Key Food

Granted it has a nice selection of greens and veggies. The store is cleaner and much better stocked than it was 20 years ago. It reminds me of some of the better upmarket European grocery stores in London or Paris. However, the cashier girls are rude and nasty, which makes for a bad customer experience.

This store keeps getting better and better. I wonder if they have a new manager. The Key Food on Montague Street has gotten so bad I have been going to this one a lot more. It seems cleaner than last year. Even the cashiers are nicer. This Atlantic store also has a well-​run flower shop and it’s close to Sahadi’s and a fabulous Vegetable Market.
I wonder why Key Food Corporate has not gotten nicer people to run the Montague store. The manager yells all the time and the cashiers are downright rude. It’s closer to me but it’s such an awful experience I try to avoid it.

This store smells like a neglected public park restroom. The kind with no mirror or soap. This Key Foods is also pricey and I’ve never been impressed with the people working there. After all, they do work in a place that smells like what subway station track juices must taste like.

This key foods isn’t the best. Its always dirty in here. I’m a little worried about how sanitary the food items may be. There was expired milk in the back shelf. I’ve only seen that once tho. Id rather just walk down to trader Joe’s.

I’ve been to a way «nicer» Key Food, but I’ve also been to a much worse one. The cashier was friendly as they even had some organic produce and vegan proteins. Good for what it is, which is your run of the mill affordable grocery store!

The Brooklyn one is a bit nicer than the LIC one. Neither’s great– bananas are often really bruised, selection’s not great on other things, aisles are narrow. But they have decent deli counters, and fresh bread brought in. And the prices are not bad.

This place proves the maxim that competition improves quality.
We used to avoid this Key Food like the plague, but Trader Joe’s didn’t have what we needed (which happens a lot) and a TJ employee suggested we try down the street at Key.
What a change! Many more varieties of vegan «cheese» than TJ and not hidden away somewhere. They have a full organic vegetable and dairy free section right at the front. Organic chicken. And, they have all the things we usually make a separate trip for: cleaning vinegar, etc. The aisles are narrow, but TJ’s are often impassible.
We’ve been going to Key more frequently and, frankly, it’s almost refreshing to have a less than «we’re so happy» Hawaiian experience now an then. Less programmed.
Oh, and when I left my wallet, they called me. Give it a try.

Really, if you’re aiming for the apex, the height, the truest to form possible and you’re searching for the worst grocery store ever imaginable, this is where is where to go. The selection of goods must have been chosen by someone ‘shrooming for 30 hours. No sugar, no chicken legs, no cumin, and no bread was available, but fully stocked on chicken feet, instant cajun rice mix and pork rinds. While choosing when to restock, careful attention was put to choosing the absolute busiest times, so that old and young might enjoy carton hopping, single file aisles which don’t fit a shopping basket and greasy, wet floors because last week a man sized container of lard spilled and no one has thought to clean that up. The only redeeming factor here is that the cashiers will wholeheartedly agree with you when you say this place should be condemned.

This is my neighborhood super market. I agree with many of the comments here. The store needs better upkeep as well. It always seems like it needs a good mopping. The «fresh packaged fruit» has been borderline going bad, so I avoid buying cut fruit here and their meat selection is a bit lacking.
Otherwise, the store does have a decent selection of organic products and most of the other products I purchase like Seventh Generation.

I’m done with this store. They sell expired food. After I got stuck with something last week that was so rotten it made me gag when I opened it, I started checking the dates. Tonight I forgot to check a and three different items have to go back.

I bought a bag of ice here and it was fairly painless. Oh, and some orange juice. Because that’s what they said they needed at the party I was late for.
The cashier was nice even when I used my credit card to buy those items.
The ice was cold, so I guess that’s good.

No really, what’s going on with KeyFood and their crappy customer service?
Look, I’m not some attention seeking customer who constantly needs to be bothered every minute. What I don’t appreciate is dealing with a rude cashier.
There is a certain male cashier at this store who is unbelievably rude. I think it’s worth noting that the female cashiers I’ve experienced have been very lovely. I mean extremely. This male cashier never says anything when I say «Thank you» with a smile. He constantly seems to be in a funk.
At first, I thought he was having a bad day. I ignored it. Then, I came back and he constantly has an attitude problem and ignores me when I’m at the register.
As I was leaving the store, I immediately noticed that he began having a joyous conversation with the woman behind me, so perhaps it was me? Maybe he doesn’t like black people (?), or girls with dreads, or girls…
I dunno, but I will be going back mainly because this store is close to me and has so many amazing options. Especially if you’re into Asian cuisine. They’re very good for that. I would just avoid that cashier if you don’t feel like experiencing a rude, cold shoulder. Next time I go I’ll make sure to only use the female cashiers since they seem to understand common decency.

