TOUR: Key Food Marketplace - Fresh Meadows, NY

Today's tour is a very early Pathmark. I do not believe, although I could be mistaken, that it dates back to the Supermarkets General ShopRite era. But it's still very old. At about 26,000 square feet, it's almost exactly the same size as the Food Universe we saw yesterday. In fact, it shares many similarities with the Electchester Food Universe. This Pathmark lasted until at least 2007, though by 2012 it had been taken over by Kevin Kim, a New Jersey-based owner, who opened it as an Associated Supermarket. 2014 saw the conversion of Associated to Key Food Marketplace when all of Kim's stores joined Key Food. Later, in 2018, he sold all of his stores, including this Key Food and the nearby Food Universe, which were both sold to Long Island-based supermarket operator Jin Park. While Park has undertaken almost no renovations or changes at Food Universe, we do see one here.

The old overhang/awning area along the side of the store has been enclosed to form additional selling space, which has been turned into a Middle Eastern grocery department and a halal meat counter at the back. It still feels very external, so the change comes off as somewhat haphazard. And like Food Universe, this store may be in need of a full renovation soon, though it's looking pretty good.

This is for sure the first supermarket I've ever been in with the United Nations flag hanging inside!

Seafood is at the back of the first aisle, and we can see where Pathmark's seafood department used to end (if they had one; it's also possible this area was the deli and the current deli was previously the bakery).

Didn't actually catch the Pathmark tile still on the wall to the right until just now.

Meats line the back wall. If you zoom in, you can also see that some of the aisle markers are actually handwritten. I give them credit for matching the color of the other aisle markers though!

There's a pretty good chance this shelving is actually left over from Pathmark.

Bob's Red Mill is sold in abundance, but there's relatively little selection of natural/organic products. Big focus on perishables though, along with the grocery basics.

The flooring starts to get a little rough as we move towards the end of the store. Frozen, in the second to last aisle, has exposed concrete flooring, which is fine except for the fact that it appears it was painted in an attempt to match the color of the wood-grain flooring in the rest of the store. Not successful.

The flooring is in even rougher shape in the last aisle, which has dairy (with some newer and some older cases), and some more frozen.

This is an unfortunate failure in department naming. It only works written - how is it pronounced? Delee-shuss? "Deli" of delicatessen and "deli" of delicious are pronounced very differently. Anyway, this is where I suspect Pathmark may have had a bakery. Key Food does not have a bakery.

Beautiful... all Pathmark carts. I do like the custom checkout lane markers with the Key Food Marketplace logo, that's a nice touch. And that about wraps up our tour of this Key Food Marketplace!

Key Food Marketplace

155-15 Aguilar Ave, Fresh Meadows, Queens, NY
Photographed July 2018