The Market Report

Food Universe Marketplace Opened: 2023 Owner: Teofilo de Jesus Previous Tenants: Grand Union > Rite Aid Cooperative: Key Food Stores Location:  435 Lexington Ave, Clifton, NJ Photographed: September 12, 2026 Welcome back to the Clifton Food Universe! (Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see my previous update.) On that post back in June, I was wondering about the renovations here that left the layout kind of odd and the flooring all broken up. I am very pleased to report that remodeling has continued and the store is looking much better these days. In other words, this remodel ended up being much more extensive than I thought it would be. That's clear here in produce, with new display tables and refrigeration, but also a nice new floor that continues throughout the store. A juice bar, bakery, hot food bar, newly-expanded deli, and seafood line the left side wall with meat on the back wall, and dairy/frozen on the right side. Packaged baked goods are in the front-right...

SuperFresh Opened: May 2026 Owner: Hi Jong Lee Previous Tenants:  Food Fair (open by 1956) > Dan's Supreme (open by early 1970s) > Dan's Supreme Majors (ca. 1980s-1990) > Dan's Supreme Key Food (1990-2026) Cooperative: Key Food Stores Location:  214-14 73rd Ave, Queens, NY Photographed: September 11, 2026 You might recall that back in May, I did a very long post about what's going on in Oakland Gardens, Queens -- one Key Food is changing to SuperFresh, while the other Key Food became a Holiday Farms and then a SuperFresh and is now back to Key Food. Let's check in on that first one, which transitioned from Key Food to SuperFresh as Dan's Supreme Supermarkets (Grobman family) sold the store to Food World (Lee family) back last spring. The new SuperFresh owners appear to have finished their minor renovations here, which are more fix-ups than a major reinvention of the store. Decor didn't change, though some of the fixtures were replaced and the st...

LIDL Opened: August 26, 2026 Owner: Schwarz Group Previous Tenants:  none; Key Food (1970s-2021) previously on site Cooperative: none Location: 573 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY Photographed: September 4, 2026 LIDL continues to expand in and around New York City, but as the company continues to figure out its position in the US market, they've continued to tweak the format. The latest updates are on display here in Brooklyn, where a new-build LIDL replaced a longtime Key Food on the same property. This store is smaller than some of LIDL's suburban locations but actually on the large side for urban Williamsburg, at around 27,000 square feet. We're across the neighborhood from a new Lincoln Market , but just a couple blocks over from a small-format Whole Foods . Also, a CTown, a Bravo, two Foodtowns, a Brooklyn Harvest Market, and a Sunac Natural Market are all within a few blocks, so there are lots of other supermarkets -- but no other discounters in the immediate area. Insid...