Walgreens Officials Say They're Open to Sharing Space with a Grocer

Officials for the Walgreens store that will replace the Windsor Terrace Key Foods – the last true grocery store in the neighorhood – says that they plan to dedicate a “significant” amount of space to fresh produce and meat, says the Brooklyn Paper.

Walgreens says they hope to partner with a grocer to sell “fresh fruit, vegetables, and frozen meat” as well as a dairy and deli meat section.

“All options are on the table,” Walgreens spokesman Robert Elfinger told the paper.

At this time, the company had no specifics about how much square footage the store will dedicate to fresh food.

Walgreens’ new promises are surely an effort to boost its reputation in Windsor Terrace, where neighbors haven’t taken kindly to the chain store’s plans to move in.

, who believed that a Walgreens would not be a comparable substitute for Key Foods, and that it would provide unfair competition to two locally owned pharmacies.

In August, protested outside of the store and circulated a petition.

A Patch poll earlier this summer found that and hoped that the lack of business would drive the chain out. Twenty-two percent said that as long as they have a decent selection of groceries, they would stop in, and 10 percent were resigned that the store may be their only option for food.

Windsor Terrace resident Ryan Lynch told the Brooklyn Paper that the area needed something more like “a full-service grocery store … not a glorified 7-Eleven” and hoped that the company would work more closely with the community.