Update: Food Bazaar Supermarket - Hempstead, NY

Food Bazaar Supermarket

Opened: September 2024

Owner: Spencer An

Previous Tenants: Melmarkets Foodtown > Stop & Shop (2001-2024)

Cooperative: none

Location: 132 Fulton Ave, Hempstead, NY

Photographed: September 16, 2025

This weekend, The Market Report visits three Food Bazaars getting extensive remodels. The one here in Hempstead might just be the most extensive, as the former Stop & Shop is undergoing major work after Food Bazaar acquired the store last fall. A similar remodel is just beginning at their Cropsey Avenue location, also a former Stop & Shop. See my previous coverage of Hempstead here.

The remodel here has progressed significantly since my July visit, and although it's not far from being done there's still more work ongoing.

The biggest changes in the store are here in the grand aisle, which has been expanded and is still getting some ongoing work. In the front-left corner, the floral department is being shifted over slightly to accommodate a new juice bar. It looks like the former prepared foods department is being split between the bakery and the deli, to make way for a much larger seafood department in what used to be the deli.

Gone is the all-gray Stop & Shop interior, replaced by lots of wood. Food Bazaar has taken out the first five or so aisles to expand the produce department in the front half and to build a new meat department in the back half.

Food Bazaar also removed Stop & Shop's lower drop ceiling over the grand aisle.

Here's a look at the area in the front corner, which per the signage here will become a juice bar and the relocated floral department (it seems that it'll be smaller than it was).

The new ceiling is much higher than the original one, and the fact that Food Bazaar hasn't yet removed the Stop & Shop department signage lets us have a good comparison in the general appearance of the grand aisle. It's quite different. Here's how Stop & Shop looked in roughly the same area.

This new grand aisle is starting to look a lot like a new Food Bazaar.

Here's the bump-out for the expanded produce department on the right side of the grand aisle. This area was previously the first few grocery aisles, which Food Bazaar compensated for by reopening the area on the right side of the store that Stop & Shop had closed. You can orient yourself in this picture because the column visible on the left side of the below picture is the same column visible on the right side of this picture. But in the below picture, I'm standing with my back to the deli so that the front wall is to my right and the back wall is to my left.

It definitely seems that Food Bazaar has expanded the produce selection very significantly using this larger space. There's more refrigeration, which means there's a lot more vegetables here...

Also added to the produce department is this Livfarm hydroponic lettuce, which is actually grown inside the Linden Boulevard Food Bazaar in their hydroponic garden (and is now available for sale at all the Food Bazaar locations).

Now back to the left side of the store. This is the only thing that confuses me. Food Bazaar has removed Stop & Shop's cheese island, which used to be here. And there's a new cheese island ready to go in, currently in parts just behind this service counter. But if this is intended to stay here, which it seems it is, what might this service counter be? My only idea would be that they might move prepared foods out to the island and have prepared foods at the front and cheese at the back, which would be logical, since the deli is moving into the space that's currently occupied by prepared foods. You can see below that seafood will move into where deli is now.

And you can see the new seafood counter waiting to go in below! New freezers at the back.

The Stop & Shop seafood counter is much smaller than what Food Bazaar typically has in its stores, and it looks like that might become part of the meat department.

Speaking of, the meat department is up next on the back wall.

And meat has been moved off of the back wall into this area behind the produce department.

Frozen meats are still on the back wall (for now?) but the rest of the former meat department has been removed, and there's nothing in that space for now.

About halfway across the back wall is the beginning of the dairy department, which now lines the rest of the back wall and continues down the outside of the last aisle. Below, you can see the break in the hanging light, which is where Stop & Shop built the dividing wall to close the last several aisles.

No change to the frozen foods cases, and it looks like they're not that old so they may not be replaced.

This was the last aisle when Stop & Shop closed.

Now, this is the new last aisle as Food Bazaar has brought the store back out to the original size of Stop & Shop.

And the former bakery department in the front-right corner is getting lots of work that, as I predicted last time, seems to be in preparation for a food court. There are maybe six or eight small booths or stalls, and it really seems to make sense that it would be used for vendors in a food court setup.

There's some other fixtures here, too, that appear to be for prepared foods and will probably eventually be installed over back by the deli department.

Hot food bar, anyone?

(I suppose it could also be a salad bar or an olive bar.)

And it sure looks like this currently-empty corner of the front end is being prepared as a seating area, but I don't know that for sure. You can see there's another few booths being added on the front wall.

I'm glad to see this is shaping up to be a major remodel, and I'm excited to see how it turns out. I do wonder if the New Jersey stores are next, because Piscataway still has Edwards decor inside (and about three shoppers a week). In the meantime, see this weekend's other posts here!

Saturday

• ShopRite prepares a new store in North Jersey while finishing up a remodel at another North Jersey store
• Stop & Shop remodels a North Jersey store

Sunday

• Fine Fare's latest Manhattan location opens
• Food Bazaar remodels Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island (this post) locations