In a pinch. That is the only reason to come here. I have lived across the street for 13 years and have been here too many times in the past; bad selection, bad service, so so prices.
Years ago, I gave Key Food up for the luxury life of shopping at Perlandra on Reimsen. That is a pricey organic place that I highly recommend if you can afford it and like healthy brands instead of Kraft. I now only come here when I am too lazy to walk 7 minutes or need something like beer. It is also open 1 hour later than Perlandra and Trader Joes.
It is hard to rate this place as it has had several different managements over the years. It has been improving with more organic products. But the neighborhood is full of people wanting organic so it seems odd they don’t cater even more to it. I also cannot get over the fact that they don’t seem to try to compete with Trader Joes. It is 1 block away and 100 times better and nicer (except for the line). The Key Food service is on par with Target. Yes, it is that bad. I was super surprised the other week when the cashier asked me how I was doing that day!
I don’t trust their dairy products. My girlfriend got some spoiled yogurt a few weeks ago and I think they are better under the latest management, and that could be a coincidence, But I will never forget a few years ago, when I brought home some packaged sliced cheese only to find it had expired over a month earlier and had a spot of mold. I went back to the store and complained and saw the whole row of that cheese was expired. Told the manager. Came back 2 days later and they were still selling it. Again, that was the old management, but I still don’t trust it.

I go to Key Food multiple times a week because it is close by. It is not the best grocery store every, but it gets the job done. The staff is not friendly and generally has no personality at all. The store is not always clean, but has been better of late. The prices are high on many things, but once again close by.

Not a fan of this location. It’s is small and does not have a lot of variety. I came here a few weeks ago for a few ingredients. Most of what I needed, they did not have so I ended up not getting anything.
I came back today. They had most of what I needed but no fresh bread. Grrrr…
On the positive side, it is very clean and organized. The fruit and veggies looked great (and the mango I bought was delicious) but there’s a small fruit/​veggie stand next door that might serve you better.

The cashiers here are nice, and I never have a long wait on the lines. They have fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, dairy and a frozen foods section. I like this place, yet the prices are steep (minus one star).

Ohh Key Food. Where to begin? This place is a standard grocery store, and despite its small size it has a decent selection of produce, cheese, and beer. I have been here countless times since I live two blocks away and can’t afford Trader Joe’s, but there are a few absurd experiences here that made me question coming back.
Like the time a cashier stared blankly at me when I asked where the yeast was, claiming she did not know what yeast was and did not think Key Food sold it. Or the time that the deli counter thought when I asked for ¹⁄₈ lb, that meant .8 lb… good times.
I guess I can accept poorly educated and full-​of-​attitude cashiers, and I guess I’ll just suck up my personal annoyances.
**Just a note – I cannot bring myself to buy the fish here, it always looks the wrong color or badly wrapped or just dangerous to eat.

Key Food, I don’t appreciate how you are blatantly trying to capitalize on my laziness. I’ll never buy your tiny box of sliced pineapple for $ 5, when an actual, whole pineapple (that would fill four tiny boxes) is only $ 3. That makes no sense.
And the fact that people actually purchase the box scares me for the future of our great nation. People! Buy a knife! It will save you so much money.
It’s galling to purchase the organic items here, too. How can you convince someone it’s worth buying the dozen organic eggs for $ 6, when it’s only $.99 for a generic dozen.
I’m glad I live closer to other, better market options.

A necessary evil. 2.5 stars
Not the cleanest store I’ve ever been inside of, but if I need a loaf of bread/​Minute Rice/​emergency cold cuts/​sodas/​cookies/​chips/​beer, I’m here because it’s a block away and the prices aren’t as high as my other choices.
The girls at the registers are nice, but don’t expect attentive service if you’ve just moved here– this is Brooklyn-​style where gossip, nails and breaks take precedence over customer service.
I have bought some pork products here in the past, but now I am aware of this:
so I will not be buying any more meats here.

3.5 stars…
This is another supermarket available to those living in the Cobble Hill/​Brooklyn Heights area. The other options being the Met, Union Market, Trader Joes, Fairway (which is a little drive down to Red Hook), and several bodegas. The location is fairly sizable and the prices are just as low as the Met or Fairway for the most part. If you’re looking for flowers they’ve got a large selection outside the store (the largest selection of flowers in the area). The place is rather cramped in most areas but on the plus side they’re always running sales and there’s almost never a line.
There’s a couple warnings however if you’re the kind of person who likes to take advantage of those weekly sales. At least half of the time they don’t ring up the sale prices and you have to catch it and remind them so it gets changed. Secondly their flyer has their address posted on the top of it and last time I was there, there was a sale I wanted to take advantage of and I was told that they don’t carry that product in THEIR flyer. Not that they were sold out but that they just don’t carry it. I asked the manager (who I would have mistaken for a bag boy) and he said «we don’t have to carry everything in the flyer». I wish to differ.