The Market Report

Foodtown Opened: October 2023 Closing:  September 2024 Owner:  Rowhie & Ennis Said Previous Tenants:  Safeway > Finast > Rite Aid Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  32-14 31st St, Astoria, Queens, NY Photographed:  September 18, 2024 Welcome to the Foodtown of Astoria, a sadly very short-lived supermarket that sadly was open for less than a year. The building dates back to around the mid-1950s, when it was constructed as a Safeway; when they pulled out of the NYC area, it became a Finast by the middle of the following decade. While I'm not sure what was here after Finast, it did become a Rite Aid by the mid-00s or so, which closed in 2022. By October of the following year, a Foodtown operator had moved in, renovating the space and outfitting it as a supermarket. At roughly 12,000 square feet, it's not a particularly large building, but definitely big enough for a full-service Foodtown. But just under a year later, Foodtown has an...

Farm Country Supermarkets Owner: Jose Diaz Opened:  November 2022 Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Co-Operative Location:  37-15 31st Ave, Astoria, Queens, NY Photographed:  January 12, 2023 Today's third special report is not far from the first two in Long Island City (see here and here ). We're about 3/4 of a mile north in Astoria, Queens, for a store that was an Associated Supermarket since 1976. After closing in summer of 2022, it reopened in November as a Farm Country affiliated with Key Food. The Farm Country in East New York we toured a while back was sold shortly after I visited, around 2020, and changed its affiliation from Shop Fair to Key Food, and that store's owners have since opened two others -- this one and a former Waldbaum's-turned-Food Universe in Jackson Heights. The 13,000 square foot store was a very old supermarket , and Farm Country's owners clearly invested a lot of money to modernize the space and drastically increase selection, or at least...