Fairway ($FWM), which is "Like No Other Market", is following in the footsteps of many market chains before it that filed for bankruptcy. Originally, this article was going to be about the report that Fairway was filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which was vehemently denied. That's because while most of the facts were right in the reporting of the story, the number was technically wrong. It turns out they're filing for Chapter 11. Oops.

The key distinction between Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 is that the latter will allow Fairway to sell off assets that will ultimately live on in either its or the next owner’s brand. While Chapter 7 is effectively a full liquidation of the business, and likely to result in total layoffs and a complete elimination of the brand going forward.

The plan is to sell 5 of the current 14 stores. This map makes us realize how regional and specific this story really is. Hope it's still interesting to the rest of the world!

Don't be alarmed at that scary cliff you see in late December, that's just LinkedIn purging ghost accounts, which gives a more accurate portrayal of how many people actually work at Fairway. Next, it's likely more of them get laid off because they're filing for bankruptcy.

The real story is in the number of openings available on their website, which has just been on a very negative trajectory. In half a year the job listings have fallen 80%. Somebody knew this was going to happen, for sure, and tipped it. The leaks came to the NY Post, they published it, and then everyone got to the bottom of the story when Fairway went public with the actual truth. 

Funnily enough, there's been a spike in Twitter followers, mostly from people asking "wait what, Fairway is going out of business?" online to each other.

And while Facebook likes and 'Talking About' count is down overall, we imagine there will be a good chance that boomers who still go shopping at grocery stores (and don't order online) will freak out at this news. Especially if the stores start to close down. But it's very rare that social media data for any company goes down actively over the last 2 years, which is what Fairway's Facebook data is doing, and that's alarming if you read the tea leaves.

About the Data: 


Further Reading: 

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