It's hardly half a mile as the crow flies from the
last Ideal we saw to this one. But there are a lot of differences between the two stores.
While this store's 10,500 square foot size isn't all that far from the 1301 Church store's 8500 square feet, this store feels larger and more suburban. It's on the border of the more residential neighborhoods of Prospect Park South to the east and Kensington to the west, which are also both higher income than Flatbush. This Ideal is also right on Coney Island Ave, a major thoroughfare, and has a parking lot. It's owned by Juan Diaz, who owns many supermarkets including the
CTown in Bethlehem, PA and the
CTown and
Little Apple in Allentown.
The 1301 Church location was converted from CTown to Ideal in 2014. This, on the other hand, was the first Ideal Food Basket to open. The conversion from CTown occurred in 2012, but observant readers of The Market Report will recognize that the CTown slogan ("Supermarkets for Savings") remains on the storefront.
Heading inside, we find the CTown decor mostly intact, with some changes (such as an expansion of the produce department, visible here; I'd assume the first two aisles were shortened to accommodate).
Looking towards the front. Produce and cold cuts line the first aisle, with meat and seafood on the back wall. Dairy and frozen line the last aisle, with deli in the front corner. The store is oriented towards the parking lot, so that the aisles run parallel to Coney Island Avenue.
Although it's not the newest store, this Ideal is clearly better maintained and more heavily used than the 1301 Church location. (If you're wondering why I keep calling it the 1301 Church location, it's because there's another one at 4806 Church that we'll be seeing later when we circle through East Flatbush.)
Looking across the back wall from the first aisle. The service meat and seafood departments are at the far end under that yellow sign.
The flooring in the aisles was not replaced in the last renovation. The grocery selection was quite interesting in this store, with the usual basic groceries and Latin/Caribbean foods, but also significant Kosher, Russian, Polish, and Italian selections for residents of Kensington to the west, and trendy, organic, and specialty items for residents of Prospect Park South to the east.
This store was generally well-organized, as you can see in this picture, but as we'll see later, the Ideal stores are some of the highest volume in the neighborhood, meaning that they frequently are a little more disorganized. This store is definitely a high volume store, but I was here in the morning before it really got busy.
Service meat and seafood in the back corner. There's an alcove that extends beyond the rear aisle of the store that includes halal meat and frozen meat. The curved white wall above used to have decor on it, but it has all been removed. I don't know if it's part of a larger renovation, but many Ideal stores are receiving much-needed renovation now.
Nice to see a dedicated halal section, but it seems that the demand isn't great enough in this neighborhood to include a full service halal butcher.
Dairy and frozen preparing for the rush later in the day. I like the wood details at the bottom of the dairy and frozen cases!
A repainted deli in the front corner, with some updated cases. Checkouts are to the left in the above picture...
While the lane lights have been updated, the hanging signs are left over from when the store was a CTown. The name has been blacked out so they just read "Thank you for shopping" and Ideal branding has been added to both sides of the panel. This is a nice store, and a good spot to do your food shopping -- the same impression I get from most Ideal stores I've been to. And speaking of Ideal, there are still three more as we circle through East Flatbush and back to Prospect Lefferts Gardens, so stay tuned! For now we're heading east along Cortelyou Road, the main business strip in Prospect Park South.
Ideal Food Basket
710 Coney Island Ave, Prospect Park South, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed May 2019
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