Associated Fresh
Opened: January 2026
The corner of Ryer Avenue and 187th Street in the Bronx has been a supermarket for decades. Although in the 1940s, it was a car dealership, by the 1980s, it had become a Met Foodmarket. (Thanks, NYC tax photos!) And that rather rundown Met in the 80s looks like it had probably been a supermarket for years before that. More recently, the roughly 13,000 square foot building was the Corona Food Plaza starting in 2005, then became a Pioneer before switching to Fine Fare and then quickly back to Pioneer. Today, it's anything but rundown as the grocery store has been acquired by Alexandro Lopez and freshly renovated. I visited the store back in 2018, and it was looking pretty good then. You can see my original post here, but you don't have to even bother -- I've included those original photos here so we can have a before and after.
I didn't visit this Pioneer after 2018, but it was in pretty nice shape back then. Still, we're going on 10 years out from that, and it was definitely time for a remodel.
And remodeled it has been! It's not a total reinvention of the space, but some new fixtures, new flooring, some new lighting, and new signage has really freshened the place up.
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The store is somewhat more spacious than it used to be, although I don't think anything has been taken out, it's just less cluttered.
In fact, I think the new owners have actually added an aisle by replacing this sale area behind produce with upright grocery shelving. You can see the produce department is now labeled as two aisles, when previously it was just one.
Produce is in the front half of the first aisle, with meats in the back half. Dairy runs along the back wall, with frozen foods and beer on the left side. Deli is in the front-left corner.
This store is similar in appearance to most of Lopez's other stores, such as this one (although this Fordham Heights location is smaller and less deluxe than that Washington Heights one).
One thing that hasn't changed is that the grocery aisles are very orderly. In fact, they're even more streamlined than before because some of the displays blocking the aisles have been removed.
Check out how well stocked and faced those spices are! Not an inch of space goes to waste in this store, that's for sure.
But as you can see in the pictures, the shelves were quite organized under Pioneer, too.
One area that got all-new fixtures is frozen, with brand new cases in the last aisle.
This front corner has baked goods (no in-store bakery) and beer.
You can see that the baked goods cases were replaced, too, and it looks like they might've raised the ceiling just a little bit over the deli area.
The fixtures haven't been changed, though.
And a look at the front-end...
...now with some new checkout lane markers and signage, but mostly the same, just a little freshened up.
Nice to see an old store like this getting some love, and given how well-maintained Lopez's other stores are, I have no doubt this one will be too. Check out the rest of this weekend's posts here!
Owner: Alexandro Lopez
Previous Tenants: Met Foodmarkets > Corona Food Plaza (2005-ca. 2010) > Pioneer (ca. 2010-ca. 2013) > Fine Fare (ca. 2013-ca. 2015) > Pioneer (ca. 2015-2025)
Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group
Location: 2400 Ryer Ave, Bronx, NY
Photographed: February 27, 2026
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