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Antillana SuperFood Marketplace - Bronx, NY (Melrose)

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By Zachary
Antillana SuperFood Marketplace
Opening: TBA
Owner: Jose Grullon
Previous Tenants: A&P > Key Food (opened 1982) > AIM (closed 2008) > Pioneer (2008-2023) > Associated (2023-2025)
Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group
Location: 616 Melrose Ave, Bronx, NY
Photographed: December 12, 2025
In the Melrose section of the Bronx, Antillana SuperFood is preparing to open its latest location in a space that's been a supermarket for many decades but has gone through a couple brands recently. The roughly 7,000 square foot space (more if there's a basement, which there probably is) appears to have been built as an A&P, which lasted at least into the 70s. Key Food opened up here in 1982, but it's not clear when they closed. By 2007, it was an independent AIM (Association of Independent Merchants) supermarket supplied by Krasdale, and the following year it became a Pioneer. Pioneer was sold in 2023 to a different Associated Supermarket Group owner, and it became an Associated, closing in late 2025. Now, the store is in the process of being trasferred to yet another Associated Supermarket Group banner, Antillana SuperFood. It looks like Pioneer redid the space when they moved in, and now, Antillana is once again doing a big remodel of the building.

Associated Supermarkets
Open: 2023-2025
Owner: Abel Gomez
Previous Tenants: A&P > Key Food (opened 1982) > AIM (closed 2008) > Pioneer (2008-2023)
Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group
Location: 616 Melrose Ave, Bronx, NY
Photographed: March 14, 2024
Going back to the spring of 2024, the store had become an Associated a couple months prior. I don't believe Associated changed anything about the interior of the store when they came in, but they did paint the exterior and replace the sign. At the end of Pioneer's time in this space, I did a full tour...

Pioneer Supermarkets
Open: 2008-2023
Owner: unknown
Previous Tenants: A&P > Key Food (opened 1982) > AIM (closed 2008)
Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group
Location: 616 Melrose Ave, Bronx, NY
Photographed: September 12, 2023
While I don't know for certain who the Pioneer owner was, the "Super Pioneer" branding is what the Vargas family used on their stores, which have since left Pioneer and become SuperFresh (and other brands) with Key Food.
You enter on the right side of the store to the produce department in the first aisle, and service butcher in the back-right corner. Meats lined the back wall, with dairy and frozen on the left side. There was a service deli in the front-left corner. I don't know if Antillana will significantly change the layout, but catching a glimpse inside the store when I was there last month, it looked like the renovations were pretty substantial.
Some minor renovations began to happen at the end of Pioneer's time here, including new flooring in the first aisle and some construction around the butcher counter.
You can see some ongoing work here at the meat department when I visited in 2023, but I'm not totally sure exactly what was happening.
Packaged meats lined the back wall. It's easy to tell this is an old building that's been a supermarket for decades, so it'll be nice if the new Antillana is fully redone.
I don't know why the Pioneer owners sold to the Associated owners, although as is pretty common for members of a cooperative, other members of that cooperative get preference for acquiring stores. That's also likely why this store is now becoming an Antillana instead of, say, a Food World (which would be in a different cooperative). I do know that, shortly after this store became Associated, a for sale listing went up online for it. I don't know why Associated had such a short tenure.
The closest supermarket to this is a Bravo a block over and a block up, also a longtime supermarket that was a Safeway originally. A relatively new ALDI is a few blocks east, and a SuperFresh (formerly Fine Fare) is a couple blocks south.
Dairy and frozen in the last aisle. You can see the store was not falling apart, but it was definitely in need of some significant renovation at the end of its time. Here in the last aisle, you can see unpainted patch work in the ceiling and some mismatched patching in the floors.
A look across the front-end. I don't have a photo of it, but the deli is just behind me in the below picture. You can see some more ceiling issues here. Hopefully, the new owners will be able to get all that under control.
I'll be back once Antillana opens up! In the meantime, here's this weekend's other posts.
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