TOUR: Food Bazaar Supermarket - Chambersburg, Trenton, NJ

Food Bazaar Supermarket

Owner: Spencer An

Opened: 2007

Previous Tenants: Edwards (1990s-2001) > Super G (2001-2005)

Cooperative: none

Location: 635 S Clinton Ave, Chambersburg, Trenton, NJ

Photographed: January 2021

It's been a while, but it's time again for another Food Bazaar tour! I am very sad to say that this will be the last Food Bazaar we see since of their 29 stores (+1 coming soon in Harlem), we've toured all 21 that I've photographed. This store may have been opened in the late 1980s or early 1990s as a Foodtown, presumably Mayfair, or if not it was opened between 1995 and 2001 as an Edwards. (The whole complex, I believe, was built as industrial space and was converted to retail when the supermarket opened.) In 2001, Edwards switched to Super G, and in 2005, all of the Super G stores were either closed or converted to Stop & Shop. This store was closed and in late 2007, Food Bazaar opened up in this space. It appears that Food Bazaar, coming in at over 70,000 square feet, is slightly larger than Super G/Edwards would've been, and it seems they expanded into neighboring storefronts. The original store would've been closer to 55,000 square feet, it seems.

Here's a look at Food Bazaar in context. As we can see, there's a cool and very industrial design left throughout the mall. This is Trenton's largest supermarket, at roughly three times as large as the next biggest.

Now that we've situated the store in its Edwards/Super G and Trenton contexts, let's talk for a minute about its history as a Food Bazaar. When it opened in 2008, this was the largest Food Bazaar and also the first (and only?) with a pharmacy. It opened at roughly the same time that Junction Boulevard in Jackson Heights was renovated, and therefore sports the same "Food Bazaar Supermarkets" signage. Older stores said just Food Bazaar and newer stores say Food Bazaar Supermarket. Inside, we'll see a deluxe version of the same decor package we saw in West New York, which is roughly five years older than this store but may have been renovated after it was opened. This store is very similar to Bridgeport, although I think Trenton has been maintained a little better.

We enter to the precursor to the curved welcome wall we've seen in newer stores over the vast produce department. It appears -- and I could be very wrong about this -- that Food Bazaar expanded into the space which, in the Super G picture linked above, was a furniture store. If that's true, the produce department would be where Edwards/Super G would've ended, and the meat and seafood departments would be in what was the furniture store. Not sure if that's true, but it looks like it.

Interesting to note the flooring here. It's not unlike what Food Bazaar just ripped out of its three stores acquired from Fairway (see Red Hook). This is one of the few Food Bazaars that doesn't have at least partial polished concrete flooring. If I remember correctly, meat and seafood are to the right of produce...

If you zoom into the wall straight ahead, that decor is all newer than the rest of the store's decor. The hanging signage for Smithfield pork is also newer, but the rest of the hanging promotional signage seen above is original to the decor.

This room, which you'll notice is refrigerated (see the refrigeration units on the ceiling), contains the meat department and some other related things like cold cuts and eggs. Meat, produce, and seafood -- each in their own room -- are on the right side of the store, with deli/bakery and dairy on the back wall. Frozen takes up the third-to-last and second-to-last aisles, with dairy running down the outside of the last aisle. Pharmacy is in the front left corner.

I'm guessing this store has been reset since it opened, given the signage for fresh cut fruit and salad mixes above the cold cuts. It's quite strange that those things would've been in here instead of the produce room, right?

And at the back of the butcher room we have the service butcher counter.

I'm willing to bet this store sells a lot of meat. I've said this before, but Food Bazaar is an ingredients store -- their "raw materials" (produce, meat, seafood) are the core of their business. Only recently have they started going into the store-prepared foods and so on.

As we move back into the produce area, we see the Caribbean department with a few aisles of Caribbean foods. It also looks like there may have been another service counter back here at some point, although I'm not sure. It doesn't look like Food Bazaar has ever had a department sign on this overhang, but it really looks like what you'd see over a service counter...

And then we move into the seafood room, in the back right corner of the store.

Unlike some of the newer Food Bazaars, seafood here is set up as self-service in the middle with service counters running around the outside of the room. It looks like the whole fish are out in the middle, so you put them on the tray yourself and then have a clerk wrap them, while the prepared fish (fillets and steaks) are served to you. Again, I assume this store sells a lot of seafood because this department is just gigantic.

And now we move into the grocery aisles. No floor space is wasted, which must be pretty annoying when the store is very crowded. It wasn't that bad when I was here (buying one single bottle of ketchup, because that's all I needed) but certainly busy enough.

A look across the front-end towards the last aisle. The aisle markers have been replaced since the store opened.

In the grocery aisles, we see pretty much what we expect of a Food Bazaar. Very clean for sure. I assume not much here is left from Edwards/Super G, except possibly the lighting. The shelving may be too, but it's also identical to what the other Food Bazaars of this generation, such as Junction (which has had wood-texture decals put on the shelving tops).

One of two international aisles in the main supermarket, and I assume this shelving to the right is newer than the rest of the shelves. Not sure why that shelving was replaced, although maybe the international aisle was originally an extra-wide aisle with lower displays in the middle.

Lots of nonfoods, which makes sense given the store's size. Heading over to the back wall...

Here's our deli/bakery, and it looks like they don't bake much in-store but they do have a small bakery. Dairy takes up the rest of the back wall, and then continues down the outside of the last aisle.

Interesting "welcome home" sign over the international aisle. It doesn't really match the rest of the decor, so it's possible it was made at some later point or even brought in from an older store. Notice that the international aisle is 6A and 6B... which suggests that originally it would've been one aisle with lower shelving in the middle.

The cases here in the frozen foods department look much newer than the rest of the store, but I can't be sure. In any event, they're certainly not left over from a previous tenant.

Also looks like the lighting has been replaced in this part of the store. Notice the much older dairy cases...

They're still in good repair, though. At the front of the dairy department we have a pharmacy along with a small selection of HABA. This is an outside business, as Food Bazaar doesn't run any pharmacies.

And now for a look at the front end before we head out...

That's all for the Trenton Food Bazaar, but there's still another post for the day. We're checking out a small supermarket just a few blocks away here. Tomorrow, we're going to be touring our last Trenton store here on The Market Report!