We're here towards the south end of Corona to see the third A&E Supermarket Group-owned store in the neighborhood. See my coverage of the southern City Fresh Market
here, and a look at the northern location
here. Unlike most A&E stores, this one was previously a CTown, so it probably was under different ownership. Nearly all of the A&E stores were previously operated under the Associated/Met/Pioneer/Compare brands.
Immediately inside the door to the left, we have a bakery/deli/hot food department. (Great hot food by the way, I had lunch here.) The seating area is at the very front of the produce department, which extends behind the deli area (to the right in the above picture). We can clearly see the store's heritage in the CTown decor still on the walls.
Although it's not a huge store, the high ceilings make the produce department feel very wide-open.
Customer service is on the opposite side of the entrance from the deli. (This is not CTown decor.)
While this store is definitely on the older side for A&E, the displays are still done beautifully.
Here's an overview of the front area. Deli/hot food to the right, entrance straight ahead, customer service and checkouts to the left. The area beyond the produce case is the seating area.
The CTown decor continues throughout the store (which also features CTown flooring; you can observe the turquoise and maroon tiles in the first interior image, which was the color scheme CTown used in the 90s).
More CTown-era flooring in the back of the store...
The meat cases look much newer than the other fixtures across the store. I make a point of saying how old this store felt; it is in no way in desperate need of renovation. It's just that the other Cherry Valley stores are so beautiful (see
here and
here) that this one feels ancient when it's really not at all.
Unremarkable but spotless grocery aisles, with a large focus especially on Latin foods (including Argentinian and Mexican, two large populations in Corona, though the neighborhood is very diverse).
Dairy and frozen in the last aisle.
Lots of these digital display screens throughout the store. They certainly are a modern touch in an otherwise older store.
And the original CTown flooring in all its outdated glory very much visible in the last aisle and on the front-end! If you look carefully you can see that the dark brown Cherry Valley logo on the thank you sign is a decal placed over the CTown logo.
Cherry Valley Marketplace
94-53 Corona Ave, Corona, Queens, NY
Photographed July 2018
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