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Update: Food Bazaar Supermarkets

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By Zachary
Food Bazaar Supermarket
Opened: 1999
Owner: Spencer An
Previous Tenants: Waldbaum's (1991-mid 1990s)
Cooperative: none
Location: 238 E 161st St, Bronx, NY
Photographed: September 19, 2023 and March 20, 2026
My love of Food Bazaar is well-documented, so there aren't that many of the NYC-based chain's stores that I haven't posted yet. This location is one, though -- located at Concourse Plaza in the Bronx just blocks from Yankee Stadium, an approximately 60,000 square foot store. It was built as a Waldbaum's in 1991, but Waldbaum's didn't last long and closed within a few years. Food Bazaar opened in the late 1990s, according to public records it looks like it was specifically 1999.
I really don't know what the Waldbaum's was like, but it was still so new when Food Bazaar moved in there probably wasn't a whole lot to do. I don't know what the renovation history here was, but it's just gotten another renovation and held its grand reopening last month.
You enter in the front-right corner with produce and seafood on the right side of the store. There's also a section for meat and cold cuts in what's basically the first few grocery aisles, and a butcher counter on the back wall. Beer is on the back wall too, with deli-bakery in the back-left corner (no in-store bakery here). Frozen is roughly in the middle of the store, with dairy in the last aisle on the left side.
I'm not sure if the decor package that was here previously was what Food Bazaar opened with, but it's now been updated to the standard decor for the chain.
This renovation wasn't particularly extensive, although a lot of the refrigeration was replaced (though not all, as we'll see). Mostly it involved new decor and some new paint.
At around 60,000 square feet, this store is the largest in the neighborhood by a significant margin. A much smaller (but also newly-renovated) Key Food is about four blocks west, but that store is only about 14,000 square feet. A really nice new Shop Fresh of around the same size is about the same distance to the north, along with a rather dated CTown. To the south is a small Food Universe. A little under a mile to the west is the Bronx Terminal Market, home to a massive Food Bazaar and a new Lidl. A smaller Food Bazaar of around 35,000 square feet is about half a mile east.
This strikes me as a very high-volume store. It's located right near the government center of the Bronx (borough hall, the criminal court, and the supreme court are all within a few blocks, not to mention Yankee Stadium just beyond them), so there's a lot of foot traffic in the area in general.
Seven Food Bazaars are located in former Waldbaum's locations, including the original one in Queens.
Above in the "before" picture, you can see a poster left over from Food Bazaar's 30th anniversary (2018). Now, we're closer to their 40th anniversary, so it was definitely time for that to go.
The seafood department is at the back of the produce department.
You can see here that a lot of the fixtures have been replaced in this area.
And speaking of fixtures being replaced, between produce/seafood and the grocery aisles is this section for meat and cold cuts. Although there's a lot of refrigerator cases here, this is actually a very large refrigerated room so some items (such as juices and eggs) were previously in this area but just out on grocery shelving.
Now, the juice has been moved out of this area.
A lot, but not all, of the fixtures here were replaced. You can still see the refrigeration units on the ceiling here, but everything is now actually inside a refrigerator case.
Below, we're looking towards the front of the store. The entrance is behind the wall of cold cuts, and the grocery aisles are behind the wall with the Golden Hen sign.
And the butcher counter is at the back of this section.
The first aisle is sale items...
Beer is under this farm scene on the back wall.
The farm scene remains post-renovation, but with new decor around it.
Given that this layout is very similar to other Food Bazaar locations, I'm willing to bet they designed the space and that Waldbaum's layout was different.
Not sure if the grocery shelving is left over from Waldbaum's, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's not.
And not much has changed in the grocery aisles post-renovation, save for a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling and switching all the flooring to polished concrete...
(Previously, only the produce/seafood/meat area had concrete flooring.)
It looks like some, but not all, of the freezer cases were replaced.
But what's very clear is that this aisle has been streamlined quite a bit. No more random coolers in the middle of the aisle!
The deli is in the back-left corner along with baked goods, although there's no in-store bakery here. I'm a little surprised they didn't add one in the renovation, as that's what they've done elsewhere. The BTM store has a bakery, and the 163rd Street store has a bakery section but it looks like they're not baking in-store.
A hot food bar was added in the renovation, something that seems to be going into most Food Bazaars now.
Dairy lining the last aisle...
Not much changed here, clearly, except for some new signage.
Bread was previously in the front-left corner (maybe this is where Waldbaum's had a bakery?) but it's been moved into the grocery aisles with soda being moved into this corner instead.
And a look at the front-end. I wouldn't be surprised if this area under the second-floor offices was Waldbaum's customer service counter.
Now for a quick update at a Brooklyn location...


Food Bazaar Supermarket
Opened: 2024
Owner: Spencer An
Previous Tenants: Pathmark (1970-2015) > Stop & Shop (2015-2024)
Cooperative: none
Location: 2965 Cropsey Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed: April 24, 2026
Slowly but surely, Food Bazaar is getting through the seemingly never-ending renovation at the Cropsey Avenue store. Here's an idea of what the store looked like prior to Food Bazaar moving in. The new counter that's gone in right in front of the entrance is not a bakery counter as I'd previously theorized, but instead a cheese department.
An interesting update from the bakery department just across, too -- it looks like they're preparing to move bakery out of this corner. A new Flowers sign has gone in where there used to be a Bogo Pan logo (Bogo Pan being a play on the Bogopa corporate name and pan, the Spanish word for bread). A sign for a juice bar has also gone in, so maybe that's what this area will eventually become.
The produce department is done, though.
And so is the new meat department, with all of the refrigeration having been installed and the new service counter up and running.
It's now on the back wall to the right of seafood. Pathmark/Stop & Shop's meat room was previously on the back wall to the left of seafood, which is where it looks like Food Bazaar is now preparing to put the bakery.
An expanded seafood department up next on the back wall.
Here's the aforementioned Bogo Pan sign, not yet lit up. This was Pathmark/Stop & Shop's meat department, and it looks like this will now be the bakery.
In fact, you can even see some baked goods here.
The deli cases have been replaced and a hot food bar has been added. This deli sign isn't yet lit up either.
Frozen and dairy are done.
And that's all for these stores' renovations, for now!
Here's a look at the rest of the posts for this weekend...

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