Special Report: Food Bazaar Supermarket - Carle Place, NY

Food Bazaar Supermarket
Opened: October 23, 2026

Owner: Spencer An

Previous Tenants: Western Beef (2023-2026)

Cooperative: none

Location: 192 Glen Cove Rd, Carle Place, NY

Photographed: October 30, 2025

Here on Long Island, Food Bazaar has acquired four Western Beef stores in addition to the three they already own. One of those was a Fairway that Food Bazaar bought in 2020, and that's in Westbury (I've been there but haven't posted the pictures). A mile and a half northwest of that location, Food Bazaar has acquired the Carle Place Western Beef. This store is around 40,000 square feet, quite a bit smaller than the 70,000 square foot Westbury location. However, this is a very new store, having only opened as a Western Beef in 2023. More on that shortly. Previously, this space was home to a Staples.

Though there's no permanent sign on the storefront yet, there's already a sign up by the road announcing that this is now Food Bazaar Plaza. Inside, it's no surprise that the still very new store is looking quite good.

A spacious produce department is on the left side of the store, with bakery lining the left-side wall. Meat is on the back wall, with a service butcher in the back-left corner and service seafood in the back-right corner. Frozen and dairy are both on the right side of the store, with deli, prepared foods, and cheese in the front-right corner.

One look at this store and you can tell Western Beef was a long way from its origins as a low-end meat warehouse. When I visited this store as a Western Beef about two years ago, I remember thinking that the chain had either massively recalibrated or completely lost its way because this simply feels like a regular old strip-mall supermarket. That said, Western Beef ran this store very well and Food Bazaar seems well-positioned to do the same because they already have a store nearby.

The Westbury Food Bazaar got a major overhaul when Food Bazaar took it over from Fairway, so I wouldn't be surprised if the chain does the same thing here. Certainly, the bones are in great shape because everything was new just three years ago.

There's not really a service meat counter, just a window, which I imagine Food Bazaar will install in time.

This store competes with a Stop & Shop practically next door, an ALDI across the street, and quite a few other grocery stores within a relatively short drive, including Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, local gourmet chain North Shore Farms, and two Asian supermarkets.

Food Bazaar has painted some of the walls beige, but again, there wasn't much necessary to do here other than swap out the Western Beef logos for Food Bazaar ones.

A large deli and prepared foods section is in the front-right corner, including lots of grab and go foods, an olive bar, and a cheese counter.

Take a look at that deli counter -- it's a higher-end look and offering than the older, more value-focused Western Beef stores. I wouldn't be surprised if Food Bazaar took this store further in that direction, possibly with some of the features they took on from Fairway (like the gourmet cheeses and coffee beans in bulk) since they know those work in this general area.

And a look across the front-end, with new checkout lane markers and new aisle markers. It also looked like a bank of self checkouts was being prepared to go in (or possibly was being taken out? I'm not entirely sure). Now let's see what the previous Western Beef was like!

Again, this was and still is a very nice store since it's so new.

There was previously this lower case with a window into a produce prep room, but I believe that either Western Beef or Food Bazaar covered this up with an upright refrigerator case.

Some higher-end touches in the Western Beef include this large display of Bob's Red Mill grains and flours -- not uncommon in many supermarkets, but certainly a departure from the low-end value positioning of Western Beef in the past.

This was one of Western Beef's relatively few new stores in recent years (they did close and re-open a handful, but not many that opened from scratch like this). It replaced an older, smaller location in nearby Mineola, which closed shortly after this store opened.

Here you can see some examples of walls that Food Bazaar has painted beige, and I assume that's in preparation for a more full decor change. Of course, newer stores like this one hardly need it.

Now, speaking of the Mineola store, let's check that one out, too!

Western Beef Supermarket
Open: 1994-2023

Owner: Peter J. Castellana, Jr.

Previous Tenants: unknown

Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group

Location: 61 2nd St, Mineola, NY

Photographed: April 13, 2024

When I visited very soon before it closed, you couldn't necessarily tell its age from the outside (it just looks a little rundown, but not that old). The inside tells a different story. The outside was redone in 2016, but the interior was most likely original from its 1994 opening.

Signage was up encouraging customers to visit the new store, so while that one did replace this one, there was a period that both were operating of about a year. This store was around 32,000 square feet, and was located about a mile west of the new store. To my knowledge, this property is still vacant.

Produce was in the front-left corner with frozen foods just behind it. Meat and dairy were in a walk-in cooler room in the back-left corner, and deli-bakery on the back wall. Nonfoods were on the right side of the store.

You can see this was an old-school store when it was still operating, and it's possible the amount of work it would take to update it just wasn't worth it. On the other hand, it wasn't in horrible shape, and I'm a little surprised Western Beef didn't simply keep both stores open.

You can see the difference in the decor, too, between this store and Carle Place. Charlie Cactus (the mascot) was moving up in the world.

Into the walk-in cold room...

This room also contained beer and dairy.

This store did have an expanded selection of cheeses and prepared foods, similar to what the new Carle Place location has, but in a much lower-end setting.

You'll also notice that the trademark orange shelving is gone from most of the locations these days.

On the right side of the store was this alcove for water, which I have to assume was previously something else. Is it possible this was another service department? Could this have been the seafood department, which I don't remember seeing in this store elsewhere?

And that's all for the Carle Place and Mineola stores, but make sure to see more coverage of the transition from Western Beef to Food Bazaar here!