In Bay Ridge, Walgreens might actually carry greens.
The chain drug store that is slated to replace a popular Key Food supermarket will sell produce and fresh meat, state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge) announced at a rally in front of the Third Avenue grocery on May 31 — but Walgreens officials aren’t making any promises.
Golden said that the pharmacy giant made the promise in discussions with his office and said that Walgreens officials will meet with a task force of Ridge residents to ensure that the new pharmacy will fulfill the community’s needs.
“They have agreed to put the supermarket here, they have agreed to put produce and meat at this location, and they have agreed to sit with the community,” Golden told a crowd of about 150 Ridgites in front of the 95th Street supermarket, which will close at the end of the month.
Walgreens officials say they are open to hearing suggestions from neighbors, but would not go as far as Golden suggested they would on produce and fresh meat — items that are not available at other Walgreens locations.
“We don’t want to promise what we can’t deliver,” said Walgreen’s spokeswoman Carol Hively. “Those aren’t guarantees we can make at this point. It would certainly be too soon.”
The closing of Key Food is a hot-button issue in Bay Ridge, where residents gathered more than 1,400 signatures on a petition to keep the grocery or replace it with another supermarket. Shoppers say they need a grocery at 95th Street because the next nearest grocery — the Foodtown on 91st Street and Third Avenue — is too far for the elderly and sick.
