NYC Area Cooperatives
Posted: April 17th, 2022, 5:45 pm
Starting a new thread based on a series of posts from another thread, about the NYC area grocery cooperatives. Key Food (Key Food, Food Universe, Food Dynasty, SuperFresh, The Food Emporium, and others), Krasdale (CTown, Bravo, and lots of smaller stores and bodegas), Associated Supermarket Group (Associated, Met, Pioneer, and Compare), Retail Grocers Group (Fine Fare and Shop Fair), America's Food Basket (Ideal Food Basket), and Allegiance Retail (Foodtown, Freshtown, Pathmark, Green Way, and a few independents).
At this point, it seems to me that long-standing frontrunner Krasdale Foods is increasingly being relegated to smaller stores and bodegas, Key Food is rapidly expanding but it remains to be seen for how long they can maintain their momentum, ASG has had a lot of trouble especially going through the White Rose bankruptcy but is bouncing back with new ownership and quite a few new stores, Allegiance has downsized Foodtown seriously over the years but the remaining stores are generally well-run and in very good shape, and Retail Grocers and AFB seem to just be going along as they have been for a long time.
Key Food, which recently relocated its headquarters to New Jersey from Staten Island, seems to be developing its NJ store base with locations on the way in Jersey City, Middlesex, and Old Bridge (edit: no idea why I wrote Jersey City, there's no coming soon Key Food in JC as far as I know). They also have around 50 stores in Florida, which are all relatively recent. They've taken on a lot from Bravo, along with other brands. Most recently, they've said they intend to double their Florida store base by 2025, as well as working on closing the gaps in the Mid-Atlantic. That's ambitious, but if they want to do so, the low-hanging fruit is converting Compare Foods in the Carolinas/VA/MD areas the same way they've been converting Bravos. There were once two Key Foods in NC (around 2005...?), but they did not last. They're also adding stores in CT, although they recently closed one in Waterbury.
ASG has been adding more higher-end stores as of late, such as Uncle Giuseppe's, Livoti's, and Lincoln Market. Their newer stores are excellent, but they still have the problem that the majority of their store base is very old, pre-White Rose bankruptcy legacy stores that have not gotten very many updates.
Allegiance members have put a lot of money into renovating their stores and opening new ones, so their store base is pretty up-to-date. Their problem remains their weakness in New Jersey. In New York City and the immediate surrounding areas, they seem to do well with some larger, more suburban-like stores. They've added a few independents, such as Shop n Bag in Farmingdale, NJ or Olive Tree Marketplace in Staten Island. But they're sitting on the rights to the Pathmark and FoodBasics name, with one Pathmark in Brooklyn and one FoodBasics out in PA that operated for only a few months before being sold. When you compare that to Key Food's enthusiastic (perhaps overly so) use of the SuperFresh and Food Emporium banners, it's not that impressive and it seems like a big missed opportunity. Pathmark, in my opinion, might be the key to Allegiance's re-strengthening in the New Jersey market, with the right execution, but they're missing out.
And as for Retail Grocers Group and America's Food Basket, not much is really happening. They periodically open, close, and rebrand stores, but they don't seem to be making any large changes. AFB does now have one store in Georgia and three in Florida, and has been opening a few stores in Massachusetts.
So what do we think? These six cooperatives account for almost 1000 stores on the east coast (though many of them are smaller-format urban stores in and around NYC), so they're pretty significant. What do we think is coming next for them? Are we going to see Carolina Key Foods again? Pathmark in New Jersey? What else?
At this point, it seems to me that long-standing frontrunner Krasdale Foods is increasingly being relegated to smaller stores and bodegas, Key Food is rapidly expanding but it remains to be seen for how long they can maintain their momentum, ASG has had a lot of trouble especially going through the White Rose bankruptcy but is bouncing back with new ownership and quite a few new stores, Allegiance has downsized Foodtown seriously over the years but the remaining stores are generally well-run and in very good shape, and Retail Grocers and AFB seem to just be going along as they have been for a long time.
Key Food, which recently relocated its headquarters to New Jersey from Staten Island, seems to be developing its NJ store base with locations on the way in Jersey City, Middlesex, and Old Bridge (edit: no idea why I wrote Jersey City, there's no coming soon Key Food in JC as far as I know). They also have around 50 stores in Florida, which are all relatively recent. They've taken on a lot from Bravo, along with other brands. Most recently, they've said they intend to double their Florida store base by 2025, as well as working on closing the gaps in the Mid-Atlantic. That's ambitious, but if they want to do so, the low-hanging fruit is converting Compare Foods in the Carolinas/VA/MD areas the same way they've been converting Bravos. There were once two Key Foods in NC (around 2005...?), but they did not last. They're also adding stores in CT, although they recently closed one in Waterbury.
ASG has been adding more higher-end stores as of late, such as Uncle Giuseppe's, Livoti's, and Lincoln Market. Their newer stores are excellent, but they still have the problem that the majority of their store base is very old, pre-White Rose bankruptcy legacy stores that have not gotten very many updates.
Allegiance members have put a lot of money into renovating their stores and opening new ones, so their store base is pretty up-to-date. Their problem remains their weakness in New Jersey. In New York City and the immediate surrounding areas, they seem to do well with some larger, more suburban-like stores. They've added a few independents, such as Shop n Bag in Farmingdale, NJ or Olive Tree Marketplace in Staten Island. But they're sitting on the rights to the Pathmark and FoodBasics name, with one Pathmark in Brooklyn and one FoodBasics out in PA that operated for only a few months before being sold. When you compare that to Key Food's enthusiastic (perhaps overly so) use of the SuperFresh and Food Emporium banners, it's not that impressive and it seems like a big missed opportunity. Pathmark, in my opinion, might be the key to Allegiance's re-strengthening in the New Jersey market, with the right execution, but they're missing out.
And as for Retail Grocers Group and America's Food Basket, not much is really happening. They periodically open, close, and rebrand stores, but they don't seem to be making any large changes. AFB does now have one store in Georgia and three in Florida, and has been opening a few stores in Massachusetts.
So what do we think? These six cooperatives account for almost 1000 stores on the east coast (though many of them are smaller-format urban stores in and around NYC), so they're pretty significant. What do we think is coming next for them? Are we going to see Carolina Key Foods again? Pathmark in New Jersey? What else?