Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Key Food returned to a 24/7 schedule last October after shortened hours during the pandemic.
Ownership — the Mandell family operates this location as well as the Key Food outposts in Park Slope and Astoria, part of the Key Food Stores Co-Operative — invited me into the grocery during the overnight hours... and even provided an all-access tour of the space.
Aside from knowing EVG's affinity for the grocery (for better or worse!), the store on Avenue A and Fourth Street is trying to encourage people to shop between midnight and 6 a.m. and has a promo through July 27 — $5 off a purchase of $50 or more.
While I didn't receive a laminated all-access badge, I did have a tour guide in Dwyane "Petie" Reddy, who has worked for Key Food since 1987 — starting at the Queens store, and here for the past seven years ...
Also on duty this night — store manager Richie Gaitan, who has also been with Key Food since 1987...
...and away we went ... here are some behind-the-scenes scenes ... away from what shoppers might see... the place is a lot bigger than you might think at first glance rounding aisle 1...
A few things I learned... the ready-to-eat salads and prepared meals you see when you enter Key are made in-house. (The sushi is delivered each day from an outside vendor.) The meat department is staffed daily as well...
Key Food management also showed off a new employees-only T-shirt design (and I pitched them on making merch for the store because we'd buy this)...
And some Key trivia — these 24-packs of Poland Spring water are the store's top-selling product. (I'm told this is a loss-leader item)...
Richie's (iconic?) yellow sale signs and other various notices that are everywhere are designed and printed in-house...
And there's a reason for the seemingly never-ending supply of Keebler Export Sodas canisters and those 18-pound bags of wild bird food by the exit — they are big sellers...
We also cracked the mystery of the store music, often heavy on the semi-forgotten and/or guilty pleasure hits from the mid-to-late 1980s (from Level 42 to Glass Tiger to Mike + the Mechanics).
However, my editor is making me save this scoop for another post so he can list all the random songs he's heard while shopping at Key.
Speaking of shopping, the overnight hours proved to be a good time to knock this errand off your to-do list ... if it fits into your schedule. 
32 comments:
Thank you so much for this exclusive EV Key Food long-read! I've been curious about what goes on behind the scenes, so thanks to Ms Joy for her deep dive into the inner sanctum of the store.
BTW - I hope the next installment reveals the ancient mysteries of the dead vampires...
Like visiting the Paris sewers, the EV could offer up midnight tours of the Key Food basement. I'd go and buy a commemorative shirt.
what can I say, Grieve et al, you're the best. This photo essay today is tops!
My wife and I have this thing where she wants to go to Union and I to Key. Actually I don't care for Key but have now got a detente going with them.
Union is actually slim on choice/variety, compared to Key.
No matter, we find the prices to be nearly the same.
Key is not so cheap and Union is not so expensive. No matter, whenever we shop, we will have to go to both or one or the other, to get items one store has but not the other.
I wrote all this because I think many locals have the same issue so I'm "sharing"
But who does the Playlist? Only supermarket where I've sung along to iggys version of China girl
What a nice story. The photos are wonderful, and the portrait of Dwayne at the top is fabulous!He's got great style.
I look forward to hearing the story of the music. It's from the time I first started shopping there, when all of that music was new.It always makes me smile.
Stephen b: Same hear, except I add Whole Foods to the rotation. Funny, Union and Whole Foods used to be so much more expensive than Key Foods. Now, inexplicably, Key foods is more expensive for certain things.
Thanks Stacie for the never ending love for Key Food! Very cool pics of the inner workings of the store and all access pass insight !
What a cliffhanger!
80's hits at supermarkets is a thing, I think. I love the soundtrack at Morton Williams too.
THIS IS GENUINELY FASCINATING!
Thanks, Stacie, for doing the "night shift" to bring us this photo essay. That is one heck of a complex & enormous operation they've got going there.
This is part of why I love NYC, b/c you never know what's "behind the scenes" (and that you take for granted) - until someone with privileged access shows it to you!
Thank you, Stacie & Key Food!
And PS: Yes to the t-shirts!
Shop Fair. Make the trek to C
I'm dying for the reason behind the "no coke or pepsi beyond this point" sign!
If there was ever a perfect Friday story before this one I don't want to know about it.
Sell the t-shirts to the public!!!
It’s kinda sad that todays generation, with all we know, in this day and age, would buy those plastic bottles of water. I mean really, why are we all walking around with these canvas tote bags!
Also need to know the Coke/Pepsi blockade point history.
this is great! great! the return of New York as a 24hr city is slowly coming back this is super great news Night Owls Untie! the peep behind the curtain is cherry on top EVG needs a streaming show stat!
Love this!!!
Ps. Love key Food!!! Love this store!!! You find a friend in the checkout counter or like Walt Whitman, as Alan Ginsberg wrote....is that you??? Walt Whitman????
HOT OFF THE PRESSES! BIG STORY BREAK GRIEVE 👏👏👏
Hey Steven- I’ve lived in the area for many, many years- fun fact, the management is happy to stock requested items. No need to schlepp all around.
Never experienced such a profound sense of belonging from an internet post as this, comments included
I go to Key Foods mostly to check out their pricing and for a little a/c on a hot summer day.
Air conditioning and the music!!! Great date nights!!!
Love this photo essay of our beloved Key Food! Thank you!
Someone should make a movie in there: it will be a very mysterious story. Strange things are happening, at odd hours, mainly in the back storage and basement. Someone WILL take Coke and Pepsi beyond this point! Something sinister is brewing. The basement actually goes deeper and deeper. Several floors down, like in the movie "Angel Heart." Every employee is terrified when the boss says 'go down to the basement, level minus 5." The basement's footprint occupies an area almost as big as the East Village, you can't even see the end of it. Strange events occur. Experiments are happening. People are disappearing... But there's also a sweet love story in there...
haha I could go on...
Thanks Stacy and KEY FOOD!
It all started with that weird shipment of craft porter from Arkham, Massachusetts.
special deal with dr pepper? 🤔
This is excellent, I’ve lived 100 yards away from it for 31 years. Dying to know the music secret, as more than once I’ve been in there singing along with a hit from the eighties!
@anon 8:09, ummm, there’s a writer’s strike on, you know...
Evel 42 and the dairy section -- perfect together.
For those wondering about the "No Coke/Pepsi beyond this point" sign. It is hanging from the ceiling at the end of the soda storage area and beginning of the refrigeration equipment area in which product should not be stored simply for housekeeping reasons.
Posted by someone who actually knows and instructed the store to put the sign there.
This has been my local grocery store for 15 years. Love the selection, music and staff. But lately, I've been seeing a lot of dogs in there. It's a little off-putting as they sniff and lick the vegetables/fruits. Isn't that supposed to be against health violations? When did it become ok for dogs to be inside restaurants and grocery stores? Do people follow any rules anymore?
@perfume junkie Yes I noticed the same thing post pandemic and even more so at Union. I recently said somethin to management and I am a dog lover and owner! I would never bring my dog into a grocery store, these people are so entitled. A bodega or a quick coffee in a simple coffee shop is one thing, but cmon get your dog out of the grocery store you entitled nut. And it gives a bad look to real service dogs (it's incredibly obvious when the dog is actually a service dog because of the behavior and management should know that).
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