The Market Report

We're heading west from Middle Village (see here and here ) to the neighborhood of Maspeth, which also has two supermarkets and also has one chain store and one single-location store. Once again, the same owners own the big name store (Key Food) as do the independent (Maspeth Marketplace). Danny Doleh owned a Key Food up the street about a block at 66-17 Grand Ave, when in 2017 the Duane Reade pharmacy at 66-56 Grand closed. Doleh took over that location, moving Key Food down the street to the larger and more modern facility. But he also held onto the older location, converting it to the Maspeth Marketplace (but remaining within the Key Food cooperative). We'll see Maspeth Marketplace next. I have a hunch that the building was built as a supermarket, though I haven't confirmed that. It was a pharmacy, so that means that when Doleh took over the lease, he also took over the pharmacy license. An independent pharmacy has set up shop inside the Key Food. You ent...

Just across the street from Village Barn is this Met Foods, also owned by Bill Fani. And that first picture isn't my own, I must admit. It's a historical photo posted on the front wall of Village Barn, but it's actually a picture of what's now Met Foods. Today, the store has had a nice brick facade put on it (the picture of Bohack was the side facing Eliot Ave, while this is the back facing Caldwell Ave). For a look at what the front looks like now, see here . Meanwhile, you can go not very far back on Google Maps and see what Met Foods would've looked like for many years before their renovation and expansion. Here's a look at Village Barn from Met's parking lot. Now we're going to tour the store starting with the front wall (facing Eliot Ave). But like with Village Barn, I have a rather fuzzy memory of the layout. So the entrance/exit hallway is not beautiful. The rest of the store looks better, if not quite as nice as Village Barn. ...

Our next stores in Queens, NY are in Middle Village and Maspeth neighborhoods! Now this group is going to be much shorter than the last (see coverage here and here ), partially because there are fewer neighborhoods we're cramming in here, but mostly because each of these neighborhoods only has two supermarkets. It's also interesting, though, that these two rather suburban, somewhat isolated neighborhoods' stores follow the same pattern. Both neighborhoods have a big-name store (Middle Village has a Met Foodmarket and Maspeth has a Key Food), and both neighborhoods have an independent store owned by the same person as the big-name store (MV's is called Village Barn Fresh Market owned by Bill Fani; the Maspeth Marketplace is owned by Danny Doleh). Anyway, we'll get more into these specific stores here and on The Independent Edition over the next few days, so check back soon!