Today's store tour is a recently renovated, 12,000 square foot Ideal Food Basket that was clearly a combination of many smaller storefronts, although it's possible that the one-story section to the right has been a grocery store for longer.
Similar to the other Ideal in East Flatbush, a recent renovation has brought updated fixtures, lighting, and flooring (the big expensive items), but the decor was left. This location was previously an NSA Supermarket and before that, a Met Foodmarket.
Heading in, we see all-new fixtures, flooring, and lighting.
Produce lines both sides of the double-wide first aisle, with deli in the front corner. Notice that the decor is rather old (in fact, from the Met pre-2005 era) but almost everything else you see is quite new.
Nice new deli, and notice the NSA sign still in the window.
Apparently Ideal is fresh out of pecorino romano. Notice the Met Food sign still hanging over the bag check counter!
I'm assuming those hanging metal bars once held some decor element, such as fake plants which might've been removed recently in an effort to streamline the store's appearance.
Looking towards the front of the store. This Ideal is owned by Andres Ferreira, who owns the most stores of the Ideal/America's Food Basket members, including the other two we're going to see.
Service butcher at the end of the first aisle, with meats continuing in brand-new cases on the back wall.
Pretty sure the Ideal logo on that fresh meats sign is a decal over the NSA logo.
The first grocery aisle has beer lining the back of the produce cases.
The rest of the grocery aisles are pretty standard, with older shelving in the center store than the perimeter fixtures.
A very small thing I'd like to point out here: this Ideal has aisle markers at both ends of the aisle. While that's standard in larger supermarkets, small urban stores will frequently put them only at one end of the aisle. (One set in the middle is better, but I don't always remember to bring my telescopes to go food shopping.)
Check out how shiny those floors are! Also, I don't know whether I've ever explicitly mentioned this, but Ideal/America's Food Basket sells Essential Everyday items.
Frozen and dairy in the last aisle.
This particular aisle marker is the only one in the store left from Met. And I must say, although the name changed in 2005 and then again in 2012, the owner has been the same since the store first opened in 2000. For a store that's been under the same owners for 20 years, this is looking pretty good. I don't know what was here before Met opened in 2000.
Customer service on the front end opposite the entrance.
Front-end looking pretty updated with new(ish) signage, lane markers, and registers. From my experience, it looks like Ferreira is putting a fair amount of money into improving his stores' facilities lately, which is very nice -- and, it seems, quite necessary in some locations. This one is looking great now, as are the two more we'll be seeing -- stay tuned!
Ideal Food Basket
4806 Church Ave, East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed May 2019
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