Latest news with #FineFare
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The sights and smells of Worcester shopping as it was
I SUPPOSE if you are of a certain generation it could be said when the world of music had Crosby, Stills and Nash in the world of footwear retail one of the kings of the street was Freeman, Hardy and Willis. Most town centres had a branch and Worcester's was in High Street almost opposite the Guildhall. Nearby was the slightly less legendary Chung Wah Chinese restaurant. Having been founded in 1875, FHW's physical presence finally hit the buffers in 1996 and now the Gloucester-based company operates only online. More: Let's celebrate the class of 2025! More of your Year 11 prom photos More: Forwarded letter's key role for diamond wedding couple More: Group feeling good after grant boost It's a sign of the times and if you go back 50 years you find that so much has changed on the shopping front. The rise of the supermarkets being the main thing. I can easily recall when my parents began making their weekly trip to something called a supermarket in the mid-1960s. Every Thursday afternoon they would make the car journey from Callow End in dad's two-tone yellow and white Ford Zodiac to a giant food store where you could apparently buy almost everything and cheaper than the village shop. Their venue of choice was Fine Fare which stood on the corner of the Bull Ring in St John's. It was probably Worcester's first supermarket and served the west side of the city while there was another branch in The Shambles. It was the start of a change and a shift from the more leisurely and intimate shopping style that had gone in the decades either side of the Second World War when there was an abundance of grocery and butchers' shops all over the city centre and on many suburb street corners. These were places of character with their sawdust-lined floors and their distinctive smells. Although by today's standards they'd probably attract the attention of the health and safety and hygiene police. The tangy waft of the cheeses would be OK but not so much customers coming eye to eye with a dead rabbit, a row of naked, plucked poultry or half a chopped-up pig. Post-war there were numerous family-run businesses right in the heart of Worcester. Witts, the drapery store at 48 High Street, was run by Aubrey and then son Keith Papps, staunch Rotarians both. When it closed in the 1960s the site was incorporated into an enlarged Littlewoods. Down in The Shambles, brothers Stan and Arthur Marshall masterminded Maggs, the gentleman's outfitters where hundreds if not thousands of Worcester parents bought their children's school uniforms. And what a loss it was when Beards in Broad Street closed at the end of the 60s. A time warp little food emporium, it was noted for its traditional cheeses, the aroma of which drifted down the street meaning you could smell Beards long before you got there. Worcester's changed a lot now and not necessarily for the better.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Socialist NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani pledged freebies to classmates during HS election — and still lost: ‘Ass whooped'
Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's propensity for making pie-in-the-sky Marxist campaign promises dates back to his high school days, when he promised 'fresh juice' daily to classmates if they elected him vice president. Mamdani, a 2010 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, also tried to win votes with the pipe-dream promise of free gym credits for just attending sporting events. He couldn't come through on either promise — and got his 'ass whooped' in the race, he confided in a 2017 podcast. Mamdani — who is polling second among NYC Democratic mayoral candidates — delivered the pledges through rap songs he wrote and performed, he told AirGo podcast host Daniel Kisslinger while promoting himself as a rapper named Mr. Cardamom. 'I promised fresh juice for everyone — every day, using locally sourced fruits,' says Mamdani, a Queens assemblyman and son of Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. 'There was a supermarket like four minutes away.' 'Oh, that's what you mean by local? Not that we didn't grow the oranges [at the high school], but we pop by FineFare [supermarket]?' Kisslinger jokes back. 'I promised that! I promised credits for going to after-school games instead of having to go to gym,' says Mamdani, laughing. 'Those were like two concrete promises that I had done no viability study on.' Mamdani claimed 'a lot of people enjoyed' his rapping delivery, but admitted one teacher advising, 'I just don't think this was the right decision.' Mamdani's mayoral campaign promises reads like something out of the Politburo with vows of free bus service, government-run grocery stores and freezes on the city's roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. Critics say he's yet to outline where the money to pay for any of this will come from. 'While I continue to believe in the importance of access to fresh fruits and produce—and am proud to be the only mayoral candidate with an evidence-based plan to make groceries cheaper, there is little else that my run for Bronx Science student body vice president (go Wolverines) has in common with our surging campaign for mayor to deliver New Yorkers a city they can afford,' Mamdani said in a statement.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bronx supermarket owner foils alleged slip-and-fall scam
THE BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) — The owner of a Bronx supermarket claims a customer tried to extort his insurance carrier in a slip-and-fall scam, which was caught on camera. The alleged scam played out inside his East Tremont Fine Fare store on Jan. 22. The video shows the man's apparent accomplice first pouring water on the floor to assist in the theatrics. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State Moments later another would-be-victim comes along, lifts several cases of water, and then falls flat on his behind after stepping on the wet floor. 'We are all victims today of this insurance fraud,' said store owner Miguel Luna. Not even two weeks later, on Feb. 2, Luna got a letter from the man's lawyer notifying him that his insurance carrier was being sued for personal injuries. 'Everybody could see that was fake,' Luna said. When PIX11 News contacted the claimant's attorney Tuesday, he said in an email that he had dropped the client. But if Luna hadn't been diligent, he says it could have been costly for him—and ultimately for store customers, since owners often have to raise their prices. 'Sometimes the insurance doesn't want to spend money on lawyers [fees]. They settle for $20,000 or $30,000,' Luna explained. NYPD warns of online dating scams as Valentine's Day approaches 'It happens a lot of times,' added Francisco Marte of the Bodega and Small Business Group. That's why the association is working with owners to install high-definition cameras to foil phony claims. A recent $1 million state grant helped 75 stores install the enhanced security. 'The next phase will be Harlem and Washington Heights,' Marte said. Luna already invested in a top-of-the-line system complete with facial recognition technology that sounds an alarm when banned customers try to enter. Loss prevention technology proving to pay dividends when it comes to frivolous claims and petty criminals for this small business owner. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
