Key Food Supermarkets
The previous home of the Key Food just next door is now available for lease. And it's very clear what used to occupy this building, you can't miss that labelscar!
As you can see, the old store was in pretty rough shape by the time it moved, but nothing that a remodel inside and outside couldn't have fixed. But maybe it was simply more practical (or more financially possible) to just start from scratch next door rather than completely redo the existing store.
Opened: March 2025
Welcome to the new Key Food in Norwood, in the Bronx -- so new that it doesn't even have a sign up yet. Or at least it didn't when I visited last week. It appears to have opened right at the end of March or early April, replacing an older store next door. I visited that store long ago, and you can see my original post here.
The Key Food has moved just next door from its previous location, and you can actually see the red and yellow former Key Food awning to the right in the above picture. The new store is still in its soft opening phase, and it's mostly fully built. It's undoubtedly still in progress, though. What confuses me is that the new store is almost identical to the old store. The new store is 10,000 square feet (the old one was 9800 square feet), and the layout is exactly the same. The aisle markers were even brought over from the old store. Most often, when a store moves like that, it's because they want to start fresh, build a brand-new store. But I suppose if it ain't broke...
That makes me think, though, that the decision to move next door was more likely prompted by something like a rent increase in the old spot. What I've seen before is that a space next to the original supermarket frees up, so the supermarket expands into that building. In fact, I recently posted another Key Food-affiliated store that did that. But here, they've all but duplicated the original store in the new building, which was previously three smaller storefronts.
Deli is in the front-right corner, with produce at the front of the first few aisles. Meats are on the back wall, with dairy and frozen in the last aisle on the left. You can see certain things -- like the refrigerator on the left -- that still aren't finished, and I wonder if there will eventually be more decor or signage installed here.
Because this space wasn't previously a supermarket (or even all the same store), the work must've been quite extensive to set up this Key Food. All the more reason it seems strange to me that the new Key Food is basically a duplicate of the old one. Still, I suppose if the move was necessitated by some reason other than a desire to freshen up the store, there's no reason to make drastic changes.
The grocery shelving in the new Key Food looks almost identical to the shelving in the old Key Food, but I'm fairly certain the fixtures are actually new. They looked very new. The refrigeration certainly is new...
The lack of decor and this specific flooring choice makes the store feel unfinished. This flooring looks an awful lot like plywood or subflooring, but I believe this is the finished flooring.
In the grocery aisles, you'd have to look very carefully to tell you're not in the old store.
Dairy and frozen together in brand-new cases in the last aisle.
And a look across the front-end...
Owner: unknown
Previous Tenants: Pioneer Supermarkets
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 3509 Jerome Ave, Norwood, Bronx, NY
Photographed: April 7, 2025
I don't know what to make of this new store just yet. I'll have to come back once it's really done, fully stocked, and operational, but it feels just like the old store so far. Speaking of...
Check out the other posts this weekend here!
- ACME finishes a remodel in Westchester County
- SuperFresh opens in Washington Heights as a nearby store switches brands
- ShopRite prepares a new store in northern New Jersey and opens a central Jersey replacement store
- Former Rite Aids become supermarkets in the Highbridge, Belmont, and Ridgewood
- A Key Food moves next door in the Bronx
This is a Bonavita Family Keyfood. Or at least it was last time I checked.
ReplyDeleteThey own a few other stores as well.
It may actually make sense - if the old store space was in need of a total renovation, and being as small as they are, it might be hard to do without closing down for a time.
ReplyDeleteThis way, they could build the new store next door, then just switch once work was done (or mostly done), thus far less interruption than the renovating in place would have been.