On Sunday, The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Inc., the parent of A&P, Waldbaums, and Pathmark supermarkets filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to many sources, including Supermarket News.com, the company has immediate plans to sell 120 of its 296 stores and close within months 25 others towards the goal of a complete liquidation.

The Crossroads Waldbaums at Horace Harding Expressway and Francis Lewis Boulevard will be one of the stores being sold (to Key Food Stores Co-operative, Inc.) and will remain open as a supermarket. This means new life to the barrel vaulted structure, designed by Victor Gruen and built for the Penn Fruit Company. Gruen’s Penn Fruit stores are considered significant by “recent-past” historic preservationists and the Crossroads store is one of the few remaining and relatively unaltered examples. Hopefully, the new store operators will be mindful of that history when they take over the store.