The Market Report

First off, let me apologize. I don't remember the layout of this store at all. So in contrast to our usual tours, this one is going to be kind of a stumble-through. Anyway, this store has been a Bravo for many years and is located at the north end of the Bushwick Houses, a public housing complex which is bordered at the south by Flushing Avenue (see yesterday's former CTown on Flushing here ). Generally, I do remember that the store is divided into two rooms. The large room in the front contains a spacious produce department, a deli, grocery aisles, and checkouts. The back room has a few more grocery aisles, meat, dairy, and frozen. A renovation around 2015 brought a new facade and I think a lot of interior changes to this 9900 square foot store. Many of the finishes inside are quite new, such as the floor and the produce cases. General grocery aisles in the front room. Below we can see where the front room (aisles to the left) connects with the back room (beh...

Original Tenant:  unknown Address:  832 Flushing Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  CTown Supermarkets (??-2015) Photographed:  December 2019 Although Bushwick is a very desirable neighborhood and is quickly gentrifying, not all parts of the neighborhood are developing equally. The northern section, closer to (extremely desirable) Williamsburg, tends to remain lower income and has many vacancies, abandoned industrial properties, and so on. This particular store is also located immediately across from a public housing complex. There is, however, a Bravo at the north end of the housing complex, which we'll see up next. Just a few blocks west, we find the upscale Food Bazaar on Manhattan Ave. But other than those two and the Food Bazaar several blocks south on Myrtle Ave, this neighborhood has very few large, full-service grocery stores. To go back to happier times in 2014, check out this street vi...

This tiny, 4600 square foot supermarket was a Compare Foods until about 2012. David Corona opened a Fine Fare in the location at that point. It's comprised of a small grocery store that expanded into a neighboring storefront, pictured above. I didn't want to use the main supermarket's storefront as the picture for the post, because, uh... Let's just say it had seen better days at the time of my visit. The Fine Fare banner placed over the Compare Foods awning in 2012 had reached the end of its life by my 2019 visit. I am pleased to report that the whole awning has been replaced, and the store looks very sharp nowadays. Anyway, the entrance in the neighboring storefront brings you into produce and meat in the 900 square foot expansion, with the rest of the departments in the main grocery store. For a very, very tiny store, it's looking very good. Updated fixtures and as much decor as you can have in such a small and low-ceiling space. As is common in u...

We're heading diagonally across the street from yesterday's store  to tour this beautiful supermarket. Formerly an Associated Supermarket owned by Bienvenido Nunez, it was acquired by Martin Espinal's A&E Supermarket Group around 2014 and became what I believe was the first City Fresh Market. (Over the next few years, A&E converted all of its various locations to either City Fresh Market or Cherry Valley Marketplace.) A&E is still a member of Associated Supermarket Group, though the stores are no longer branded Associated. And despite the ASG affiliation, the stores do not sell Avenue A products; they sell a combination of Cherry Valley branded products and Parade, which is distributed in the New York area by General Trading of Carlstadt, NJ, which is owned by Retail Grocers Group (Fine Fare). Like most A&E stores, this location is beautiful. You enter to produce lining the right side wall of the store, with a coffee shop and bakery in a small co...

The next neighborhoods we're taking a look at are Bushwick and Ridgewood! Now, we have been to Bushwick before, to visit stores here and here . But we are returning for an additional dozen or so that were photographed later than that group. We're also adding in one Ridgewood store, which is just over the border into Queens, because I have nowhere else to put it. So let's begin with Billy's Marketplace in Ridgewood, Queens, up next on The Independent Edition !