Seniors-Friendly Guide to Upper West Side Grocery Stores

By Elissa Gootman

The New York Times, April 26, 2011

Created on the Upper West Side. Flying off the shelves.

Tina Fey’s “Bossypants”? O.K., that too, but also City Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer’s age-friendly grocery guide.

The guide, created by Ms. Brewer’s staff, maps out 23 major grocery stores in her district, and lists them according to amenities that elderly citizens — and others, too — might find appealing:

• Handicap-accessible restrooms.
• Any public restrooms, for that matter.
• Meat, poultry or fish sold in single portions.
• “Seating provided, or available upon request.”
• Senior discounts.
• The ability to shop online — or by phone.

Ms. Brewer unveiled the guide at an April 5 symposium called “Becoming Age-Friendly: The Upper West Side,” which she sponsored with the New York Academy of Medicine, the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Department of Parks and Recreation, among other groups. That day, all 500 copies of the grocery guide were snapped up.

Since then, the requests have poured in. About 1,000 additional copies have been distributed, said Shula Warren, Ms. Brewer’s chief of staff. (The guide is also available online here.)

“We’ve had calls from people outside the Upper West Side — they want it for their neighborhood as well,” Ms. Warren said.

Just last week, two people who work with the elderly called, one requesting 150 copies and the other requesting 300. People have called from the Bronx, seeking an age-friendly guide to grocery shopping there, and Ms. Brewer said that several City Council colleagues have expressed interest in creating similar guides for their neighborhoods.

Some constituents have noted that the guides could be also be useful to parents of young children, who might be equally interested in knowing about, say, restroom availability.

“If you’ve got three kids at home, God knows you want to know how you can get groceries more easily,” Ms. Brewer said. “Restrooms are a huge thing for seniors. When you have three kids it’s a big thing, too.”

Some of the Upper West Side’s most amenity-rich grocery stores, according to the guide:

The Food Emporium at 2008 Broadway, at the corner of 68th Street, offers a 5 percent senior discount; a water fountain or water available on request; seating; public restrooms; handicap-accessible aisles; single portions of meat or fish; and delivery, phone-ordering and online-ordering options.

The Whole Foods Market at 808 Columbus Avenue, near the corner of West 97th Street, has most of that (though no discount), and handicap-accessible bathrooms, too.

Uptown Whole Foods, at 2421 Broadway, between West 89th and West 90th Streets, has a senior discount of 10 percent off nonsale items every day, and 20 percent off most items on the 15th day of each month. But as in all matters of life and shopping, there are trade-offs: In this case, according to the guide, no public bathroom.

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Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10029
212-822-7285
amartin@nyam.org

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