TOUR: Shop Fair Supermarkets - East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY

Today's supermarket was an Associated for many years, before it became a Key Food in 2014. By 2017, it became one of the original Shop Fair Supermarkets when the group was formed that year. It's owned by Walid Shehadeh, who also owns a Shop Fair to the west at 2720 Church Ave, which is coming soon to the blog. Now we've seen stores owned by the Shehadeh family before, in fact twice. What both of those stores have in common is that they were a miserable failure. You know what this store isn't? A miserable failure.

In fact, it's a clean, bright, and good-looking supermarket. So I suspect there's more to the story here. Perhaps one member of the Shehadeh family had been in the supermarket business a long time, owning stores like this and the other Shop Fair on Church. Then other family members decided to get a piece of the pie, opening too many stores they didn't know how to run. (I can't find individuals' names for the other locations I mentioned, so I can't exactly confirm or deny that theory.)

After a small produce department in the front corner immediately inside the entrance, dairy lines both sides of the first aisle. Meat runs along the back wall with frozen in the last aisle and deli in the front corner opposite the entrance.

This 5500 square foot supermarket doesn't feel cramped in the slightest. Maybe when it gets very busy it gets crowded.

Older grocery shelving but newer aisle markers. It actually looks like the Shop Fair logo is a decal added later, so it's possible that they were installed for the switch from Associated to Key Food in 2014.

Beautifully stocked shelves. A slight difference from Bay Ridge.

Nice category markers hanging from the ceiling, too.

Looking like there used to be a sign here at deli, but it's gone now. I'd bet good money that this was originally customer service.

New deli sign just to the right of the deli counter. If you zoom in to the checkout lane numbers, you can see that the signs are from Associated, with the name blacked out. Pretty good job too, except for aisle 2. That's about all for now but head over to Grocery Archaeology tomorrow for a look right across the street!

Shop Fair Supermarkets

4121 Church Ave, East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed May 2019