Grocery Archaeology

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 !

Original Tenant:  Foodtown Address:  133-40 79th St, Howard Beach, Queens, NY Opened:  2016 Closed:  2017 Later Tenants:  Shop Fair Supermarkets (same owners) - closed 2018 > Knickerbocker Furniture Photographed:  December 2018 The Shehadeh brothers owned several supermarkets across the boroughs of New York City, most of which ended up under the Shop Fair banner. We've toured their Bay Ridge location. Most of their stores have been closed or sold, though I believe there are two Shop Fair stores they still own in Flatbush. This store lasted only two years in the most generous of approximations, approximately one year as a Foodtown and approximately one year as a Shop Fair. This commercial (oddly in Spanish for an area with a relatively low Hispanic population, and with a very sketchy version of "Uptown Funk") provides a look inside the store when it was still briefly in business. Today, it's occupied by Knickerbocker Furniture, which...

Our next group of neighborhoods is just to the west of what we saw in southern Jamaica. We're heading into what might be considered central Ozone Park, then into Howard Beach, a relatively isolated mostly residential neighborhood of southwestern Queens, and finally right over the border into Brooklyn for East New York!

Original Tenant:  Pathmark Address:  1764 Grand Ave, Baldwin, NY Opened:  unknown Closed:  2016 Later Tenants:  Key Food Supermarkets (planned, never opened) Photographed:  December 2018 Just down the street from Fruit Tree Farm is this former Pathmark . Though the store was purchased by Key Food operator Pick Quick Foods, and renovations did occur, the interior was never completed and the plans were abandoned. While Pathmark occupied the entire 50,000 square foot location, including a 14,000 square foot expansion, Key Food was planned to take just about 36,000 square feet (the original size of the Pathmark). The remaining 14,000 square foot Pathmark expansion has been taken by a beauty supply store.

Happy March! We moved through North Hempstead pretty quickly, now it's time to head south to the Town of Hempstead. We're hitting the key villages and hamlets: Garden City, downtown Hempstead, Baldwin, Valley Stream, and a few other locations here and there. As we'll see, there's a lot of variation here, in store size and style, income level of the communities, brands, and more. This group will feature stores on The Market Report ,  The Independent Edition , and for the first time in a while, Grocery Archaeology! We're going to jump right into Garden City tomorrow!