SuperFresh
Key Food's momentum has been very steady and very hard to ignore. The cooperative, based in central Jersey, had around 100 stores ten years ago and in that time has nearly quadrupled their store count. They've established significant presences in New Jersey and Florida -- about 50 stores in each state -- and expanded into Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. But they originated in Brooklyn in 1937, and even close to home they've been hard at work.
Here in Flatbush, one of their stores has roughly doubled in size with a major renovation. We previously saw this store under its previous brand, Food Universe (also affiliated with Key Food), in 2020. The supermarket switched from CTown to Food Universe in 2018, and I'm not sure whether it changed ownership. A furniture store next door went out of business during the coronavirus, and in 2023, the owners of the Food Universe prepared to expand into that space. The original supermarket was around 10,000 square feet, and the furniture store was actually around the same size, bringing the supermarket's current footprint to around 20,000 square feet.
The new entrance brings customers into the expansion, which is now home to a much-expanded produce department and the meat department, on the left side of the store. The customer service counter is also in the expansion, along with two grocery aisles.
As you can see, this is quite a bit expanded from the original store's produce department. In early 2023, a Food Bazaar opened in a former Stop & Shop about six blocks north of here. Food Bazaar's emphasis on produce and international (especially Caribbean, in this neighborhood) foods is much more prominent than Stop & Shop's, so it's possible this store wanted to respond to the new competitor that was more directly threatening its business. The Food Bazaar is close to 60,000 square feet, though, so it's much larger than this store.
I haven't seen this exact decor package in another store, but I like it a lot. It's modern but no-nonsense, which fits this store well. There aren't a lot of bells and whistles here, but it seems like they do the basics really well. The produce and meat, in particular, looked great.
The old store didn't have any service departments. There still isn't a service butcher here, but there is a window (which you can see below) for special orders. There's also a seafood department going in on the back wall, and there's a space in the front-right corner that might be the future home of a deli.
Keep in mind that the size of the produce and meat departments now is almost the same as the previous size of the entire store. It's quite a change, but the store overall is still fairly small.
The first two (or three?) grocery aisles are in the expansion, too.
And the new customer service counter is at the front of the expansion on the front wall.
Now we move into the original supermarket for this grocery aisle in what used to be the produce department. The store is still very much in progress, so we'll see some more evidence of work in progress in the original store building than there is in the expansion.
Over on the back wall, here's a look at the new seafood department being installed, currently covered with sale displays. (Sorry for the terrible photo -- there were several people working on the renovation around, and I didn't want to attract too much attention.)
It doesn't look like the grocery shelving was or will be replaced, which is a little unfortunate but it's not in bad shape. The aisles have still been cleaned up quite a bit (see before here).
There was another area next to the seafood counter that was blocked off, presumably for some refrigerators or freezers to be installed.
The former meat cases were being stocked with beer while I was there. Once again, it's obvious this area is still in progress.
New freezers have gone into the second-to-last aisle, but the lighting hasn't been done yet. It's a good thing these new cases are quite bright!
It looks like the dairy department is now going to spill onto the back wall, while it was previously just here in the last aisle. The freezers here have been replaced, but this row was previously the only frozen foods department. You can see the old decor still on the walls here. I don't know if the dairy cases will be replaced.
Here's a corner previously holding freezers. I wonder if this will become a deli. It would make sense, and I don't know what else you might put in this corner. In fact, I wonder if at some point in this store's history there was a deli here.
Check out the new SuperFresh aisle markers!
As we can see, the work is close to being done but still not completely finished. I'll be back once it's all done!
Opened: fall 2024
Owner: Shee Chun Lee
Previous Tenants: Royal Farms > ? > CTown Supermarkets (closed 2018) > Food Universe Marketplace (2018-2024)
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 1188 Flatbush Ave, Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed: November 20, 2024
Another Key Food store is in progress just a short walk away. Check it out here! Plus, don't miss a look at a brand-new Stop & Shop under construction in northeastern Massachusetts.
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