Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: Waldbaum's
Address: 778 Manor Rd, Staten Island, NY Opened: ca. 1960 Closed: 2007 Later Tenants: King Kullen (2007-2009) Photographed: March 2020 This building, a bit west along the Staten Island Expressway from Olive Tree, is actually two floors, with both floors being taken up originally by Waldbaum's. The lower (basement) level, which ends up being ground level on the side of the building and was originally the backroom, later became a CVS. King Kullen bought this Waldbaum's in 2007 before closing in 2009. At that time, after extensive renovations, CVS moved into the top floor around 2010. Queens, NY-based Fresh n Save Marketplace, a Key Food affiliate, moved into the rather dingy basement and equipped it nicely for a brand-new supermarket. Although Fresh n Save didn't last, a Key Food operator moved in, eventually selling to a CTown operator that closed and was replaced by the third SuperFresh on Staten Island. I photographed the last two (CTown and Sup…

Original Tenant: A&P
Address: 375 Tompkins Ave, Rosebank, Staten Island, NY Opened: 1960s Closed: 1990s Later Tenants: Waldbaums (1990s-2015), Food Universe Marketplace (2016-2018), Freshway Supermarket (2018-2019) Photographed: March 2020 This location was a longtime A&P that was converted to Waldbaum's by the 1990s before closing early in the 2015-16 bankrupcty. New Jersey-based operator Kevin Kim (oh boy, do we know him -- from Fairview, Plainsboro, and Belleville). This store as a Food Universe actually seemed to do okay. It even got some nice renovations. But of course, after just about two years, it was converted to the Freshway banner and switched from Key Food to General Trading/Retail Grocers Group. The "win a car" sweepstakes from Plainsboro's grand opening never finished because the store closed before the contest ended, so that was transferred to this location. In fact, in this picture you can see the banner from Plainsboro complete with the Superfresh…

Our next stop after leaving Brooklyn is Staten Island! Now we have been to Staten Island before, seeing a Key Food Marketplace, a Superfresh that has since closed, and a Met Foodmarket. But, we all know... NOPE, NO CHEESY SONG GIMMICK HERE. You'll have to go to The Market Report to see it.Ahem, we know that we can do better. Anyway, we're going to tour EIGHT new supermarkets, see a NEW Superfresh, and RETURN to that Met Foodmarket for a full interior tour! Uh... maybe no one else is as excited about that as I am. But anyway, stay tuned for two weeks of Staten Island.

Original Tenant: unknown
Address: 4102 Church Ave, East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY Opened: unknown Closed: unknown Later Tenants: Rite Aid Photographed: May 2019 Okay, so the last time I did this I was just plain ol' wrong. But I saw this building directly across the street from yesterday's Shop Fair and, well... I had a feeling about it. Doesn't it just look like an old Scaturro Supermarket? Or something like that? You know those various pop songs that talk about love at first sight? With lyrics saying things like "I knew as soon as he/she walked into the room" and other such nonsense. Well, I'd love to write that song about seeing a building and just having a feeling it's a former supermarket. Unlike the Avenue D location, I'm pretty sure I'm right about this one. Anyway, any Brooklynites out there who can confirm my suspicions?

Original Tenant: unknown
Address: 4602 Ave D, East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY Opened: unknown Closed: unknown Later Tenants: unknown Photographed: May 2019 A whole lotta unknowns up in that intro section! And that's because I glanced at this building thinking it was a supermarket. It probably wasn't. This building looks like a former supermarket, but prior to the Dollar General renovation, it really didn't look anything like a grocery store. Oh well. Wishful thinking, I suppose.

Original Tenant: Possibly Food Fair, Waldbaum's, or something else with a tower
Address: 2200 Clarendon Rd, Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY Opened: unknown Closed: unknown Later Tenants:Key Food Supermarkets (??-2013), King Food Market (2013-2014) Photographed: May 2019 As you can see if you click on the name King Food Market, Harmony Funeral Home did very little to this building when they moved in in 2015. It still has a distinctive supermarket look to it. This building is located on Clarendon Road in the first block east of Flatbush Avenue, i.e., just about 140 yards from JK Flatbush Farm. As tempting as it is to say that a 10,000 square foot is simply too large to survive in this area where space is at a premium, there's also a 10,000 square foot Food Universe Marketplace just about another 140 yards south of this store. We'll be seeing that in a couple days, but (and we're skipping this store, which I think is fine with everyone) there's also an approximately 50,000 square f…