The Market Report

Well now, it's been a while since we've heard from Grocery Archaeology, hasn't it? And we're back with some more Pathmark items. Because, why not? There's really no story to the cotton balls package, but this bandage sat in my grandmother's closet in the original box, I'm sure, for a long time, but by the time I got to it, it was simply in an unlabeled plastic bag with other random loose bandages. I took it and put it in my wallet actually for several years before realizing in the event of an injury it would be completely useless. I believe it's safely away in the archives by now, and while I do keep a bandage in my wallet, I am a proud TopCare user.

One of North Shore Farms ' competitors is this longtime Key Food, and although I don't know how long it has been in business exactly, it's been many decades. The store is located in a large mall, and although the storefront is rather outdated, the interior is quite modern. Meanwhile, the property owner is soon to undertake a major renovation project . The store is laid out so that there is an entrance and exit in the front and the back, meaning that checkouts line the left wall of the store. Produce, deli, and bakery are located in an expansion in the far back of the store, with meat and seafood in the first aisle, and dairy in the last (the front wall). We're going to tour the store from back to front, starting with the expansion. Now it's certainly no North Shore Farms (and neither is it trying to be), but this store is really beautiful. The decor really jumps off the walls but not in a distracting way. I had to work to get the exact right angle for th...

The northern part of Queens is approximately split in half north-south by a variety of features including the Flushing Bay on the northern end and the Grand Central Parkway, with the Citi Field, the Queens Zoo, the Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and a few other things down the middle. If you think about splitting the borough roughly into four quadrants, it would go like this: northwest, which is what we have been doing, except for Ridgewood which we'll hit at the same time as Bushwick over in Brooklyn; southwest, which includes Woodhaven, Ozone Park, and Richmond Hill; southeast, which includes Jamaica, St. Albans, and the JFK airport; and northeast, Flushing, Bayside, Fresh Meadows, and the northern part of Jamaica. The last one is the quadrant we're attacking next, before we make a brief trip out to Long Island and then back to Queens for the southern quadrants. The eastern half of Queens is far more suburban than the western half, much more like Long Island than the rest ...

We're heading west from Middle Village (see here and here ) to the neighborhood of Maspeth, which also has two supermarkets and also has one chain store and one single-location store. Once again, the same owners own the big name store (Key Food) as do the independent (Maspeth Marketplace). Danny Doleh owned a Key Food up the street about a block at 66-17 Grand Ave, when in 2017 the Duane Reade pharmacy at 66-56 Grand closed. Doleh took over that location, moving Key Food down the street to the larger and more modern facility. But he also held onto the older location, converting it to the Maspeth Marketplace (but remaining within the Key Food cooperative). We'll see Maspeth Marketplace next. I have a hunch that the building was built as a supermarket, though I haven't confirmed that. It was a pharmacy, so that means that when Doleh took over the lease, he also took over the pharmacy license. An independent pharmacy has set up shop inside the Key Food. You ent...

Just across the street from Village Barn is this Met Foods, also owned by Bill Fani. And that first picture isn't my own, I must admit. It's a historical photo posted on the front wall of Village Barn, but it's actually a picture of what's now Met Foods. Today, the store has had a nice brick facade put on it (the picture of Bohack was the side facing Eliot Ave, while this is the back facing Caldwell Ave). For a look at what the front looks like now, see here . Meanwhile, you can go not very far back on Google Maps and see what Met Foods would've looked like for many years before their renovation and expansion. Here's a look at Village Barn from Met's parking lot. Now we're going to tour the store starting with the front wall (facing Eliot Ave). But like with Village Barn, I have a rather fuzzy memory of the layout. So the entrance/exit hallway is not beautiful. The rest of the store looks better, if not quite as nice as Village Barn. ...