From the Basic to the Bizarre - er, Bazaar - in North Bergen
The Basic, and before
Around 1992, Waldbaum's (which had been bought by A&P at that point) built a brand-new store, complete with an underground parking garage, on a site that previously was a two-story Two Guys hypermarket. The introduction of Waldbaum's into New Jersey was a flop, and became an A&P Foodmarket. By 2002, that had failed as well; A&P converted the store to its Food Basics banner, for which it had high hopes. More than anything, it is rumored that the key benefit of Food Basics was the ability to lay off skilled employees (like meat cutters and bakers - who are obviously paid more), since all food preparation was done off-premises.
This Food Basics was reasonably successful but had to be refined over the years, when A&P did everything from adding a "dollar-store" aisle with general merchandise to actually reducing sales floor space. The Food Basics made it all the way to the end, closing in November 2015.
The Wait
The North Bergen facility was purchased by Brooklyn-based Bogopa Service Corp. in A&P's bankruptcy, an ethnic operator which owns the Food Bazaar chain. Food Bazaar had a store in West New York, NJ since about 2005.
Although it is a very small store, the West New York Food Bazaar is a very nice and well-maintained store.
The North Bergen Food Bazaar was a round-2 conversion for Food Bazaar, coming several months after Elizabeth, NJ; Brentwood, NY; and 163rd, Bronx, NY. The Fairview Food Bazaar, which was supposed to open on November 10 but is now opening on December 1, is also a round-2 store, while the store at 11110 Flatlands Ave in Brooklyn is a round-3, opening next spring.
In his grand-opening speech, Bogopa Service president Spencer An said that the North Bergen store actually opened ahead of schedule, which never happens, because of the demand in the area for the new store. Almost to the day, about a year after the store closed, the new Food Bazaar opened.
The Tour
I visited the store for the first time earlier today. It is beautiful! There are absolutely no remnants of Food Basics left behind. Not the carts! Not the floor! Not the shelving! Not the lighting!
The parking lot was also repaved. As you can see in Acme Style's picture above, the lot was in pretty awful condition before.
Food Bazaar is one of those stores that uses every inch of available space, inside and out!
When you walk in, this is the first thing you see. The produce, meat, and seafood departments are under a lower ceiling to the right.
Produce looking towards the entrance and floral.
Looking back towards the entrance from produce.
Looking into produce towards the entrance from seafood, which is directly behind produce and in front of meat.
Looking back towards meat and seafood from the entrance. Okay, I take that back about their reuse of Food Basics elements: that banana shelf might be a repainted Food Basics produce display!
The organic produce selection at the North Bergen store was particularly impressive. A very large part of the produce department to the left when you enter is all organic:
Fruits, vegetables, juices, salad dressings - but strangely enough, only huge bags of carrots!
Moving towards the back of the store, we see seafood and meat. Unfortunately I don't seem to have gotten a picture of the seafood counter, which is a shame because it's huge.
Now we head along the back wall of the store. There is an aisle going along the back of the store with dairy (cases on both sides), then on the back of the dairy cases facing the back of the store is sale items.
The wall on the right is the back wall of the store. The first aisle has the always-impressive tall-stacked main display:
Moving along the back of the store, we see the sale shelving to the right with the grocery aisles to the left (the dairy aisle is to our right here):
Food Bazaar sells a wide range of non-food but cooking-related products (so if you want deodorant, Food Bazaar isn't your first choice, but if you want pots and pans, it is):
Like the famous Mi Bandera supermarket (which is now a City Fresh Market and located a matter of blocks from this store), Food Bazaar separates its international foods by country, not type of food. Similarly, there were multiple aisles that had cooking utensils, pots, pans, dishes, and silverware. And while we're on the topic of international foods...
There are maybe two or three international aisles. And they are REALLY international. Foods from just about everywhere - authentic foods that actually come from those countries - can be found in their international selection. Because of the area's demographics, a large part of the international section is dedicated to Latin foods, but eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented. Aside from that, the grocery aisles are pretty standard.
I posted on my Flickr photostream a picture of the new ShopRite Wholesome Pantry line, introduced about two months ago. Compare the Wholesome Pantry pasta sauce to the equivalent by Seven Farms, a Federated Group-produced organic and natural storebrand:
My own image from the North Bergen Food Bazaar.
I'm sure the similarity in branding is a complete coincidence.
Moving on... along the back wall in the corner opposite the entrance is milk and bakery/deli.
There is a large selection of fresh-made cakes and pastries, with a fresh bread counter just past this.
The deli section includes a hot food counter.
Along the side wall, there is a liquor department coming soon. New Jersey liquor laws require that a corporation can only own two stores selling liquor within the state, and this is Food Bazaar's first liquor-selling store in New Jersey. I don't know if Food Basics sold liquor. When it opens, the liquor department will become the last aisle of the store.
The frozen food aisle is not quite the last aisle, but a few in. It would have been in the same place when Food Basics operated here, but since Food Basics' store was smaller, it would have been the last aisle.
Heading to checkout...
The lines were quite long today. I hope that's a sign that they are doing well.
You can almost see in the top right corner here, a huge partial barrel suspended from the ceiling over the future liquor department. It's a cool decor feature.
There were three of these huge, modern ceiling fans over the front-end. This picture doesn't quite capture how large they really are. Here you can also see the ceiling has been painted dark brown, and the lighting has been switched to LED throughout the store, like in Elizabeth.
The Verdict
I don't think it's even necessary to compare the new Food Bazaar to Food Basics. It's so much nicer and sells higher-end things like organic produce, fresh bread, and hot food that Food Basics would never have considered selling. Although the wait here for people in the neighborhood was long, I believe the new store was well worth the wait.
Has anyone else been to the new Food Bazaar of North Bergen? Did I miss anything? Let me know what you think in the comments!
We need a Food Bazaar in the Hudson Valley!
ReplyDeleteI’ll never understand why Waldbaum’s pulled out of Jersey - they opened a number of stores in the early-mid 60’s and closed them all despite reports they did quite well. It was understandable a couple of decades later when A&P owned Waldbaum’s failed....the company was a shell of its former self with lousy private label replacing Waldbaum’s great private label products.
Yes! I guess your closest is over in Mount Vernon, which is a very nice store in a great downtown location.
DeleteThat makes sense about Waldbaum's. I think both this Food Bazaar and the one in Fairview, NJ were both built as Waldbaum's, but otherwise I think mostly the New Jersey stores were A&P.