The Market Report

One of the Bronx's newest supermarkets is also its largest. The 83,000 square foot Food Bazaar Supermarket at Bronx Terminal Market is a seriously amazing store. The former Toys R Us/Babies R Us was converted to a brand-new Food Bazaar which opened on January 9, 2020, with the official ribbon cutting a few weeks later. I visited on the first day in business and I was not disappointed in the slightest. You enter the store (which is on the fourth level) and turn left to produce, which lines the front wall and fills a huge room after that. You continue along the left-side wall of the store to seafood, then meat, with frozen and dairy at the far back of the store. Milk and deli/bakery line the right side wall in the back corner, with registers running along the right side wall in front of that. Grocery aisles run parallel to the front wall of the store, with a soon-to-open food hall (owned and managed by Food Bazaar) beyond the registers to the right side of the store. Foo...

Today's snapshot is a store two blocks east and one north of yesterday's Fine Fare . While it looks nice, it also looks more old-fashioned and more of a straightforward grocery store than the modernized Fine Fare. At about 6700 square feet, it's also much smaller. It's a longtime Pioneer supermarket that briefly became a Met Fresh around 2014 (about the time that Fine Fare expanded and renovated), but by 2016 was back to Pioneer. I'd like to come back sometime and tour the interior of this store. It's located at 1150 Woodycrest Ave. Photographed March 2019

Today we're touring a supermarket in the ever-gentrifying neighborhood of Highbridge, located at Ogden Avenue and 166th St ( yesterday's Bravo was at Ogden and 170). The 12,000 square foot supermarket was previously an Associated and I'm assuming an A&P originally, given the peak at the storefront's center. In 2014, owner Jonathan Diaz expanded, renovated, and rebranded to Fine Fare. I believe this is Diaz's only store. There are two sets of entrances and exits, one here to the parking lot and another at the other end of the store to the sidewalk. The latter is the main entrance, leading into the grand aisle, while this entrance leads to dairy. Let's head into the main entrance to tour this beautifully renovated store. If I remember correctly, there's a hot food bar and seating area at the front of the store. Produce lines the right side of the first aisle, with deli and bakery in an island to the left. Service seafood is at the back of the...

This 6000 square foot store kicks off our South Bronx group, in the quickly-gentrifying neighborhood of Highbridge. (Yes, there is an actual High Bridge connecting the Bronx and Manhattan. After being closed for more than 45 years, the bridge is now open to pedestrians and bicyclists.) This location operated until about 2013 as the Value Plus Supermarket, affiliated with Krasdale's AIM (Association of Independent Merchants) division. Today, it runs as a Bravo. It's located at 156 E 170th St; there is another Bravo at 210 E 170th St in Mount Eden. Photographed March 2019

We have completed our Manhattan coverage and are now moving on to the southern part of the Bronx! We're going to start near where INT-95 enters the Bronx (Cross Bronx Expressway), and circle south through Highbridge and Melrose, before turning east along Westchester Avenue through Longwood. We'll cross the Bronx River before heading through Soundview and Castle Hill, then crossing the Westchester Creek into Throggs Neck. Stay tuned!

Finishing up our coverage of Harlem and Washington Heights with Nishay B.'s picture of this store a little bit south of INT-95, which coincidentally is the store that Krasdale uses to represent all Bravos on Google Maps . The 5300 square foot store is rumored to be replaced by a multiuse development by the Castellana group, owners of Western Beef , and is set to have a Western Beef on the ground floor. I haven't heard any more about the project and the "coming soon" page on the Western Beef website that included that and a few other locations has been entirely removed, so I don't know whether that is still in the works. It's located at 4138 Broadway. Photographed February 2020

Today we're returning to Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd for a quick look at an Associated Fresh Market just about 20 blocks north of the Shop Fair . This store was previously a regular ol' Associated Supermarket but a 2017 renovation coincided with the rebranding. Please pardon the salt on the window. It was in the middle of winter. This store is located at 2444 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd. Photographed January 2020