Amazon Looks To Buy Several Fairway Market Stores, Report Says

NEW YORK, NY — Amazon could end up grabbing four of New York City grocer Fairway Market's stores, three months after the company declared bankruptcy, the New York Post reports.

The tech giant has been quietly bidding on four Fairway locations in New York, New Jersey and Brooklyn in an auction that kicked off Monday despite coronavirus panic across the country, sources told the Post.

The auction comes months after Fairway, based at its historic flagship location on the Upper West Side, declared bankruptcy in January. Records back then showed that the company was preparing to sell of at least five of its stores to Shoprite's parent company, though it wasn't clear what would happen to all 21 of its locations.

The Post's sources say that the four stores Amazon is focused on are its Red Hook location in Brooklyn, two stores in New Jersey and one in Pelham, New York, about a half-hour north of Manhattan.

The Jeff Bezos-owned company was interested in the stores before the coronavirus pandemic sparked chaos in the stock market, sources said. Unlike most companies in the last few weeks, shares in Amazon have been up, likely due to a spike in online ordering as the country stays at home, the Post noted.

Amazon is expected to win the auction, which resumed at 4 p.m. Thursday, since not many companies can out-bid the juggernaut, one source told the Post.

Fairway started as a small fruit and veggie stand at the Upper West Side spot and has since grown to have 21 locations across the tri-state area.

Their bankruptcy declaration earlier this year was the company's second Chapter 11 filed in four years. The company dug itself out of Chapter 11 proceedings in 2016 by borrowing money and shifting ownership from Sterling Investment Partners to a consortium led by Blackstone's GSO Capital Partners.

Shoppers at the Upper West Side store in January reacted with mixed feelings to the news that some of the historic grocer's stores might be sold off, with many torn between the iconic symbolism of the flagship store and what they say has been declining quality in recent years as the company's financial strain grew.