Food Deplorium (Food Emporium nickname)

The Food Emporium operates about 30 stores in the New York City area. The nickname “Food Deplorium” has been cited in print since at least 2004.
 
Other nicknames for The Food Emporium include “Food Extortium”/“Food Extortion,” both cited in print since at least 2007.
 
 
Wikipedia: The Food Emporium
The Food Emporium is a chain of grocery stores originally part of Shopwell Inc. Acquired in 1986 by The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P), it operates approximately 30 stores in the New York City Metropolitan area, including many stores in Manhattan and stores in Westchester County, New York and Fairfield County, Connecticut. Many of the stores in the New York City boroughs were converted from A&P stores when the parent company decided to re-brand all its NYC stores as The Food Emporium and Waldbaum’s.
 
The stores are well-known throughout the New York area for their “Someone Made a Store Just for Me” radio jingle.
     
Ask a New Yorker   
Re: Groceries
Posted by: Betty (161.88.255.—-)
Date: March 01, 2004 09:36AM
 
A lot depends on how much of a “foodie” you are. I find it totally worth the effort to schlep around town for food—to the Union Square greenmarket (in high season) early Saturday mornings for the freshest seafood and organic produce. Whole Foods is wonderful but expensive. I shop for meats there because they are grain-fed and the best quality. Zabar’s for all deli, appetizing, bread, coffee, cheese. And Fairway for the lowest prices. I’ve got two Food Emporiums in my neighborhood, which I jokingly call Food Deplorium. I only buy toilet paper and cat litter there.
   
TripAdvisor
Re: Trip Report Part 2 - Easter Sunday!
Apr 14, 2007, 1:37 PM
The quick, efficient and pleasant service at Whole Foods is not representative of most NYC grocery shopping. Stop in at a Food Emporium (Food Deplorium) and you’ll see what I mean.
 
New York (NY) Times
Readers’ Comments
The Lost Supermarket: A Breed in Need of Replenishment
By DAVID GONZALEZ
(...)
SueJax
Hell’s Kitchen
May 5th, 2008
10:33 am
It’s not the disappearing, it’s the non-appearing. Since I moved to 12th Avenue and 42nd Street 8 years ago, the area has experienced a housing construction boom. We have to shlep groceries from the overpriced Food Emporium (a/k/a Food Deplorium or Food Extortion)2-1/2 long blocks away or Stiles Market or the disgusting Big Apple 3 blocks away.
 
Uptown Kitchen
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Culinary Wasteland?
(...)
Dean and Deluca, Bridgemarket Food Emporium, these “classier” grocery stores have absolutely nothing to offer that we’re missing, except for $100,000-a-pop full-page ads in the NY Times, a crystal ceiling under the Queensborough bridge and ludicrously inflated prices. My buddy Chris termed it the “Food Deplorium” for its deplorable prices.