The Market Report

Moving south from yesterday's Foodtown , let's take a second to look at the neighborhood as we move on. One note, the property at 230th Street and Broadway (northwestern corner) is soon to become a Western Beef Market, meaning the intense competition I was describing yesterday isn't going away anytime soon. As you move farther south, the central business district ends (about 230th St), and the section of Broadway south of 230th is pretty quiet. Interestingly enough, the northernmost property in Manhattan is not on Manhattan Island at all, but is geographically along Broadway in the Bronx. The Marble Hill section, while geographically sharing the landmass of the Bronx, is technically part of Manhattan and located within New York County. Anyway... Here's a look at what the area looks like as we start to move south. It starts to look a little more like the stereotypical Bronx neighborhood, with the brick high-rises and elevated train. And if you really look hard, ma...

Today's store tour is a supermarket just around the corner from yesterday's Bravo ! The Foodtown of Riverdale is located at the great address of 5555 Broadway and appears to have been built as a Grand Union. It was later converted to one of the earlier Fine Fare Supermarkets by the mid-1980s, before becoming Foodtown at some point before 2007. This store is owned by Esmail Mobarak, who also owns the Foodtown of Mount Vernon . The exterior looks very similar, if a little less deluxe. You enter to produce with a huge prepared foods island to the left immediately inside. Meat runs along the back wall with deli and bakery on the far side of the store. We'll see they are competing in part with Garden Gourmet on some prepared foods, but this store is definitely positioned as a more general supermarket. We start with a look at the large prepared foods department immediately inside the entrance, which is located on the other side of this island. A very attractive...

Today's store tour is a pretty small store, at only about 5,000 square feet. Interestingly enough, this building was previously a Blockbuster Video, but it was renovated and outfitted as a Pioneer Supermarket in about 2012. At the time of my June 2018 visit, the store had just switched from Pioneer to Bravo. Because the switch had happened so recently before my visit, the interior is completely original to Pioneer. I don't know whether anything has been done inside since, but I'd assume at least the Pioneer signs have been replaced with Bravo signs. The store is pretty much just as small as it looks from the outside. It does go pretty far back, but it's still quite small. Entrance is on the left, with produce in the first aisle, meat on the back wall, frozen in the last aisle with dairy on the right side wall. Deli and customer service are in the front right corner. It's really not a bad produce department at all for such a small store. Perfectly sto...

Riverdale Meat Market is located directly across the street from yesterday's Apple Tree Fruits & Vegetables , and is a very very very small butcher shop that also sells some groceries and some produce. Riverdale Meat Market is located at 5587 Broadway, Bronx, NY. Although it's really in Kingsbridge and not Riverdale, (1) neither neighborhood has real borders, and (2) Riverdale is the more desirable neighborhood to be associated with. Photographed June 2018

Here's a quick look at a small greengrocer along the Broadway corridor in Kingsbridge. Apple Tree Market Fruits & Vegetables is located at 5590 Broadway, Bronx, NY. Photographed June 2018

Now for another store tour less than a block south of Stop & Shop. This store is very different! Once again, if the map doesn't display correctly, choose the view full screen icon (top right). Opened in 2005, the Garden Gourmet Market reflects the changing population of Kingsbridge -- increasingly affluent, and increasingly interested in healthier and more specialized foods. To say that Garden Gourmet offers something different from most supermarkets is the understatement of all of The Market Report's history. Including its time as NJ Supermarkets. (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating slightly.) Standing just outside of Stop & Shop's parking lot, we can just barely see the Garden Gourmet storefront. But it's not a matter of distance. Although the store isn't that old, it has been expanded out both sides. Generally, you enter to produce on the left with meat in the back left, with deli/bakery on the right side. As we'll see, the layout -- wh...