Responding to yesterday's reference to an article about how private equity contributed to the decline of Fairway, one MNB reader wrote:

Kevin, glad you published this information and article. Do people forget that greed drives both the Private Equity firms as well as the seller (like Fairway)?  How ignorant can you be to think these situations are a win-win. Private Equity is going to be the downfall of retail! The facts are self-evident. It’s all about $$$$$$ and that’s the state of the union these days. Frustrating and sad.

MNB reader Gregory Gheen chimed in:

The same thing happened to Heinz, then Kraft/Heinz. It can happen with large Private Equity firms such as 3G and Warren Buffett as well as smaller firms.

Regarding WeWorks' decision to get into the food industry with R&D development spaces, one MNB reader wrote that this is not an entirely new trend:

For nonprofit examples, see ACE Networks in Athens Ohio, which started one in the late 1990s I think (I saw a presentation about it in 2005), La Cocina in San Francisco, etc.  (They have a cookbook out, featuring stories of their various participants, along with a couple recipes from each.)

DC has a bunch of very for profit examples, a couple are under the Union Kitchen moniker.

Maybe WeWork can differentiate with a cross market brand.  But probably not, because success isn't based on awareness of the incubator but the quality of the technical assistance.