TOUR: Key Food Fresh & Natural - Jersey City, NJ

Key Food Fresh & Natural
Owner: Johnny Taveras

Opened: 2012

Previous Tenants: Finast > Foodtown > CTown Supermarkets

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 574 Jersey Ave, Downtown, Jersey City, NJ

Photographed: December 2020

We're here visiting the Key Food of Jersey City! Although Key Food is the market leader in New York City, it took quite a while for the cooperative to really gain a foothold in New Jersey. This location was a natural choice, opening back in 2012 in a former CTown -- especially since it's only a mile and a half west of Manhattan, although yes, it is across the river. The store, at only 7900 square feet, is one of the most space-efficient supermarkets I've ever seen. We enter to produce in the front part of the first aisle, with a deli at the back and meat lining the back wall. The last aisle has frozen foods on the inside of the aisle and dairy on the outside wall.

The store was extensively remodeled when Key Food moved in and is looking great. A lot of money has been put into the store, and clearly they're making it back as the store is very popular. On a side note, by some miracle, I got street parking on the same block as the store, which is an absolute miracle in this part of Jersey City.

Check out how compact that deli counter is! Prepared foods, cheese, fresh pasta, salads, store-baked deli meats, and more meat and cheese on the wall behind the counter.

Meats line the back wall, also a small but complete selection. In the grocery aisles, we see something I've never before seen for maximum selection...

The grocery aisles are complete with freestanding shelving with more products on these shelves, which are angled so you can access their products along with all of the products on the regular shelving.

Gigantic selection compared to the size of the store. We can also see that the owners take a lot of pride in the store with lots of upgrades.

Frozen and dairy in the last aisle. Notice that the dairy cases are much newer than the frozen cases, which are definitely left over from CTown at the newest.

Customer service and office in the front corner here, with registers lining the rest of the front wall.

You get a good idea of how packed this store is here on the front end! Despite its small size, it's a very nice store and clearly popular. We're going to see another supermarket downtown here tomorrow, and although that store is much larger, it's not half as pleasant as this Key Food. Stay tuned!