The Market Report

Key Food Supermarkets Opened:  2014 Owner:  Franklyn Almonte Previous Tenants: Duane Reade Cooperative: Key Food Stores Location: 163-30 Cross Bay Blvd, Queens, NY Photographed: September 11, 2026 Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in April 2020, but was rewritten with new photos in September 2026. Now for the post! The Almontes own two supermarkets in Howard Beach, a former Waldbaum's that's now a Food Emporium in the northern part of the neighborhood, and a Key Food that was previously a Duane Reade in the southern part of the neighborhood. At about 10,000 square feet, this is the far smaller location, and it's also slightly older, having opened in 2014. The store has a parking lot in the back, and it's kind of oriented to face the side wall. So I'm gonna call that the front wall, because it's where the registers are. Produce and deli/bakery are in the first aisle, which is on this side by the parking lot, and meat lines the back...

The Food Emporium Opened: 2019 Owner: Franklyn Almonte Previous Tenants: Waldbaum's > Key Food (2016-2019) Cooperative: Key Food Stores Location: 82-35 153rd Ave, Queens, NY Photographed: September 11, 2026 Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in April 2020, but was rewritten with new photos in September 2026. Now for the post! One of the most impressive reinventions of a supermarket I've seen is here in Howard Beach, where a dingy Waldbaum's was acquired by Franklyn Almonte, a Key Food operator, in 2015 (just a year after Almonte opened a store on the other end of Howard Beach ) and rebranded to Key Food. The 30,000 square foot store then underwent a lengthy renovation that completely transformed the building inside and out, finishing in 2019 with a rebrand to The Food Emporium. It's an upscale market, but still a full supermarket, and a great blend of straightforward offerings alongside specialty features. You enter on the left side t...

Original Tenant:  Foodtown Address:  133-40 79th St, Howard Beach, Queens, NY Opened:  2016 Closed:  2017 Later Tenants:  Shop Fair Supermarkets (same owners) - closed 2018 > Knickerbocker Furniture Photographed:  December 2018 The Shehadeh brothers owned several supermarkets across the boroughs of New York City, most of which ended up under the Shop Fair banner. We've toured their Bay Ridge location. Most of their stores have been closed or sold, though I believe there are two Shop Fair stores they still own in Flatbush. This store lasted only two years in the most generous of approximations, approximately one year as a Foodtown and approximately one year as a Shop Fair. This commercial (oddly in Spanish for an area with a relatively low Hispanic population, and with a very sketchy version of "Uptown Funk") provides a look inside the store when it was still briefly in business. Today, it's occupied by Knickerbocker Furniture, which...

Our next group of neighborhoods is just to the west of what we saw in southern Jamaica. We're heading into what might be considered central Ozone Park, then into Howard Beach, a relatively isolated mostly residential neighborhood of southwestern Queens, and finally right over the border into Brooklyn for East New York! Come back tomorrow for a Snapshot in Ozone Park.