By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BAY RIDGE — A former supermarket clerk who is now a state legislator is staging a rally to save Key Food from closing in June, seeing its impending demise as a sign of a supermarket “crisis.� State Senator Marty Golden announced the rally for this Saturday, May 31, at 11 a.m. outside the Key Food supermarket on Third Avenue at 95th Street.

“Bay Ridge needs supermarkets, not more drugstores,� Golden said in a public effort to keep a supermarket at the site where Key Food is closing in June. Key Food’s property owners plan to replace it with a Walgreen’s, one block south of Rite Aid. “The closing of the Key Food is just the most recent example of how supermarkets are leaving this neighborhood and being replaced by stores we do not have a great need for in this community.�

“I remember when Bay Ridge was home to a great number of supermarkets, including the A&P where I worked as a teenager,� Golden said, referring to the supermarket closed several years ago at Fourth Avenue and Senator Street, now an American Place clothing discount store. “Many residents have expressed their concerns about the absence of supermarkets in the recent past, and now, with Key Food closing, we are facing a crisis.�

Within the past two decades, Grand Union on Fifth Avenue at 94th Street, Kings Supermarket on 86th Street, and the A&P have closed, replaced by other stores. Surviving are Food City on Third Avenue and 75th Street, Associated Food on Third Avenue by 80th Street, the small Eco-Food on Third Avenue, Met Food on Fifth Avenue, and Third Avenue’s large Foodtown.

Foodtown on Third Avenue between 91st and 92nd streets, three blocks north of Key Food, has not only survived but is expanding its shopping space by 50 percent, with more food customers services and selections, pending city Department of Buildings approval.

Golden stated his deep concerns about what he called the supermarket “crisis.� “We must come together and show that this community is suffering, and that this problem is very real. It’s time we send a message to supermarket corporations that this neighborhood should not be forgotten.�

In Bay Ridge there are five Rite Aids and one Duane Reade, but no Walgreens, CVS, or Metro super retail chain drugstores. The closure of the former A&P set off a community storm of protest several years ago, but to no avail for supermarket advocates.

“As our community had grown, numerous supermarkets have closed,� Golden noted. “Purchasing of the most basic necessities has become a challenge to many people, including our seniors, who are forced to walk great distances to a supermarket. We need a supermarket in this community to replace the Key Food that will soon close, and not a Walgreen’s Pharmacy.�

Declining Throughout the City “Save Key Food� petition campaign leaders, storeowners, and other elected and civic leaders are invited to join Golden at Saturday’s rally. Supermarkets are declining in numbers throughout the city, according to a recent report for the city.

A longtime Key Food shopper, Joan Ierardi, a Kings County assistant district attorney, has been among the vocal residents protesting the closing. “My mother, who passed away a few months ago, would be shocked. She used to go there frequently to get a few things,� she said. “We don’t need more banks and super-pharmacies. We need supermarkets.�

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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