TOUR: Food Universe Marketplace - Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY

This store appears to trace its roots to Royal Farms as early as the 50s or 60s (Royal Farms owned Big R, which has since mostly been split between Food Bazaar and Food World). It operated as a CTown until 2018, when it was rebranded to Food Universe Marketplace.

The thing I'm stuck on is whether ownership changed at that point. While the CTown was owned by Shee Chun Lee, who also owns the Superfresh in Irvington, it's also listed on the website for Green Acre Farms, a Caribbean store over on Utica Ave that we'll be seeing shortly. Green Acre and two Key Food locations, which are listed on the website along with this one, are owned by Shri Persaud. Persaud also, however, owns at least two other Food Universe locations, while 2018 records list the store as 1188 Flatbush Meat & Produce (Lee's company) d/b/a Food Universe, suggesting there was never an ownership change. Meanwhile, I can't find any evidence that Lee or an affiliate purchased Persaud's stores. My suspicion is that the website simply lists the wrong Food Universe; it omits Persaud's Food Universe at 2424 Flatbush, while this one is 1188 Flatbush. Anyway, let's tour this one, which is very nice. Produce lines the left side of the store, with meat on the back wall and frozen/dairy in the last aisle.

If you look very carefully (in the picture below), the blue price signs are identical to the ones used at the Irvington Superfresh.

The produce department is, of course, nowhere near as expansive as Irvington's, but at 10,000 square feet, this store is about a fifth of the size of that one.

All the decor is left from when the store was a CTown, but it must've been remodeled fairly recently because it's looking very good.

I particularly like the wood ceiling panels over the produce and meat aisles.

At first glance, the aisle markers resemble the A&P Fresh design, but they have some notable differences. I don't have a better closeup, but the black part has a leaf-type texture and the beige part has more space between the category markers than the A&P variation.

The grocery aisles seem wider than the average urban supermarket. Also, this one is wider than the rest because of the columns in it.

While the grocery shelving is clearly on the older side, the meat, produce, and dairy cases are updated.

Dairy and frozen line the last aisle.

Lots of nonfoods products along the top of the dairy cases. And if you notice from the first picture, there's still two category markers left from CTown. All the other signs around the store have been replaced.

Customer service is located behind these freezer cases on the front wall, with the managers' offices above.

Notice the updated checkout lane markers...and the stray Superfresh reusable bags! I must say, though, the Food Universe bags are pretty cool. Flatbush Ave begins to turn slightly diagonal around this point, so we're going to hop over a few blocks to Nostrand Ave and continue heading south before we join up with Flatbush one more time at the south turnaround point of this group!