The Market Report

Hello folks! Sorry for the interruption in programming. I'm reorganizing the posting schedule and will be taking a little while off. You can expect daily posting to resume on January 1, 2020 with finishing out Queens and Staten Island. Part of the change is that I'll be combining my Queens photos from July 2018 with my Queens photos from January 2019, so that we have more logical geographic coverage even if the pictures were taken at different times. From there, we have lots more exciting stuff coming up, including multiple states that The Market Report has never before visited! See you soon and thanks as always for reading! Zachary Our next store, in Queens... any guesses as to where or what it might be?

We're wrapping up our Manhattan stores with this Associated in the Peter Cooper Village of Manhattan. Unfortunately, yet again, a redevelopment has resulted in rents rising and a coming Trader Joe's nearby, causing owner Joe Falzon to make the decision to close up shop after 26 years. You can read much more here . It's a real shame, but it's happened so much that it's not even surprising anymore. I'll be sorry to see this one go, though. At the far end of Peter Cooper Village, though, is a relatively recently-renovated  CTown that I really liked. This store is located at 409 E 14th St. Tomorrow we're going over to Queens for the first time on The Market Report, I believe! Photographed August 2017

Our third Manhattan Food Emporium (see here and here ) was one of my usual haunts for lunch when I was in the neighborhood in the summer of 2017. I knew I could get a good lunch of two empanadas, fried plantains, and vegetables with a bottle of iced tea for under $9 - quite the deal in this neighborhood - from the hot food bar. Like the other two, this was owned by A&P and was taken over by Key Food member Seven Seas Supermarkets in the bankruptcy. Like the Times Square South location, this one has two entrances, one in front and one in the back. This is by far my favorite Food Emporium location of the three I've visited, as it's the most solid supermarket and also seems to be the most heavily used. All of the service departments are fully stocked and well-used, even the bakery which is unusual for an urban supermarket! Great hot food, too. It's located at 10 Union Square East. Photographed July 2017

This D'Agostino is a perfectly acceptable supermarket, though nothing special. It's in better shape than most of the D'Agostinos I've been to, and the building is certainly more interesting. It looks like the lower brick building to the left (the store now extends into the two-story building on the right) might be a very old supermarket, maybe an early location of the D'Agostino chain. This store, located at 790 Greenwich St, Manhattan, has some amazing sales. Excuse me, amazig. D'Agostino always has high prices, but I think it's worth considering they're one of the very few supermarkets that actually operates in the neighborhoods they're in. But not in the way you might think -- they run stores in some of the most affluent (and highest-rent) neighborhoods of Manhattan, meaning that all the lower-cost stores have been driven out of business by rising rents. So I don't think it's particularly helpful to say that Food Bazaar usually has ...

Just blocks from the United Nations headquarters is this Gristedes. Owned by the Red Apple Group, Gristedes has recently become a member of Allegiance Retail Services. It's located at 748 2nd Avenue. Photographed February 2018

Like the Fairway we saw last week, these pictures come from the summer of 2016 and are not particularly the highest quality, so apologies in advance for that. ( Yesterday's post came out a little better.) Unlike yesterday's, though, this one has been very nicely renovated to the A&P Fresh 1.0 package. This one is all on one floor, though it's in the basement of an apartment building. This particular location seems to get less traffic than the other, and fewer tourists (more residents). I liked this one a lot better, although it's smaller and less deluxe! It also shares ownership with the other one. A&P leftover signage! Meat, seafood, deli, bakery, and dairy line the exterior walls. Pretty substantial service departments for a very small store, even a full in-store bakery! The seafood counter is small but present. Dairy and frozen are at the far end of the store from produce. A&P decor remains in all its glory! These are ...

Like the Fairway we saw last week, today's post and tomorrow's post come from the summer of 2016 when I had a far inferior phone camera. It's actually a two-story setup, with a food court, bakery, and deli on the first floor and produce, meat, grocery, and dairy/frozen in the basement. Because of this store's proximity to Times Square, there are huge quantities of tourists coming through this store. That's why the main floor is so upscale and features so many grab-and-go foods. Gorgeous deli counter. This store was owned by A&P, although it transferred ownership to Seven Seas Supermarkets with Key Food in the bankruptcy. Some A&P branding remains... Hartford Reserve was A&P's deli storebrand. However, there's also an attempt at distancing itself from the old owners... Beautiful bakery counter, too. Heading down to the lower floor, we see much older decor, and a much dingier setting. And full A&P decor remains. ...

That quintessential New York store - D'Agostino! Owned by the Red Apple Group, which also owns Gristedes, D'Ag is an Allegiance member. The black, red, and green color scheme is immediately recognizable across the city. This store is located at 1074 Lexington Ave at 76th St. Photographed August 2016

This Whole Foods Market is located down at 1551 3rd Ave at 87th St, south from 116th Street at the Fine Fare Supermarket . It opened in 2015 in what appears to be a former paint store (seems like it must have been expanded). I haven't been inside, but I do love this stereotypical New York City scene of the taxi driving through the intersection. Photographed July 2016

We're back in Harlem for today's store tour! What looks like a former exit door is now covered over (to the right of the entrance/exit door). For an idea of the layout, checkouts line the front wall. There is then an enormous concourse before the produce department. Aisles run parallel to the storefront with meat on the back wall. The deli/bakery is just out of frame to the left. The deli/bakery also includes a bakery counter with hot bread, which is a very nice touch we rarely see in stores. Oddly, the customer service counter is right next to the bread counter. It feels like the bread station was a much later addition as it doesn't exactly fit in with the rest of the store. Bakery and cheese in an island next to the deli, with produce just next to it. While the produce seemed to be alright for the most part, there was some confusing signage. Yep, no organic selection here. But sure, let's have that healthy life! Frozen foods run along t...