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Associated Fresh - Bronx, NY (Mt Hope)

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By Zachary
Associated Fresh
Opened: July 2025
Owner: Alexandro Lopez
Previous Tenants: Fine Fare (planned, never opened) > Compare Foods Supermarket (2019-2024)
Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group
Location: 151 E Tremont Ave, Mt Hope, Bronx, NY
Photographed: November 8, 2023 and August 6, 2025
Welcome to the Bronx! Obviously, we've been here many times before, but today we're back to see a few new stores. I'm particularly excited about this tour because I visited this store first back in November of 2023, photographing it at the end of its time as a Compare Foods (which opened in 2019). It appears to have closed shortly after I visited, then changed ownership and reopened last month as a brand-new Associated Fresh. So I have a fun before-and-after of the place.
The store was originally slated to be a Fine Fare, and appears to have been constructed in early 2018 (in an existing building). Fine Fare never opened, though, and it wasn't until late 2019 that it opened up as a Compare Foods. Upon closing in 2024, the store appears to have been taken over by Alexandro Lopez. At the time, he was a Key Food member, having joined in 2020, and owned seven stores in three boroughs, plus White Plains. Within the last few weeks, Lopez appears to have left Key Food and re-joined the Associated Supermarket Group, which his stores were affiliated with before joining Key Food. Around the same time, he opened stores here and in Washington Heights. Here's a post from ASG about the stores, which are now under the Associated, Compare, and Food City brands (they were previously Food Dynasty, The Food Emporium, Food Universe, and Key Food). And here's my post from a couple weeks ago, when I wasn't entirely clear what was happening. As an aside: there's no public information on why this group of stores had left ASG to join Key Food, only to do the reverse a few years later. It's certainly unusual, but not unheard of. A lot -- dozens if not hundreds, I haven't counted to be sure -- of Key Food's approximately 450 stores were previously affiliated with ASG, but it's rare to see an operator going in the other direction.
Now let's focus on touring this brand-new store! It's only 6500 square feet, occupying an almost triangular building on a corner a block west of the major intersection of Tremont and Grand Concourse. The Compare Foods was only four years old when I visited, but it already felt dated and tired inside. The new Associated is a total change. It feels really like a new store, although not a whole lot changed.
It does look like they replaced the flooring and lighting, but the refrigeration and shelving remains. A coat of paint can go a long way!
As you can see, this store feels very much like a scaled-down version of the new Washington Heights location. The appearance is almost identical.
A service meat counter (which wasn't really in use when I visited in 2023) was removed to make way for more packaged meat shelving in the conversion from Compare to Associated, which are both brands of the Associated Supermarket Group.
So you can see here that the basic layout is the same, but there were some significant changes before reopening.
Because of the roughly triangular shape, the aisles get progressively shorter, so the first aisle is the longest, containing produce and about half of the meat department. The rest is on the back wall, with dairy and frozen in the last aisle on the right side. Deli is in the front-right corner.
As you can see, the Compare Foods wasn't in bad shape when I was here, it just needed a little fixing up and to be better stocked. As you can clearly see, the new Associated is pristine and appears to be taken care of well.
Here you can get a sense of the angled wall leading to the unusual setup.
The change isn't dramatic but the store looks fresh and new. It's also notable that there's such a push from ASG on new stores, as ASG is clearly in a comfortable position these days after some time of difficulty. This weekend alone, we're checking out three new ASG stores in the city.
ASG's new stores also seem to be really well-run, signaling that they're ready to take on larger rivals like Key Food, which has rapidly grown and is now much larger than ASG.
You can see some obvious problems with empty shelves in the "before" pictures of the Compare Foods, which have naturally all been stocked nicely. This single location is a good microcosm of ASG's operations over the last several years. They opened a lot of stores like this Compare Foods that were fine but unremarkable, but didn't last more than a couple years. Now, they seem sturdier and more prepared to run better stores for longer times.
If this owner's other stores are any indication, the shelves will stay just as nice well after the opening.
The deli is in the front corner next to the registers, although it appears to have been rotated so that now it faces towards the registers instead of into the store.
There's something much more professional about the beige walls and black accents as compared to the original all-white with big, bold red letters for the departments. Notably, there's no longer any department signage here, but you really don't need it in a store this small. It's not difficult to navigate.
A look across the front-end before and after the ownership change, and you can see it's now a bit more modern and open. I'm glad to see some really good investment being made in these ASG stores, and their new openings are quite good as well. More on that in this weekend's other posts!
Speaking of, don't miss all the news from this weekend...

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