Key Food Supermarkets
Owner: Roberto Corona
Opened: 2021
Previous Tenants: Save-A-Lot (closed 2020)
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 950 Main St, East Hartford, CT
Photographed: July 9, 2023
East Hartford has a few supermarkets, but the larger ones are outside of the downtown area. The
ShopRite and ALDI are outside of town by about three miles, as well as a
Stop & Shop that closed in 2021. Also in 2021, this Key Food opened up in a 17,000 square foot space previously occupied by Save-A-Lot until 2020.
The store faces away from Main Street, and here we can see the back of the store that I assume may have in the past been a storefront. There's a parking lot in the back, and the entrance we see in the first picture faces that.
We've seen Save-A-Lot stores-turned-Key Food in
Hartford and
New Britain, and we'll see others.
Inside, much like the other two (although this one is under different ownership), the store bears no similarity at all to Save-A-Lot. We can tell this one is an older and smaller building than the other two, but it still looks great.
Deli and bakery are on the left side of the store, which is the back wall facing the parking lot. Dairy runs along the back wall of the store, with frozen food, meat, and beer on the right side which is the front wall of the building. Registers run along the side wall of the store, which functions as the front-end.
I thought this store was extraordinarily well-stocked for its size and is a really attractive store, while we're at it. The decor here is similar to the other two stores, but I think it's a little nicer in this one. Once again, Key Food replaced all the fixtures and everything in this store before they opened up. For a comparison,
here's a look at the interior of the Save-A-Lot.
Once again, we see Key Food transforming the discount store into a full-service supermarket. The grocery aisles are well-stocked and again have a large selection of mainstream and international items.
As I've found pretty consistently with all the Key Food stores I've been to lately, the store is immaculate. We can see here just how well-stocked the whole place is, and how clean it's kept.
Customer service is right inside the entrance, between the entrance and the registers.
The grocery shelving, when the store was Save-A-Lot, was the
warehouse-style type. Key Food has replaced it all with this standard black grocery shelving.
Dairy is on the side wall, which based on the way the store is set up, is the back of the supermarket.
Opposite the entrance on the front wall is the beer department. This is, if you're looking at a map, the northwestern corner of the store -- where Main Street intersects Phelps Place.
Frozen foods are in the last aisle, in what look like brand-new cases...
...and then in the far corner of the store, right up next to Main Street, is the meat department. The store is a bit of a triangle, so this area isn't set up with grocery aisles, but more of just an open area.
The service butcher counter is in this area, too. Unlike the Hartford store, this one doesn't have a service seafood counter (and unlike New Britain, never did).
Opposite the meat department, on the last aisle, is a few more frozen foods cases and some kitchenwares.
And in the front of this area is the main display opposite the fairly extensive kitchenwares department. Note that there are only eight aisles in total, as the store isn't that big but feels extensive.
And on the other side of the beer department, we have the front-end...
I think the signage is well-done here. It's not a particularly high-end decor package, but it's not trying to be. It's clean, modern, and easy to navigate.
That brings us to the end of the East Hartford Key Food, and we're going to take some more time to look at Hartford's eastern suburbs with a stop in a few more of them. Tomorrow we're headed about seven miles north to check out a chain supermarket!
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