The Market Report

Tops Friendly Markets Opened: 2013 Owner: Northeast Grocery Previous Tenants: Grand Union (closed 2001) > Grand Union Family Markets (2001-2013) Cooperative: none Location: 82 VT-15, Hardwick, VT Photographed: August 13, 2025 In addition to the longtime Buffalo Mountain Market in Hardwick, the small town has a Tops -- one of just two in Vermont. The Tops is a bit larger than Buffalo Mountain, measuring around 18,000 square feet or so, and it's actually smaller than it might look in the picture above because the right half of the building was previously a Rite Aid and then a Walgreens. This Tops was originally a Grand Union, which transitioned to Grand Union Family Markets in 2001 and sold to Tops in 2013. (You can read more about the Grand Union and the food of Hardwick in this 2011 article from NPR.) For the next several days, we'll be headed west from Hardwick on Vermont Route 15, so stay tuned for more in this area!

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. 1041 Prospect Ave, The Bronx Food Bazaar Opene...

Western Beef Supermarket Opened: ca. 2012 Owner: Castellana family / employee owned Previous Tenants: none Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group Location: 2050 Webster Ave, Bronx, NY Photographed:  December 13, 2023 and October 16, 2026 As 14 of the 19 Western Beef stores transition to Food Bazaar, let's check out the Webster Avenue location in the Bronx! Western Beef actually built this store around 2012, moving from a long-since demolished location at 4269 Park Ave  about two blocks south. Most recently, Western Beef renovated it again just this year, and by the end of the month, it's scheduled to become a Food Bazaar (on October 28, to be specific). As we'll see, the recent renovation was pretty minor. Produce is on the right side with bakery in the back-right corner and dairy on the rest of the back wall. Frozen foods are towards the left side of the store, and previously, the walk-in meat cooler was on the left side. In the renovation, the refrigerated room wa...