The Market Report

Yes, there is new stuff! The first thing being, as you're probably aware of, a complete redesign of The Market Report's website. I'm always looking to make the blog more user-friendly, so any and all feedback is welcomed. I've probably missed some details, so let me know what I still need to change if you come across any. Also...make sure to check out my other two blogs! The Market Report family of websites now includes two brand-new blogs, The Independent Edition and Grocery Archaeology. And that's about it for now. (Today's post, and the past few days' posts, are over at The Independent Edition.) If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the new look and blogs, please let me know in a comment here or at zachary@marketreportblog.com!

Today's store tour is a Super Foodtown out in the largely residential, relatively laid-back neighborhood of Throggs Neck (or Throgs Neck, or Throgg's Neck, or Throg's Neck, or Throggsneck) in the very southeastern corner of the borough. While much of the Bronx is predominantly Caribbean and Latino, Throggs Neck remains largely Italian. As is the owner of this store, Joseph Bivona. Although the store's address is on Bruckner Blvd (the cross street here), the parking and main entrance is in the back perpendicular to Crosby Ave. There is an entrance and exit facing Bruckner, however, along with a register there. This location was previously an A&P, and has been a Foodtown (at least under the current ownership) since 2005. Heading in, we turn 90 degrees to the left to find produce running along the front wall (to the left in the above picture). More produce and then bakery runs along the side wall, with deli, seafood, and meat in that order clockwise on the ba...

Now for our second store tour here in the Bronx! This ShopRite, which is owned by Village Super Market of Springfield, NJ, replaced a longtime Key Food that closed in 2015. The ShopRite then opened in 2018. At just 35,000 square feet, it is not a very large store, but it does have a slightly larger footprint than the Key Food it replaced. A reminder of how dense this area is with supermarkets... It is, however, worth noting that most residents of this neighborhood are primarily walking to do their grocery shopping, so there are still large swaths of the area that are not covered. (Interestingly, news stories covering Key Food's closure almost all neglect the existence of Met Foodmarkets just to the southwest, instead focusing on the larger Western Beef to the northwest.) This was my first time seeing these cart corrals, and the carts are brand-new too. The whole shopping mall, as you can see here, is undergoing extensive renovations. You enter to a sushi department ...

Today's store tour is located here in Soundview, in the southeastern Bronx. It's a peninsula formed by the Bronx River to the west and the Westchester Creek to the east, making it a little isolated from the rest of the borough. The Bruckner Expressway slices right through the middle of the neighborhood, with many businesses along Bruckner Boulevard, which is basically the highway's service road. Now, there are lots of supermarkets in this neighborhood, but as you'll see, they tend to be clustered along a few corridors. We're looking at the Food Bazaar today, but tomorrow we'll be seeing the ShopRite. Unfortunately that's all the time we're going to be spending in Soundview this time around. You may recall we've actually seen this store before. Kind of. I'm glad to be back, because it's a very nice place! The store opened in 2006 in a former Waldbaum's, which had been extensively renovated. Additional renovations took place in 2...