Farm Country Supermarkets
Owner: Jose Diaz
Opened: November 2022
Cooperative: Key Food Stores Co-Operative
Location: 37-15 31st Ave, Astoria, Queens, NY
Photographed: January 12, 2023
Today's third special report is not far from the first two in Long Island City (see
here and
here). We're about 3/4 of a mile north in Astoria, Queens, for a store that was an Associated Supermarket since 1976. After closing in summer of 2022, it reopened in November as a Farm Country affiliated with Key Food. The
Farm Country in East New York we toured a while back was sold shortly after I visited, around 2020, and changed its affiliation from Shop Fair to Key Food, and that store's owners have since opened two others -- this one and a former Waldbaum's-turned-Food Universe in Jackson Heights.
The 13,000 square foot store was a
very old supermarket, and Farm Country's owners clearly invested a lot of money to modernize the space and drastically increase selection, or at least it seemed so to me, despite the small building. We enter to the beer and produce departments in the first aisle, with meat on the back wall. Frozen is in the second-to-last aisle and dairy in the last, with deli, bakery, and cheese departments in the front right corner. They have made the most of the space, as we'll see, and as far as I could tell every single fixture is brand-new.
Not to mention the store is spotless, even a few months after is official opening. Every product is perfectly arranged around the whole store. The flooring and new fixtures look great here.
We can see how much selection is packed in here, if we compare these pictures to the older picture linked above of the Associated.
And looking across the back wall, we can see the meat department. There's no service butcher or seafood counters here, though. And heading into the grocery aisles...
...where every single product is perfectly faced and organized. Seriously, when have you ever seen a supermarket like this? Sure, I visited in the morning before the crowds, but still.
Notice how high the shelving is, too.
Nonfoods at the far end of the store.
And frozen foods in the second-to-last aisle.
The renovation here is really impressive, especially given what they were working with.
And a pristine dairy department in the last aisle. I think Key Food must really have its members focus on cleanliness and organization in the stores, because this is a lot like what the SuperFresh stores I visited recently in New Jersey looked like.
And in the front of the store we have the deli, bakery, and cheese departments. Of course, there's no in-store bakery, but fresh baked goods are here. Note the multi-tiered deli counter, with meats and cheeses behind the service counter, prepared foods on two shelves in the case, and olives and other items below. Cheese and baked goods are in an island opposite...
...and note that the area's large Greek and Mediterranean population is well-represented in the deli department.
And to the right of the service deli counter is a cheese counter for higher-end cheeses.
Again, this looks really good for such a small store and compared to what it used to look like!
And a look at the front-end before we wrap up. This was a fantastic renovation of a very old store, and I'm glad it's looking this good these days. Here's the rest of the coverage we have today!
And of course, not only are the shelves themselves high, but they (like all the city stores seem to do in your prior posts) manage to store what looks like a years worth of paper products on top of all of them! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are correct! But notice that many of these urban stores (not all, of course) don't have a dedicated paper goods aisle.
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