The Market Report

Well well well, if it isn't time for everyone's favorite feature of any store group, the Streetside Sights & Scenes. Okay, I really do it only because I like it. If you're not interested, come back Sunday for our first Staten Island store tour. For reference, I'm putting these in the order that I took them (because my day's circuit was a little different from the order I posted it in). Here's a shot from my crossing of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn. A beautiful spring day to visit grocery stores (and walk many miles)! As always, I was not driving at the time of the picture. I was able to get some free street parking for the whole day, without needing to move the car, in a beautiful residential strip in Prospect Park South right near the Cortelyou Market . This cat was having a relaxing morning on a porch near where I parked, but was not in the slightest interested in saying good morning to me. Clearly, I love Brooklyn c...

Our second CTown on Nostrand Avenue, this northern location is the older of the two. (See here for a tour of the newer.) At 3600 square feet, this location is even smaller than the other by 200 square feet. Owner Samer Abdel Hamid opened this store in 1999 (though it may have been a different supermarket previously). Ownership changed in 2016, approximately when the new store was being opened, to Amina Abdel Hamid, who I'd speculated is Samer's sister. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I like CTown a lot and I always find their stores (with very few exceptions) very welcoming, attractive, and affordable. They've done a lot to shed the image of being old, dirty, and expensive that they solidly had maybe 15 years ago. As we can see, this store is much older-looking than the other, but no less clean and well-stocked. Produce lines the front half of the first aisle, with frozen at the back half. Meat lines the back wall with poultry extending in...

Like our last Shop Fair , this one is a former Associated-turned-Key Food owned by Walid Shehahdeh, but at 9200 square feet, it's almost double the size of the 4121 Church store. The layout here is kind of similar, with produce and then dairy in the first aisle. Here, however, deli/bakery is at the end of the first aisle, with meats on the back wall and frozen in the last aisle. Where 4121 has deli, 2720 (this one) has customer service. The blue ceiling is similar to the Ideal on Brooklyn Ave . I'd also point out that there's a fair amount of actual decor in this store, with curving walls, light features, and prominent lettering. A lot of urban stores have very little decor. Interesting cardboard aisle marker fix there. The dairy cases and grocery shelving are very new. I spy with my little eye a Key Food logo left behind from the 2014-2017 time that this operated as a Key Food. This store, by the way, has been owned by Shehahdeh since 1984. Meats on...

This store is another Met Foodmarket-turned-NSA Supermarket-turned-Ideal Food Basket (with the changes happening in 2005 and 2012, respectively, with the store opening in 1996). Like our last Ideal , this store is owned by Andres Ferreira and has recently had renovations to fixtures and flooring, but not decor. Unlike the 4806 Church location, though, this one received a much-needed exterior renovation. See what it previously looked like here . This 20,000 square foot supermarket is one of the larger ones in East Flatbush, and was a longtime Met Foodmarket that has been expanded. I have to say, the exterior renovation is looking fantastic. The inside also looks very good, although it's clearly on the older side... Like the 4806 Church location, this store has a deli immediately inside the entrance. However, unlike 4806, the deli here is on the front wall between the entrance and exit, not the side wall outside the entrance. You can see the contrast between the new...