Shop Fair Supermarkets
When the previous Food Universe here closed, the space was gutted and fully renovated to reopen as a Shop Fair. As you can see from the picture above, the signage wasn't quite completed yet. As is the case in so many congested New York neighborhoods -- and especially common here in South Richmond Hill -- a lot of the produce department spills out onto the sidewalk to entice passers-by and to expand the selection. This store is also open 24 hours, so no need for a door, either. Just open up the whole front wall!
Here's something particularly interesting about this Shop Fair: It appears to be owned by June Hyung Kil. If that name doesn't mean anything to you, Kil isn't exactly a celebrity -- but certainly notable locally. June Hyung Kil owns around half a dozen other grocery stores here in South Richmond Hill alone, and remarkably, two more on this exact block: Liberty Fish World next door, which is primarily a seafood market but has some produce and groceries too, and Liberty Fruit & Produce three doors down beyond that (which is produce-centered but a pretty large grocer). Kil also owns Liberty Farm, K-Town, and two CTowns along Liberty Avenue, but didn't own the previous supermarket here.
As we step into the supermarket, produce is all up at the front continuing out onto the sidewalk, and there are a few short aisles at the front that contain international foods. The rest of produce and dairy are in the first aisle, with meat in the back-right corner and frozen on the left side of the back wall. Other refrigerated foods (such as salt fish) are in the last aisle on the left side, and the registers are in an unusual setup lined up along the left-side wall of the store.
The interior here isn't particularly special design-wise, but I have pictures of the previous tenant here at the end of this post, and you'll see there's a big difference.
Here's produce on the right side...
This appears to be Kil's only store not supplied by Krasdale. Shop Fair is supplied by General Trading.
It looks like all of the refrigeration is new, too, or at least extensively refurhished.
No service counters here. There's certainly no need for a seafood department with Fish World next door.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet: This part of South Richmond Hill is referred to as Little Guyana because of the large Guyanese population here. I can't say I knew much about Guyana (the country) until I started visiting the Guyanese markets here in Queens. As an aside, June Hyung Kil doesn't appear to be Guyanese, but Korean.
Frozen continues down the last aisle of the store...
The selection here definitely skews towards the international foods, as you can see by looking at this single case up towards the front near the registers.
And speaking of, here are the registers all alinged on the left-side wall of the store. Definitely an unusual setup, though one I've seen in other NYC supermarkets.
Now, I talked about the previous tenant here a few times. Let's take a look with these pictures from 2024, towards the end of Food Universe's time in business.
The oldest record I can find for this supermarket is an ad for a Met Foodmarket here in 1978, so we know Met was open by that year at the latest. And Met actually lasted all the way through 2014, when their supplier declared bankruptcy and the Met and Pioneer chains were rolled into the Associated Supermarket Group. Like many other stores, this one decided not to go to ASG and instead left to join Key Food under the name Food Universe. In other words, the ownership didn't change in the switch from Met to Food Universe.
And Food Universe was set up basically with the opposite layout of the new Shop Fair. Produce was on the left side, with meats on the back wall, and dairy/frozen on the right side. The interior was probably redone around the time Met switched to Food Universe, but hadn't been kept up well and was starting to look pretty rundown by 2024. A little under a year after I took these pictures, the store closed for good.
In recent years, when a Key Food store closes, it's almost always transferred to another Key Food operator. It's a little unusual that this one wasn't, but it also needed a lot of work. There's an old-school (but apparently successful) Key Food about eight blocks west of here.
It does seem like the Food Universe owners were winding down maintenance of the store. It wasn't in horrible shape, but it clearly had seen better days when I visited.
Cold cuts and dairy where Shop Fair now has its meat department...
And this last aisle is now Shop Fair's first aisle, with refrigerated produce and dairy...
Go back to the Shop Fair pictures, and you can see one with a pink price tag in the bottom-right corner for $3.99. In that photo, you'll spot two columns. Those two columns are also visible below, to give you a sense of how the layout has changed.
Opened: April 2026
Owner: June Hyung Kil
Previous Tenants: Met Foodmarkets (open by 1978, closed 2014) > Food Universe Marketplace (2014-2025)
Cooperative: Retail Grocers Group/General Trading
Location: 117-01 Liberty Ave, Queens, NY
Photographed: May 29, 2026
Time for another New York City grand opening! This one's small, just about 6300 square feet (there's also likely a basement), but it's continuously been operating as a supermarket since at least the late 1970s -- that is, until the previous tenant here closed in early 2025. More on that soon.
Food Universe Marketplace
Opened: 2014
Owner: Jack Kim
Previous Tenants: Met Foodmarkets (open by 1978, closed 2014)
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 117-01 Liberty Ave, Queens, NY
Photographed: February 5, 2024
It's good to see this aging store get a much-needed refresh, and I think this might be a world record for most grocery stores owned by the same person on a single block. I suppose it doesn't matter if people still shop at them! Here's a look at this weekend's other posts...
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