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Showing posts from October, 2019

Look Inside: Fairway Market - Harlem, Manhattan, NY

We're seeing some interior photographs of the original Fairway Market here in Harlem at 2328 12th Ave in Harlem. You can see the exterior here , and I encourage you to wander around the store on Google Maps to get some context. While I haven't been a huge fan of Fairway's New Jersey locations, I somehow find the New York City locations much better. This particular one is an enormous warehouse piled high with lots and lots of relatively higher-end foods in a value setting. My photography is not great here, but I've chosen a few key pictures to give you a sense of the interior and turned it into a Look Inside from a full tour. Fairway has a much larger selection of health and beauty goods than most NYC supermarkets for sure. The deli and cheese area is in a separate room at the back of the store. Meats and seafood are located in a walk-in refrigerator room at the back of the store, along with dairy. I think these pictures definitely tell the story

Snapshot: Key Food Supermarkets - Harlem/Strivers' Row, Manhattan, NY

Opened in October 2017, this new-build mixed-use building features a Luna Brothers-owned Key Food Supermarket on the ground floor. While unfortunately few interior photos are circulating online, there are a few here . Market Report contributor Laura E. sent in this exterior photo taken as she was walking by one night. As nice as the store looks (if a little bland), I do have to wonder why they went with that font for the lettering instead of the actual logo. Otherwise the store looks pretty good! It's located at 2630 Frederick Douglass Blvd. Photographed April 2019

Snapshot: Key Food Supermarkets - Hudson Heights, Manhattan, NY

A very large Key Food takes up the northern half of a city block along Broadway in Hudson Heights. Owned by Nick Valle, this store has been here since 1995. Unfortunately, I really have no idea of what this would have been before Key Food, so if anyone has any input, please let me know! It's located at 4365 Broadway, Manhattan, NY. Photographed July 2018

Snapshot: Shop Fair Supermarket (future) - Hudson Heights, Manhattan, NY

Yes, the sign does say "Coming Soon Exclusive Supermarket." My question is... who are they excluding? Is there a bouncer to get in? Or do you just have to know someone who knows someone who knows someone? I don't know, but either way, this store at 4490 Broadway is preparing to open as a Shop Fair now, as we can see in this picture posted to Facebook. No word on whether the store is open yet or if it's not, when it will be, but it was previously the Uptown Supermarket . Photographed July 2018

Snapshot: Food Universe Marketplace - Inwood South, Manhattan, NY

Formerly an Antillana Supermarket and then an Associated, this Food Universe Marketplace opened in 2014. Another Antillana-turned-Associated also became a Food Universe at the same time at the north end of Inwood, at 5069 Broadway. The Key Food cooperative developed the Food Universe banner specifically for conversions of stores brought on from Associated Food Holdings and White Rose/DiGiorgio (Met, Pioneer, Compare, and Associated). Approximately 30-40 of these stores were converted, primarily to the Food Universe banner, as White Rose entered bankruptcy and the two companies were consolidated into the present-day Associated Supermarket Group. This location is at 72 Nagle Ave, Manhattan.

TOUR: Super Associated Marketplace - Inwood, Manhattan, NY

Can anyone guess what this store used to be? Do I hear a... Pathmark? Ding ding ding! You got it! Moving on from Brooklyn, we're now tackling Manhattan, moving from the very north end of the borough (here in Inwood, which is very close to Marble Hill across the river and Kingsbridge just north), to the southern end. Inwood borders on suburban, allowing for this store to have a large parking lot. It's worth noting that the parking lot is also rented out to people who want to park long-term, so not all these cars are here for Associated. I visited early in the morning, so it was pretty empty. I'm not entirely sure how the Pathmark's layout would have been, but this store (at 35,000 square feet) resembles a smaller Pathmark's layout, so it's possible the layout hasn't been significantly changed. The decor, obviously does not! All of the decor and most of the fixtures have been redone. The produce department is significantly larger than what most Pathma

Snapshot: Key Food Supermarkets - Canarsie East, Brooklyn, NY

This is one of those annoying nondescript stores that's been a Key Food for a long time and appears to have a custom decor package original to Key Food. So basically there's very little way to tell what this store was before Key Food, if anything. I don't recognize it at all, not even a little. Anyone know what this may have been? This is a store I'd love to get back to and see the inside of, but it's not all that exciting honestly. It's not old enough to be exciting and it's not new enough to be exciting. At the same time, I know the clock is ticking before this store will be totally redone. Anyway, that's sure a different style of writing a post! And this store is located just up Rockaway Parkway from the Golden Mango we saw yesterday at 2066 Rockaway Pkwy.

TOUR: Golden Mango Supermarkets - Canarsie, Brooklyn, NY

Okay, be ready for some very sloppy history reporting here. This store was a Waldbaum's until somewhere in the neighborhood of 2005-2007, when it changed ownership and became a Golden Mango Supermarket. I do know the store was at one point owned by a Korean owner (the writer of an article about businesses in Canarsie, a predominantly black neighborhood, seemed to be shocked to find that the store's owner was Korean. Uh... do your homework ). At some time around 2010, the store changed hands again and was taken over by either Raul Acosta or Andres Ferreira (who owns most Ideal Food Basket stores in New York City) and joined the NSA, or Neighborhood Supermarket Association, cooperative, which was transformed into Ideal/America's Food Basket. Then, by the summer of 2019, the store had gone through what seemed to be an extensive renovation and expansion, and the store's banner may have been switched from AFB Golden Mango to just straight Ideal Food Basket. Andres Fer