Regarding grocery store aisles, I assume you're talking about the ones that are in the supermarket genre (as opposed to what I tend to call a "deli"). Narrow-aisle grocery store aisles I associate with Manhattan, though perhaps you encountered them elsewhere. I recall finding them annoying. It's been a long time since I was in a supermarket in Brooklyn or Queens but the ones I remember from living there (i.e. till I was approximately 15 in Brooklyn, 24 in Queens) were more like their spacious suburban siblings, though no doubt smaller. I am not even sure supermarket-genre grocery stores were common in Manhattan before the 1990s (Manhattan underwent a kind of suburban transformation corresponding approximately to the Giuliani administration).
I experienced this in downtown brooklyn a lot
Yeah, there's really no room in Downtown Brooklyn for the sort of supermarket-genre grocery stores that I remember from (central & southern) Brooklyn (Kings County) and Queens.
I said in my earlier comment that I wasn't sure if there were such grocery stores in Manhattan at all before the 1990s, but I'm pretty sure at least D'agostino's was well-established by the 1980s if not earlier.
Some ancient supermarket chains I remember from my childhood in Brooklyn were Met Food (IIRC), A&P, Key Food, and Bohack's, in addition to the more successful Waldbaum's. In Queens I remember Grand Union (now dead) as well as Waldbaum's.
I said in my earlier comment that I wasn't sure if there were such grocery stores in Manhattan at all before the 1990s, but I'm pretty sure at least D'agostino's was well-established by the 1980s if not earlier.
Some ancient supermarket chains I remember from my childhood in Brooklyn were Met Food (IIRC), A&P, Key Food, and Bohack's, in addition to the more successful Waldbaum's. In Queens I remember Grand Union (now dead) as well as Waldbaum's.