Special Report: Key Food Supermarkets - Upper West Side, Manhattan, NY

Key Food Supermarkets
Owner: unknown

Opened: October 12, 2023

Previous Tenants: Duane Reade

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 2401 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan, NY

Photographed: June 9, 2023 and December 1, 2023

Welcome to the Upper West Side of Manhattan! I have been spending a lot of time in New York City lately so we're going to see quite a few stores in the city that are new or renovated over the next few days. I have a backlog of a few updates and special reports to post, starting with this Key Food at Broadway and 88th St on the Upper West Side. (For those not from the area, this is the same Broadway as the Broadway theaters and Times Square -- which is at Broadway and 42nd St, so about 45 blocks south of here, or two and a quarter miles for non-city people.)

This was a Duane Reade drugstore, a New York City chain now owned by Walgreens, until around 2020 when the store closed. It later became a distribution center for a fast grocery delivery service, I believe Gorillas, which vacated the space soon thereafter. Key Food opened on October 12 of this year. I walked by the spot back in June as the space was under construction...

Key Food has at least five logos going at the moment, with this somewhat more modern one used on select new and renovated locations, which I believe is designed to be more upscale. Then there's the classic logo, the Key Food Marketplace logo, and two logos for Key Fresh & Natural (see Jersey City and another, the original logo).

These pictures in the window, which have since been removed, were advertising the grocery delivery service, and when they were here, this wasn't a retail store -- just a distribution location.

This was the only interior shot I could get. As we'll see, this is now the walkway between the produce/deli room and the main supermarket. Because of the strangely-shaped space, there are some corners that are not the most logical, but they did a great job with the space they had.

So if that was the "before", let's check out the "after"!

Wow! Definitely everything is brand-new. We enter to the first room on the left side with deli, part of the bakery (breads and rolls), and prepared foods on the outside wall to the left and produce on the right side of the room.

The space feels much larger than its size -- which is only 7200 square feet. They pack a lot in, mostly with very condensed displays...

As we see, the produce department is mostly set up around this island, which has produce on one side and deli items on the other. Dry produce is in a few different corners, with rolls and breads just behind me in the below picture.

The store spans two different levels, with a ramp between them as seen here. It's only a difference of maybe a foot but it was likely too expensive to raise the lower section -- especially because the sidewalk appears to be very slightly inclined. That means that the entrance, which is on the lower segment, is at sidewalk level, but so is the exit, which is at the higher part.

Produce is on both sides of the ramp, and as we continue up into the main supermarket area, we pass through the rest of the bakery department and more grab-and-go and prepared food items. We can also see customer service and the registers straight ahead below.

I love this cake alcove!

In the main supermarket area, there are four aisles. Beer and nonfoods are in the first aisle, meats are on the back wall, and dairy/frozen are in the last aisle.

About 2/3 of the way down the first aisle, there are two short aisles that extend off the left side with soda and paper goods.

There's also a section of an unusually low ceiling, which might have something above it on the second floor.

And then it opens up -- although even that is still a small area -- to the meat department on the back wall. I really like the decor here! I think it's attractive and sufficiently upscale while still fairly no-nonsense. Key Food is one of the relatively few mainstream supermarkets in this neighborhood (although there are other chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's).

The aisles are pretty long, so the store doesn't feel that small.

Frozen and dairy in the last aisle...

It goes without saying that every fixture in this store is brand-new, because the space was not previously a grocery store and I see no evidence that anything was brought in secondhand.

Here's a look at the dairy department towards the front of the last aisle, and the registers at the front.

There are four full-service registers and a few self-checkouts at the front. I love the lighting and the wooden structures over the registers!

That's all for this Key Food, but there's lots more to see over the next few days! We're headed out to New Jersey tomorrow for an update at a renovated store here on The Market Report!