Key Food

[Patty]

I noticed yesterday that Key Food on Court St. is closing. Anyone know what is going in there --anything good food related?

[Greg]

The word is CVS... Great... More Pharmacies...

[Chris E.]

That's odd. For many people that's the only supermarket within quite a few blocks, so it's hard to imagine it wasn't doing a decent business. That'll be a big inconvenience to a lot of people. On the other hand, it was a pretty lame market. The Met Food on Henry and DeGraw is a lot better.

[mag]

the reason key food is leaving??? money.
just take pity on the elderly folks who are now without a food store within a decent range.

[David B]

That was exactly my thought mag. I live half a block from the store and rarely go as I have a car and the store on 5th Avenue is so infinitely superior. But the elderly in the neighborhood, who most likely don't have cars or computers and therefore can't take advantage of Fresh Direct, and who will have no other nearby options are the ones who will really be punished by this move.

[Detroit-NYC Al]

So, why replace the only supermarket for several blocks, which seemed to be doing fine, with a redundant drugstore so that the area's elderly people will now have to walk so much further for groceries?

This is way off the subject of the board, and will probably eventually get deleted, but the main reason for the explosion of drugstores everywhere is those same elderly, and we ever-aging baby boomers. The drug companies, with the acquiesence or connivance of the health insurance industry, the federal government, and the big pharmacy chains (of which, let us NYers not forget, Walmart is the biggest) have run up drug prices to such outrageous levels that they are far far more profitable to sell than mere food. Add to that a store full of other high margin items (over the counter medicines, dubious supplements, cosmetics and grooming products) and you've got yourself a potential profit bonanza.

At the bottom of pretty much any mystery is $$$

[Mike R.]

And if the elderly can knowingly subsist off of five for a dollar cat food cans, they can surely do better waiting three weeks for a CVS 3/$1 mandarin orange or Hershey Bar sale to come along. No better.

You've hit the nail squarely on its head.

[jmj]

Funny (not-so funny) thing is that CVS did exactly the same thing in Woodstock a couple of years ago. They not replaced the ONLY supermarket in town, but created additional and unneeded competition for the local pharmacies. Woodstock being Woodstock, god bless 'em, rallied -- you can still see bumperstickers and lawn signs -- but the juggernaut could not be stopped. And up there, the only alternative supermarket is several miles away.

CVS has a pretty aggressive track record of corporate acquisitions and growth. Welcome to the future, folks.

[famdoc]

curbed.com has the best coverage of the various changes taking place in Cobble Hill. Suffice it to say those changes are profound. Call it the Union Squarization of Cobble Hill, but the CVS is just step one.

[fudluvr]

Do you mean the Key Food on Atlantic and Henry? Isn't there already a CVS on Court Street? Sheesh.