Immediately across the street from yesterday's
C&C Fruit & Vegetables, we encounter this CTown. Previously a Key Food and then a Pioneer, the store frequently seems to have trouble keeping stock on the shelves. I've heard that that problem recurred under both the Key Food and Pioneer iterations.
However, Pioneer first opened under a corporate entity called Frank's Caballito Market Place in the former Key Food in 2015; the store closed in early 2017 and reopened still under the Pioneer banner later in 2017 but under the corporate name 4209 Meat & Produce. Shortly thereafter, the store was switched to CTown, and the 4209 entity operates the store today. Hard to tell, though, whether ownership remains the same. Although observant readers will notice the horse (or, in Spanish, "caballito") with the lettering "FC Group" next to the CTown logo, I'd also point out that it's been there since the first iteration of Pioneer. So I couldn't tell you for sure whether ownership has changed.
I can tell you, though, that the shelves were nearly fully stocked at the time of my visit, and more stock was coming in on a Krasdale truck. It's possible the empty shelves was a problem Frank's Caballito had but not the 4209 entity. (The Key Food that used to occupy this location, by the way, was a corporate entity known as DJY Corporation owned by Hyung Jae Yim, who owns other supermarkets.)
I was very pleasantly surprised to find a clean, bright, and fully stocked store. It does seem that serious money was put into a renovation, though I don't know when or by whom. Most of the fixtures, the flooring, and the track lighting are quite new. That said, there are remnants of older decor, such as the red and white stripes on the walls.
With a relatively large produce selection in the first aisle, dairy and then meat run along the back wall, with more packaged meat and a service butcher in the last aisle. Deli/bakery is in the front corner, with frozen at the far end of the store.
Dairy cases, flooring, and grocery aisles are new, but what you can see on the walls is left over from past stores. The red and white stripes, then the panel at the far end of the store.
At over 13,000 square feet, this is one of the larger supermarkets in East Flatbush. It's also the only supermarket at all for many blocks in all directions, making it a very important resource to have in this location.
Pretty substantial international selection too. And as you can see throughout the store, the current operators seem pretty serious about keeping the store stocked. There is lots of stock on the shelves, but also on every available surface.
The freezer cases are oriented so that they're an island, lining one side of aisle five and one side of aisle six.
For reference, both of the above shots are oriented looking from the back wall to the front.
The last aisle has meat cases and the service butcher shop. All the cases look very new, and we can see the newest CTown decor peeking out from under the soffit (strange place to put it). The slatted panel to the top left is definitely left over from some older renovation.
The decor, as you can see, is quite basic. It includes a lot of white space on the walls and simple large scale printed decals for the department names. That said, the latest renovation here consisted of replacing all of the fixtures, flooring, and lighting, so I'll cut them some slack.
Some interesting exposed beams here in this grocery aisle.
The pharmacy is only health and beauty items. There's a Rite Aid in the next block west, so I'm assuming there's not a huge need for that in this supermarket.
You see what I mean about these operators being serious about stock! I haven't seen any pictures of the store since my visit a year ago, so I'm hoping it's being kept up like this but I don't know for sure.
CTown Supermarkets
4209 Avenue D, East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed May 2019
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