Fareway

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Fareway is an American retail grocery store chain based in Boone, Iowa. It has more than 95 stores, most of them in Iowa, and a few in Nebraska and Illinois.

The company was founded by Fred Vitt and Paul Beckwith in 1938, and is still owned and controlled by the Beckwith family today.

Fareway stores are somewhat smaller than the average modern supermarket, and they mainly stick to the basics in order to control costs. All locations are closed on Sundays, and most are open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on other days. (As a modest but notable departure, Fareway's two new locations in metropolitan Omaha, Nebraska are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.) Fareway stores are closed on major holidays.

Fareway stores do not offer services/departments such as dry cleaning, photo processing, money orders, video rental, bakeries, floral shops or pharmacies. Additionally, Fareway stores do not sell 'hard' liquor such as vodkas, gins or whiskeys. Fareways only sell beer, wine, malt beverages and wine coolers.

The chain is well-known in the region for its stores' high-quality meat departments with their remarkable Christmas decorations, where professional meat cutters (butchers) are employed at each location to cut USDA Choice (grade) beef, as well as pork and chicken. They will also cut and trim items to the customer's specifications. Fareway's prices compete largely by matching other local food stores' prices, including those found at main competitor Hy-Vee Food Stores.

The company requires its employees to dress professionally, with black and white apparel, including neckties for males. Females dress much the same but with a female tie. Male piercings and facial hair are prohibited as is all gaudy jewelry, and all employees must be well-groomed and neat.

Fareway's total workforce is around 6,500 and its estimated sales are US$750M annually. Fareway is not a publicly-traded company, and its financial records remain largely private.

Fareway has a generic house brand of products entitled Fastco. Most stores are one of two designs. Employees refer to them as "right hand stores" where everything is to the right when you walk in the door and "left hand stores" where everything is to the left. Fareway uses its own logistics and warehouse services, and buys nearly everything directly from manufacturers.