The Market Report

CTown Supermarkets Opened: 1994 Owner: Manuel Diaz Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  Krasdale Location: 1040 Sherman Ave, Bronx, NY Photographed: October 31, 2023 Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in July 2020, but was rewritten with new photos in July 2026. Now for the post! CTown is the second most common supermarket brand in New York City, beat out in the five boroughs only by Key Food, and the Bronx alone has about two dozen locations. Here's one of roughly 10,000 square feet in the Concourse Village section of the borough. The exterior isn't particularly distinctive, but the inside has a seriously old-school look. Produce and deli are in the first aisle on the right side. Meats line the back wall with dairy and frozen on the left side. This CTown opened in 1994, and I'm not sure whether it was previously a different supermarket. The turquoise and pink is certainly a memorable color scheme, and in line with what CTown was doing in...

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