TOUR: Key Food Supermarkets - Georgetown, Brooklyn, NY

Key Food Supermarkets

Owner: Shri Persaud

Opened: 1998

Previous Tenants: Unknown

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 1804 Ralph Ave, Georgetown, Brooklyn, NY

Photographed: August 2020

Store tour 1/3 here on Ralph Avenue in Georgetown, Brooklyn (near Canarsie) is an Empire Supermarkets-owned Key Food. The 19,000 square foot supermarket opened in 1998 but I'm pretty sure it would've been a Key Food prior to that, just under different ownership. The name Joseph Verderosa has been associated with this store along with the other Empire Key Food over on Rockaway Parkway in Canarsie, but today, the company is run by Shri Persaud who also owns Food Universe and Green Acre Farms stores.

The Food Universe, though a somewhat dated store, is still well-maintained, bright, and clean. The Green Acre Farms, however, is much more dingy and dirty on the inside. I was pleased to find this Key Food is more like the Food Universe, clean, nicely stocked, and well maintained. The outside has been painted in the last five years or so, as it used to be yellow and green on the front instead of white and blue.

The sign on the storefront has been updated, but other assorted signs around the building and the property are obviously much older. This one is missing an O on each side.

The store is oriented with the front-end along the side wall, facing Ralph Ave. Produce lines the right side wall (facing the parking lot), with meat and deli on the back wall. Dairy lines one side of aisle 10 and frozen lines one side of aisle 11, the last aisle or back wall of the store. As you can see from the produce aisle picture, the store is on the older side but nicely kept up.

Meats, in some very old cases, line the side wall of the store. Aisles run parallel to the wall facing the parking lot. As you can also see, it's a very popular store.

Nicely stocked and clean grocery aisles with more stock ready to go out.

The international selection here features Latin and Caribbean foods.

This Key Food will not run out of paper towels anytime soon. I also love the fact that the brand of paper towels is Plenty. Yes.

Dairy is oddly not on a perimeter wall, but in aisle 10.

Deli, the store's only service department, is in the back corner. Nice deli, too! It looks like the decor has been painted pretty freshly too, probably at the same time as the exterior. If I'm not mistaken, the decor here would've originally been the same turquoise and maroon that the aisle markers are. See the similarities to this store.

Frozen in the last aisle. Notice how the colors on the aisle markers do not match the colors on the walls.

Bread alcove in the front corner. My assumption is that this part of the store is an expansion, but it's very hard to tell both from the store itself and satellite photos. The store's side wall has definitely been pushed out to the parking lot, expanding the produce department.

Nice looking front end with a great old Key Food logo too! This one seems to be a transitional logo between this one and the current one (though there are a few stores using an even newer logo). Make sure to check out the Foodtown in the next block south and FoodWay two blocks south of that, too!