The Market Report

Happy Saturday and welcome to some major breaking news out of New York City. One Queens-based supermarket chain is taking over another as Food Bazaar has acquired 14 of Western Beef's 19 locations in New York City and on Long Island. The transition is ongoing through the end of the month, so stay tuned for more extensive coverage. I first caught wind of a potential transaction between these two chains last month, when as I posted on my news feed , Food Bazaar incorporated 14 new corporate entities on a single day -- and each appeared to correspond to a Western Beef location. Now, the official transitions started on Thursday and are continuing approximately through the end of October. This comes almost exactly two years after Food Bazaar took over four Stop & Shop stores, though I imagine that's just a coincidence. Let's take a look at the Western Beef stores for a primer on the chain, and a look at what's happening now. Update 10/31/26:  The conversions are all now ...

Just 3/4 mile north of yesterday's Food Farm is this store. Opened in the 1950s as a Food Fair, the store later became the Village Plaza Compare & Save Supermarket, affiliated with Krasdale Foods' AIM (Association of Independent Merchants) group. I visited immediately after the store had been purchased by the owners of the CTowns in Hempstead and Uniondale, and was under renovation during its conversion to CTown. So, you'll excuse the in-progress appearance of the store. As you can see, the store really needed a refresh. Here's what it looks like now. Produce runs along the first aisle, which is the front wall of the store. Checkouts line the left side of the store, with entrances and exits at the front and back. Meats run along the right side, with dairy and frozen at the back. Deli is in the back left corner. Inside, the store is looking good but definitely in need of some help. Notice the missing letter in the department sign. Here's a l...

Happy March! We moved through North Hempstead pretty quickly, now it's time to head south to the Town of Hempstead. We're hitting the key villages and hamlets: Garden City, downtown Hempstead, Baldwin, Valley Stream, and a few other locations here and there. As we'll see, there's a lot of variation here, in store size and style, income level of the communities, brands, and more. This group will feature stores on The Market Report, The Independent Edition , and for the first time in a while, Grocery Archaeology ! We're going to jump right into Garden City tomorrow!