Key Food Supermarkets
Opened: 2014
Owner: Franklyn Almonte
Previous Tenants: Duane Reade
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 163-30 Cross Bay Blvd, Queens, NY
Photographed: September 11, 2026
Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in April 2020, but was rewritten with new photos in September 2026. Now for the post! The Almontes own two supermarkets in Howard Beach, a former Waldbaum's that's now a
Food Emporium in the northern part of the neighborhood, and a Key Food that was previously a Duane Reade in the southern part of the neighborhood. At about 10,000 square feet, this is the far smaller location, and it's also slightly older, having opened in 2014.
The store has a parking lot in the back, and it's kind of oriented to face the side wall. So I'm gonna call that the front wall, because it's where the registers are. Produce and deli/bakery are in the first aisle, which is on this side by the parking lot, and meat lines the back wall of the store. Dairy and frozen are up front by Cross Bay Boulevard, and beer is in the front-left corner. As is fairly common in these smaller city supermarkets, the produce department continues out into a heated and air-conditioned expansion along the sidewalk in the back...
My original 2018 pictures weren't bad, but I've updated with newer and much better pictures from September 2026. What a difference a couple generations of cell phone cameras can make!
The store is somewhat cramped as it fits what's basically a full-service supermarket into a drugstore space. The deli-bakery area even has a dedicated cheese counter and a service bakery department, and it looks like they do bake certain items in-store. While this supermarket hasn't gotten a renovation in the now 12 years it's been in business, it still looks great. Clearly, it's been kept up very well.
The deli is a big deal here, and it even sells prepared foods from Russo's on the Bay, a landmark catering hall just across the street.
The meat department, on the back wall of the store, is under a lower ceiling than the rest of the store as there's a second floor. You can see they scale down the aisle markers to accommodate that.
Dairy and frozen here in the last aisle, and you can see just how pristine the owners here have kept the whole store. Hardly an item out of place in those dairy cases! Or, heck, the grocery aisles.
Beer and more dairy in the front-left corner, with the front-end extending beyond that.
Now, I'll end this post with what I wrote back in 2020 about what was coming up next: And that wraps up Howard Beach! We have two stores right over the border into Brooklyn, in the East New York section, before we move on. And aside from one lonely store way up north in Ridgewood, this is the last of my Queens stores! I'm adding the Ridgewood one to the group in Bushwick, which is the Brooklyn neighborhood immediately next to Ridgewood, Queens. Get ready for a lot of Brooklyn!
This post was rewritten on September 13, 2026 with new photos.
That's a switch!
ReplyDeleteWe've had (and have) former supermarkets that have become drug stores (one current one was a Finast years ago, then an independent market into the 1990's before becoming Fays, Eckerd, Rite Aid and now Walgreens through various mergers/buyouts), but now seeing the opposite here with a drug store becoming a supermarket.
For sure -- that's the opposite of what usually happens! But I think in New York City, the 15,000ish-square-foot pharmacy locations make for great supermarkets. The Key Food in Maspeth (https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/01/tour-key-food-supermarkets-maspeth-ny.html) is another example that's coming to me right now, plus I have another former Walgreens turned Market Fresh on Staten Island coming up.
DeleteMakes sense, given that many supermarkets (as we've seen in your postings) are in that smaller size category anyway and with the difficulty of finding any large empty spaces in these more city areas the markets will take whatever is available.
ReplyDeleteNot quite so much with supermarkets, but you find the same thing in the state of VT - they have rules that require reuse of existing buildings when it is possible, which have led to (just in one town) a Home Depot that fills both a former supermarket and a former discount store - basically twice as wide and half as deep as a regular store, and a Walmart that began as a 55,000 sq. ft. store in a former 5&10 building - neither of which those chains would have normally done had the option for a more "standard" store been available.
Precisely, space is at a premium in most parts of New York City so if there's a space that size that opens up, it'll be filled quickly.
DeleteVery interesting about VT -- I haven't heard about that previously, but it makes sense!