Grocery Archaeology

At an antique store in Brooklyn, I found a few prints of very old pictures of New York City. The prints themselves weren't that old, but they were reproductions of some wonderful old pictures. I chose three of grocery stores that I had to have, and we're going to see them over the next few days! Unfortunately, I don't have locations for these pictures, beyond this one having been labeled as Brooklyn. I wouldn't be surprised if this were in a neighborhood like Bensonhurst or Bay Ridge, but I'm not really sure. While I'm far from an expert, the car looks like a late 1930s or early 1940s type, meaning this is likely to be from the 1940s or so. Come back tomorrow to check out the next picture!

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)...

Original Tenant:  unknown Address:  781 Flatbush Ave, Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  2S Mart (?? - 2019) Photographed:  May 2019 Unfortunately this one didn't make it. Although there are many produce markets that do very well in this neighborhood, this one closed soon before I visited, which is a shame. It's directly across the street from the Key Food we saw yesterday. So far, no one new has moved into the spot, although it is a great location.

Alright, we've finished up Bushwick and are now heading to the southwestern portion of Brooklyn to see the area broadly referred to as Flatbush! Flatbush is a fascinating combination of landscapes, architectural styles, cultures, and of course, supermarkets. It is, of course, a massive oversimplification to separate this group of stores into just two neighborhoods, but in the broadest sense, Prospect Lefferts Gardens is the northern section of our tour and Flatbush is the southern section. Our route will take approximately the shape of Texas (I can't think of any other way to describe it), starting in the northern arm with Prospect Lefferts Gardens and stores along Flatbush Avenue, the main thoroughfare through much of southern Brooklyn. We turn west in the northern part of Flatbush to follow Church Avenue to the border of Kensington before returning east along Cortelyou Road in Prospect Park South. At Clarendon Road, we join back up with Flatbush Avenue to continue south in ...

Original Tenant:  unknown Address:  832 Flushing Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  CTown Supermarkets (??-2015) Photographed:  December 2019 Although Bushwick is a very desirable neighborhood and is quickly gentrifying, not all parts of the neighborhood are developing equally. The northern section, closer to (extremely desirable) Williamsburg, tends to remain lower income and has many vacancies, abandoned industrial properties, and so on. This particular store is also located immediately across from a public housing complex. There is, however, a Bravo at the north end of the housing complex, which we'll see up next. Just a few blocks west, we find the upscale Food Bazaar on Manhattan Ave. But other than those two and the Food Bazaar several blocks south on Myrtle Ave, this neighborhood has very few large, full-service grocery stores. To go back to happier times in 2014, check out this street vi...

The next neighborhoods we're taking a look at are Bushwick and Ridgewood! Now, we have been to Bushwick before, to visit stores  here  and  here . But we are returning for an additional dozen or so that were photographed later than that group. We're also adding in one Ridgewood store, which is just over the border into Queens, because I have nowhere else to put it. So let's begin with Billy's Marketplace in Ridgewood, Queens, up next over on  The Independent Edition !