Urban Market of Hoboken
Opened: March 14, 2025
Welcome to the much-anticipated Urban Market of Hoboken! This store was announced back in 2022, and since then the independent grocer has faced a series of delays. But the 14,000 square foot store finally opened yesterday, the first commercial tenant of this building constructed in 2017.
Urban Market is a brand of Key Food Stores, which has a handful of other locations in New York City under the Urban Market name. One, in Long Island City, is also owned by the Mujalli family; they also own two Dumbo Market locations in Brooklyn, among other stores. The Mujallis are also working on replacing the LIC location with a new, larger store across the street.
I was here yesterday afternoon and, as you might be able to tell from the pictures (although I know it doesn't always come across), the store was quite busy. For comparison, the Kings just blocks away was rather empty with not more than a half-dozen shoppers throughout. Urban Market is still small, but about double the size of the tiny 7000 square foot Kings. Urban Market's layout is also much better, with fewer odd corners. We'll see if Urban Market can keep up the traffic here, but from my visit, it sure looks like they're pulling out all the stops.
You enter to the grand aisle, with deli, sushi, cheese, prepared foods, and bakery to the left and produce to the right. The rest of produce and dairy line the first aisle, with meat and seafood on the back wall. Frozen foods are on the left side. Like the Kings, deli is the only service counter here, although also like Kings they do cut meat in-store.
The space has been designed with a modern but simple decor package. The category signage that you can see here in produce has also been making its way into other Key Food stores I've been in lately. As you can see, they were quite prepared for the grand opening with every shelf in the store perfectly stocked.
Hoboken, which for out-of-towners is just north of Jersey City, is a dense but relatively low-rise city right on the water. It's got a number of supermarkets, most of which are clustered in the northern end of the city (near here). The Kings is practically just around the corner, with a Trader Joe's a few blocks west. ShopRite is on the far west side of the city, and ACME is in the middle of the city. All of those except Kings are larger than Urban Market. And, if you weren't aware, Kings and ACME are both owned by Albertsons Companies, the second-largest grocery chain in the country.
Key Food's execution on produce lately has been really good. In general, their stores usually tend to run good produce departments, but it seems they've focused on it more lately. Here is no exception, with all the shelves practically overflowing with a large selection of produce for such a small store.
One thing you see a lot more in these urban supermarkets than suburban ones is a very substantial selection of loose leafy greens and vegetables. This is a staple in many NYC supermarkets, but harder to find in suburban ones like ShopRite or Stop & Shop, where these items are more likely to be sold in a package.
Deli is opposite the produce department, with baked goods, prepared foods, and cheese between here and the entrance. No in-store bakery, but local breads from NY Brooklyn Bread.
It's clear Urban Market did their homework on selection, too, with lots of Italian choices (including lots of cheeses) in Hoboken, which was Frank Sinatra's hometown.
You can see here, too, how groups like Key Food pack so much selection into their small stores. There might only be one or two facings of a given product, rather than more that you'd see in larger stores.
Looking from the front produce/deli area down the first aisle, which has organic produce to the left and then dairy in the rest of the aisle.
For the uninitiated, Key Food is a cooperative of supermarkets that are independently owned and operated, under various names. They have around 450 stores in RI, CT, MA, NY, NJ, PA, and FL. I don't believe Key Food has ever had a store in Hoboken, which is a bit surprising considering how close it is to their original home base of New York City. But Key Food didn't seriously enter the New Jersey market until around 2015 -- prior to that, they only had a handful of random stores, most of which didn't really last long. Now, there are around 50 Key Food stores in New Jersey operating under a variety of banners.
A look across the back wall, with packaged meat and seafood. As I mentioned, no service butcher counter here, but meats are cut in-store.
Another trick urban supermarkets use is building taller shelving. That allows more product to be displayed vertically.
Again, they're getting the Italian foods right with a large selection of imported and specialty pastas. Specialty and gourmet items are highlighted in this wooden shelving.
While I didn't do an extensive price comparison here, prices seem to be roughly in line with the other stores in town (Kings, of course, is much higher). I was eavesdropping on two families who ran into each other in the store and laughing about how this store seemed better than Kings, but that that -- in their opinion -- was a very low bar. Again, we'll see how execution is long-term and whether they can keep it up. From what I overheard in the store and the (limited) comments I've seen online, it seems Urban Market has made a good first impression.
Key Food continues to grow, and although they've closed a few locations, they keep adding new ones. Also yesterday, a Met Foodmarkets -- affiliated with the Associated Supermarket Group -- in Marine Park, Brooklyn left ASG and joined Key Food. It's now branded SuperFresh. Here in New Jersey, Key Food has at least two additional stores in progress -- in Long Branch and Matawan, where they're headquartered.
Here's another example of the specialty merchandising, here displaying Greek foods in the international aisle.
In another good use of space, there's bulk coffee beans (and a grinder) on an endcap next to the deli department.
The store is quite small compared to other supermarkets, but it feels spacious in part because the ceiling isn't very low. Here, you can see that they've made use of that with large department signage.
Frozen begins in the back-left corner and continues down the last aisle. Seven aisles in total, including the produce/dairy aisle at the right side of the store.
There's five registers here, plus customer service.
Opened: March 14, 2025
Owner: Ameed Mujalli
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 1425 Washington St, Hoboken, NJ
Photographed: March 14, 2025
I love seeing a new independent grocery store open up here in North Jersey, so I wish them luck and I hope to see more new Key Food stores in the area. With the way things have been going, that's probably quite likely. That's all for the new Urban Market, and be sure to check out this weekend's other visits!
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