72 544x376 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE A supermarket in Brooklyn is abruptly closing its doors after three decades in business.
The Key Food in Windsor Terrace on Prospect Avenue told its approximately 50 employees this week that they will be unemployed by June 16.
Workers who declined to give NBC 4 New York their names said the owner, who is in his 80s, decided to stop running the grocery store. The store will have to be cleared out completely by June 30.
Gloria Gray lives a few blocks away from the grocery store and has always walked to buy her groceries. She's not sure what she will do now that the store is closing.
"There aren't a lot of options," said Gray. "You gotta walk down the Slope or to Kensington. It's just not right, it's always been a supermarket."
The closest comparable supermarkets are about a mile away, and that will pose a huge inconvenience to those who do not have a car.
Store employees were told a Walgreens drug store will take the grocery store's place.
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"We have two drug stores on Ninth Avenue already," said Vanessa Kahn-Damon. "And now we're getting another one? We don't need it."
"I don't know what else you can get at a Walgreens besides nail polish," said Ginger Mazzella. "But things change, and like other neighborhoods, Windsor Terrace is also moving along."
Elijah Sivin, who lives down the street from the grocery store, said: "This whole area is underserved with food, there's like one good restaurant around here and without this there won't be any supermarket."
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said in a statement that "it’s extremely difficult to compete with major drug store chains and banks that, one could argue, are over-populating neighborhoods that are under-populated with full service supermarkets."
Markowitz also said he will urge the drug store to carry some food items.
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