Trader Joe's
Opened: September 24, 2025
Welcome to the latest Trader Joe's in New York City! Over the last four years or so, I've been making an effort to visit every supermarket in every neighborhood of New York City. I believe the last time I'd posted about it, I was 80% done with the city. Now, I'm 100% done -- yes, that means I've been to every single supermarket in all five boroughs of New York City, over 1300 of them -- with a caveat. Supermarkets in New York City change so quickly (open, close, rebrand) that a metric like that isn't all that accurate. Still, now it's just a matter of going to visit new ones and check in on renovations and all that. I'm working on putting all my NYC content together into a fun project, but that's a big endeavor so it probably won't be for a long time. But back to this store: this is the very last store I visited in New York City, #1326 of 1326, if you will. It's a brand-new store, having just opened on September 24, and I visited two days later.
If the outside looks familiar, hardcore Market Report readers will remember that this is the former Waldbaum's/SuperFresh in Pleasant Plains, which I covered long, long ago. (That post is ancient history -- read at your own risk. Glad to say my photos are much better these days.)
The 42,000 square foot store was originally built in 1996 as an A&P, later converting to Waldbaum's around 2000. Waldbaum's closed in the final A&P bankruptcy of 2015, reopening the following year as a SuperFresh with almost no work done inside or outside. SuperFresh only lasted three years here, closing by the end of 2019. The space then sat vacant until Trader Joe's announced they were moving into the right side of the building, taking up only about half of the original supermarket building.
But Trader Joe's has worked its usual magic and the smaller-footprint store is busier now, I'm sure, than the SuperFresh ever was. This is the second Trader Joe's on Staten Island, joining an earlier location that opened about 15 years ago across from the Staten Island Mall.
Produce is on the left side, with dairy and meat on the back wall. Frozen foods are in the middle of the store, with baked goods and nonfoods in the last aisle on the right side.
It's a pretty typical Trader Joe's setup, and clearly the formula works because this place was packed when I visited -- as you can probably tell from pictures like the one below. Sure, some people were probably just checking out the new store, but Trader Joe's never seems to struggle with volume problems.
There's really no remnants of the former Waldbaum's/SuperFresh inside, though of course the outside hasn't changed at all.
This is a quiet, suburban neighborhood of Staten Island, and Trader Joe's is the only supermarket in the neighborhood (though there are others not far away).
Customer service in the front-right corner of the store. This side is where Waldbaum's grand aisle was.
And a look across the front-end...
Good to see a supermarket returning to the space after years of emptiness! And this one definitely seems to be what people were looking for. There's lots more to see this weekend, so check it all out here!
Owner: Aldi Nord
Previous Tenants: A&P (1996-ca. 2000) > Waldbaum's (ca. 2000-2015) > SuperFresh (2016-2019)
Cooperative: none
Location: 6400 Amboy Rd, Staten Island, NY
Photographed: September 26, 2025
Saturday
- Trader Joe's opens a new Staten Island store (this post)
- Gala Foods builds a store on Long Island
- The Market Report checks in with upcoming America's Food Basket, Food Universe, and SuperFresh stores in Brooklyn
Sunday
Congrats on the achievement!
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