partnered with David Sneddon and Harold Seybert.  They began adding specialty items, expanding the space and emphasizing fresh fruit and vegetables that are at the core of all Fairway Market stores.

For the next three decades, Glickberg and his team helped make Fairway Market the food store with the highest volume per square foot of any in the country. When he decided to open a store in Harlem, he “ignored anyone who said he was crazy,” believing that high-quality merchandise at the best prices is what every consumer wants. Fairway was welcomed into the neighborhood in 1995, where it continues to thrive, according to the company.

More locations followed over the next several years before Sterling Investment Partners acquired a controlling interest in the company. There are now 15 Fairway Markets and three Fairway Wine and Spirits locations.

Glickberg says he is “especially proud that we’ve always been more than just a grocery retailer. We’ve always been—and I know we will always continue to be—a friend, a neighbor, a family.”

He points to Fairway’s commitment to supporting charitable organizations in its neighborhoods as well as its ongoing programs benefiting police, fire and military personnel.

His proudest moments, he says, came in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, when Fairway provided food and meals to first responders for at least a month, and following Hurricane Sandy when, despite its own Red Hook store being destroyed, Fairway donated truckloads of food and prepared thousands of free Thanksgiving and holiday meals for displaced families while keeping all 300 Red Hook Fairway employees on staff by providing free transportation to other Fairway stores.

Featured Photos

Featured Photo PLMA Annual Private Label Trade Show
Donald E. Stephens Convention Center
Chicago, Illinois
Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap