Special Report: SuperFresh - Two Bridges, Manhattan, NY

SuperFresh

Owner: unknown

Opened: September 28, 2023

Previous Tenants: CTown Supermarkets (converted to SuperFresh 9/28)

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 5 St James Place, Two Bridges, Manhattan, NY

Photographed: October 4, 2023

Another brand-new SuperFresh! Key Food initially announced the name was to be used on the larger, suburban stores, mostly in New Jersey. And while that has happened, with quite a few large suburban stores opening under the name SuperFresh (including one on Friday!), Key Food has also used the name for urban New York City stores as an alternative to their existing Key Food and Food Universe banners. Today, there are 10 SuperFresh stores in New Jersey (+Middlesex and Roselle), two each in Brooklyn and Queens, five in the Bronx, and one each on Long Island, on Staten Island, in Florida, in Rhode Island, and now, in Manhattan. In fact, the latest store in the Bronx just switched from Pioneer last week.

This one is around 8,000 square feet, and was most recently a CTown although it's been a supermarket for decades. It's in the ground floor of a large public housing complex, and one of the very few supermarkets left in this part of Manhattan. We're just south of Chinatown, too, and many of the stores in this area are Chinese supermarkets. Just on the other side of the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge is a large Key Food-affiliated supermarket called 55 Fulton Market, and just under half a mile east at the base of the Manhattan Bridge is an upcoming Brooklyn Fare, also Key Food-affiliated.

Notice the workers installing the SuperFresh sign on the left as I visited! A great shot. Reminds me of my luck watching the CTown signage come down in Orange, where the store also left CTown to join Key Food. The trickle of stores into Key Food from other cooperatives has become really a raging river. Almost every week, sometimes multiple times a week, the Key Food store locator adds another location. My Twitter feed (excuse me, X) has become all but a series of tweets (excuse me, X-posts) about who's joining Key Food today.

Inside, the store hasn't changed much just yet, as I was here only a few days after the switch to SuperFresh was announced. But notice that the store's management had covered all of the CTown logos on the aisle markers with paper! (Up in the Bronx, for comparison, an Associated that switched to Food Universe back on 9/14 still had its full Associated signage inside and out as of 10/10.)

We can see a mix of older Krasdale price tags (see the yellow and red signs on the shelves above), and newer Key Food tags on most of the grocery shelving. Check out the salad dressings...

The blue and orange tags, like top right, are Krasdale tags. The orange and white are Key Food, and the sale signs we see here are Key Food.

Over time the storebrand products are being switched from Krasdale to Urban Meadow. It takes a few weeks for that switch to be completed, as they sell out the Krasdale items first. Typically, they're not particularly steeply discounted because there's nothing wrong with them, just the wrong label.

Produce is in the first aisle, meats are on the back wall, frozen foods are in the second-to-last aisle, dairy is in the last aisle, and deli is in the front left corner along with customer service.

As we can see, the fixtures and decor inside are fairly new and in very good shape. I doubt there will be significant renovation going on because it's all looking good.

Speaking of that, this is as good a transition as any to taking a look at the CTown before the switch to SuperFresh! I photographed this store earlier this year, last spring.

CTown Supermarkets

Owner: unknown

Opened: unknown

Previous Tenants: other grocery stores

Later Tenants: SuperFresh (9/23-present)

Cooperative: Krasdale Foods

Location: 5 St James Place, Two Bridges, Manhattan, NY

Photographed: March 7, 2023

So we've already seen this store as a SuperFresh but let's check out its past as a CTown! The store's exterior (and, I assume, interior) was renovated back in 2014 (see here previously).

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that this store was previously a Gristedes but I'm not positive about that. What I do know is that it's been a supermarket for a very long time, and I think I saw a picture on Facebook of the store many decades ago.

The store seems to be very well-run, and as one of the few mainstream or affordable supermarkets in the lower Manhattan area, seems to do just fine. My guess is the switch to SuperFresh is strictly a banner change, and won't really change much about the store.

Deli and hot food in the front corner. There's no bakery in this store, as is typical for smaller urban stores.

Frozen foods are in the second-to-last aisle, and it looks like these cases might have been installed in 2014 or at least refurbished then.

Dairy in the last aisle, and again, the fixtures are relatively new and in good shape.

And a look at the front-end before we move on!

Don't forget to check out today's other special report, at the new Wegmans opening tomorrow at Astor Place!