The largest supermarket in New York’s Bronx borough opened Feb. 6 when Bogopa Service Corp. unveiled its latest Food Bazaar store at the Bronx Terminal Market.
The multi-ethnic superstore, the 26th in the growing empire of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Bogopa, occupies an 80,000 square-foot space that formerly housed a Toys R Us in the urban power center that also includes a Target and a BJ’s Wholesale Club one level directly below. It’s located just a few blocks down River Avenue from another big Bronx destination: Yankee Stadium.
Food Bazaar pairs a deep selection of hard-to-find specialty items and culturally diverse fresh foods with a high-volume supermarket known for big packages and merchandising displays. The Bronx unit features a new design with bright lighted signs, prominent brand advertising and an as-yet unopened accompanying food court.
"Food Bazaar Supermarket at the Bronx Terminal Market represents an exciting new venture as our fifth location in the Bronx and the largest supermarket in the borough,” Spencer An, president of Bogopa, said in a statement. “In addition to a first-class shopping experience, the store will soon feature Boogie Down Food Hall, consisting of more than a dozen vendors that will showcase eclectic foods from the Bronx and the outer boroughs. The food hall will serve as a venue for people to gather and enjoy great food in a dynamic atmosphere. We are really excited to provide the community with this beautiful store and look forward to serving the surrounding neighborhoods for many more years to come.”
What follows are photos from WGB’s recent visit.
Shoppers entering from the fourth level of the Terminal Market complex immediately find themselves in a cooled produce room featuring unique items with relevance to local shoppers, including Korean batatas, tropical yautia and malanga from South America.
The store was made possible by New York’s FRESH Program, which brings healthy and affordable food options to communities by lowering the costs of owning, leasing, developing and renovating supermarket retail space, and the city’s New Markets Tax Credit program, which provides low-interest construction loans for projects in low-income communities.
The location in the Bronx Concourse is in reach of multiple New York City Housing Authority developments, making quality foods accessible to residents, the New York Economic Development Agency said.
The design includes bright department signage and accompanying fixtures recalling wooden food crates carried through the store.
From produce, shoppers enter a fresh seafood department adorned with ropes, nets and a colorful octopus sign that, like the creature, changes colors.
The store offers trays of self-serve fresh seafood on ice along with a service counter. Whole fish, fillets, steaks and even live fish are available and little goes to waste: A tray of freshly cut fish heads—a popular ingredient in homemade broths—and prep leftovers are for sale.
A meat department further along the rear perimeter has butchers on service, and refrigerated cases along the wide aisle offer special packaged cuts such as smoked hocks and turkey necks and savings on family-sized packages.
The store has a dry-age case in the meat department.
“The opening of Food Bazaar in Bronx Terminal Market in Community District Four will provide access to fresh, quality foods and jobs for everyone in the district,” Community Board Four District Manager Paul Phillips said. “With 80,000 square feet, this is a game changer for the food landscape and a welcome addition to the neighborhood.”
A double-wide center store aisle is ready for beer, but the store, which opened last week, is still awaiting arrivals and/or permits in the department. For now, this area was merchandised with juices and teas.
Throughout the store, departments have lighted billboard-like signage highlighting food brands. One of three frozen aisles, for example, includes signage from the Caribbean and South American specialty frozen food brand La Fe. Other signs include the local favorite Marinos Italian Ice by frozen novelties, Kraft in packaged cheese, and the kombucha brand Heath-Ade above a display of refrigerated juices.
A double-wide “power aisle” features soaring displays and pallet drops of special deals and weekly specials, like 20-pound sacks of rice priced at two for $10 and Bustelo coffee bricks at four for $10. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes in 61.9-ounce “giant” boxes priced at two for $10 may give its downstairs neighbors at BJ’s a run for big quantities at sharp prices.
A combination deli and bakery department at the front of the store features the Boar’s Head brand and takeout hot prepared foods such as chicken and sides.
The store has 22 checkout aisles that can get congested even on a weekday morning.
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