Concern over possible Flushing supermarket closure

From the Times Ledger:

Hundreds of Flushing residents and their leaders are gearing up to fight the rumored closing of the Key Food supermarket at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Bowne Street.

The only full-service grocery store of its kind in the immediate neighborhood serves a need which many residents cannot find elsewhere, said Mary Boroz, who has lived across from the current site of the store for 35 years.

“It’s going to make it very difficult for me and other people in the neighborhood because we don’t have another market like that near here,” said Boroz, who visits the store almost daily. “There’s a very small market about four blocks away.”

A spokesman for the company said he could not comment on whether the store would be shuttered, but did offer one comment.

“There’s no deal to close the store,” he said, without further explanation.

Key Food shoppers have heard rumors the shop will close at the end of the month and said the store has stopped receiving deliveries.

Even whispers that the grocery may be closing have the ability to ignite passion among Flushing residents, and on Saturday hundreds of people gathered in front of the shop in order to decry the possible shuttering.

More than 1,300 people, including City Councilman Peter Koo (R-Flushing), state Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) and state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone) signed a petition in support of keeping the store open.