Special Report: Foodtown - Astoria, Queens, NY

Foodtown
Opened: October 2023

Closing: September 2024

Owner: Rowhie & Ennis Said

Previous Tenants: Safeway > Finast > Rite Aid

Cooperative: Allegiance Retail Services

Location: 32-14 31st St, Astoria, Queens, NY

Photographed: September 18, 2024

Welcome to the Foodtown of Astoria, a sadly very short-lived supermarket that sadly was open for less than a year. The building dates back to around the mid-1950s, when it was constructed as a Safeway; when they pulled out of the NYC area, it became a Finast by the middle of the following decade. While I'm not sure what was here after Finast, it did become a Rite Aid by the mid-00s or so, which closed in 2022.

By October of the following year, a Foodtown operator had moved in, renovating the space and outfitting it as a supermarket. At roughly 12,000 square feet, it's not a particularly large building, but definitely big enough for a full-service Foodtown. But just under a year later, Foodtown has announced its closure despite grand opening signage still up. In this case, it doesn't seem that it's Foodtown's fault -- instead, reports say the landlord chose not to renew their lease, which suggests they signed an abnormally short one- or two-year lease when they opened. Reports on local social media pages also suggested the building had some structural integrity issues and the ceiling was in danger of collapsing.

Speaking of, the building actually (like many Safeways built at this time) has a barrel roof, which appears to be in pretty good shape -- but we'll see evidence of damage to the ceiling inside.

Here's some shots from the subway stop (or, well, elevated train stop, but subway is subway is subway) right in front of the store.

It's possible that you can see some sag in the roof in the picture below, but I also don't know if those claims are true since they have been circulated on social media but without confirmation from the store owners.

The parking lot is on the left side of the store, which faces the street. This entrance on the right side brings us into the produce department, while the entrance on the left side brings us into deli/bakery and meat. The registers are on the front wall (you can see the exit right under the Foodtown sign).

As we can see, the store is rather nice -- although, in an odd choice, notice that that's actually flooring left over from Rite Aid. But the ceiling, lighting, and of course decor was all redone. It couldn't have been cheap to outfit the space for a supermarket only to close a year later, so why was this lease done on such a short term? Or is there another reason, like the structural integrity of the building, that hasn't been made public?

I just find it hard to believe that the owners would make this type of investment knowing that they could be kicked out just a year later. Because, clearly, the investment was rather significant. When I visited about a week and a half ago, the store was partially cleared out but still pretty stocked, especially here in produce.

The grocery liquidation had just begun, so things were only 25% off.

Looking back up towards the front wall of the store.

Produce lines the right side of the store, with dairy on the back wall and beer on the front wall to the right of the registers and customer service. On the left side of the store, deli and meat are in the last aisle, with baked goods and cheeses in the front-left corner.

It's a bit hard to tell in the pictures, but it looked when I was in the store like the ceiling might be sagging. Obviously, that could've just been something I was expecting to see so I imagined it, but I think there was a slight curve. It's not clear, though, if that factored into why the store is closing so quickly.

Here's beer and customer service on the front wall. The entrance is just out of frame to the left, and the registers just to the right.

You can see that, although most of the rest of the store was nicely renovated, the floor really showed its age by the time the I visited.

When this Foodtown closes, it leaves this part of Astoria with a Food Emporium two blocks west and a Trade Fair just west of that. A block south and five blocks west of that is a Bravo.

Frozen foods are in the second-to-last aisle on the left side of the store closer to the parking lot entrance.

11 aisles in total, including the produce aisle.

And the last aisle is packaged meats and seafood, with the service deli in the front left corner. You can see the entrance from the parking lot side in the below picture.

The deli was still operational, but winding down. Notice the peeling paint on the right side, which might be indicative of water damage or something -- I do think the structure likely is causing problems for the store here.

Packaged cheese, deli, and bakery items in the front corner next to the deli. There's no in-store bakery, but fresh breads and baked goods were brought in and displayed in the cases to the right below...

...which, of course, had mostly been cleaned out at the time of my visit.

And a look across the front end...

Don't miss today's other store, a look at the brand-new SuperFresh in Highland Park here!