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Update: Food Bazaar Supermarkets - Bridgeport, CT

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By Zachary

Today's first update is actually two posts in one! We're going to begin with the Bridgeport Food Bazaar, then move onto the smaller Farmers Market by Food Bazaar in Bridgeport...


Food Bazaar Supermarket
Owner: Spencer An
Opened: 2010
Previous Tenants: Shaw's (1997-ca. 2005)
Cooperative: none
Location: 500 Sylvan Ave, Bridgeport, CT
Photographed: July 9, 2023
Please pardon the Pennsylvania interruption. Welcome back to the Bridgeport Food Bazaar! The renovation has been finished, and following a grand reopening event, the store has been extensively updated and the 57,000 square foot store now looks a lot like all the other new Food Bazaars. It's looking really good!
We can see the progress back in December, and the store is now complete! I love the new Welcome sign at the front, and the entrance to produce and cheese looks beautiful.
The bakery counter is still to the right when you enter, but it's been scaled back a bit. There's not quite as much bread-wise to choose from, although what's left still looks good.
Another reason the bakery department had been cut back a little is to accommodate the new bulk coffee department, now located between bakery and cheese. This is a feature originally brought to Food Bazaar from their Fairway acquisition, but which has since been added to several stores (Manhattan Ave, Long Island City, Fairview) as well as incorporated into newly-built stores (Harlem, and the upcoming Myrtle Ave store replacing their old one). 
Behind coffee is the deli, which hasn't been moved. I also think this department was pretty much left alone, although I do think the cases were painted. I love the new signage and the wooden trim!
Here's a look across the produce department, opposite the deli and bakery. I love all the wood accents! I like the setup here, with the produce department open and spacious but set off a little bit from the main traffic way.
But I think the outstanding service counter here is seafood, with the new counter in the back right corner looking amazing.
All of this is new, as the seafood department was previously farther back and more of an island setup. It used to be huge, and is now much smaller. I'm not sure whether there's been any impact on selection.
The meat department extends into the area where the seafood department used to be, with packaged meats across from that. The meat department used to be in a grocery aisle.
This setup is very similar to what we see in Harlem, and less like what we see in older stores.
And while the meat service counter is still set up roughly the same way it used to be, it's been updated with some gorgeous new decor. But the Premium Fresh & Healthy rounded overhang is still intact!
And we move along to the dairy department on the back wall, which is much cleaner and sleeker than it used to be. The beginning of the international aisle and the main display (also known as the wall of values) are in the first aisle.
All of the grocery shelving has been replaced, and it's looking beautiful. Much better than it used to be. Notice that the ceiling in this part of the store has not been painted dark brown or black. Food Bazaar used to always paint their ceilings dark in remodels, but lately has not been.
I do prefer the dark ceilings, but the store still looks good.
It looks like over the course of the renovation, all of the fixtures except for maybe a few in the deli and bakery departments were replaced. Certainly all of the freezers and refrigerators were replaced, as well as all of the shelving.
And the walls are looking better (less bare) than when we saw them in December! It's still a much-simplified version of this decor package (see Harlem) but it looks good.
Beer department was closed on Sundays...
As we move into the last few aisles, we have a continuation of the dairy department. In the third-to-last aisle, we have international dairy (such as Latin cheeses and Asian noodles and dumplings), and then juice and such on the far outside wall of the store.
In between the two dairy sections is the Asian foods department.
Here's the rest of the dairy department on the far outside wall of the store.
And the front-end is looking great! The Thank You for Shopping sign on the front wall is scaled down a bit because of the low ceiling on the front-end.
This store looks great but I do wish they painted the ceiling dark. Other than that, this is an impressive renovation (though of course not as impressive as new stores like Harlem).

Farmers Market by Food Bazaar
Owner: Spencer An
Opened: 2015
Previous Tenants: Food World IGA
Location: 345 Huntington Tpk, Bridgeport, CT
Photographed: July 9, 2023
Moving on to the other Food Bazaar in Bridgeport! This smaller-format store opened in 2015 as the Farmers Market by Food Bazaar, but held its grand reopening in September 2022. At the time, I wasn't really aware of what the grand reopening was celebrating because I wasn't aware any work had been done. As we'll see, the work has been minimal but changed the store quite a bit.
Most notably, this store has been rearranged to (it seems) greatly increase the grocery selection. The last time we saw it, there were a few very short grocery aisles running side-to-side on the left side of the store. They have been changed to front-to-back aisles, set up more like a traditional supermarket. The store was also expanded by about 2000 square feet to the left in a neighboring storefront.
As we can see, the store now feels less like a perishables-focused farmers market type store and more like a traditional supermarket.
There's not much else that has changed, although I do think the international department has been expanded (this store seems to have more Caribbean foods than the larger store on the other side of town, while that store has more Asian and Latin foods).
And here's a look at the doorway where we cross into the neighboring storefront.
Aisles 5 and 6 are in the space next door, which feels very small and cramped but adds quite a bit of selection. This section has items like soda, chips, paper goods, and HABA, which the store previously had minimal selections of.
A look at the nonfoods aisle.
Looking at the back wall, not too much has changed. The seafood counter has been rearranged a little, but nothing major. For some odd reason, the Seafood sign over the counter has been removed. Frozen foods were moved from the left side of the store to the right side of the store, with dairy. Notice the signage hanging from the ceiling for Caribbean foods.
And the produce department looks pretty much the same, although I think some of the perimeter cases were switched to upright refrigerators to offset some of the rearranged setup.
Here's a look at the produce department from the front. As we can see, the decor hasn't been changed.
New freezer cases in the second-to-last aisle. This all used to be low refrigerator islands with produce and dairy, which has all been switched to more space-efficient upright cases.
I believe all of these fixtures have been replaced.
The front-end hasn't been changed though...
Lots more updates to come today and tomorrow, so make sure you check out my other posts:

Saturday
Sunday (FYI these links won't work until tomorrow)

More Food Bazaar news...

Food Bazaar's parent company has bought almost 9 acres in Brooklyn, which encompasses three large parking lots and a massive, 70,000 square foot movie theater (which is still in business). It's unclear what the plan here is, but my money is on building a giant warehouse given that it's just under half a mile from Food Bazaar's current warehouse. I wouldn't be surprised if Food Bazaar, over time, transitions to a mostly self-distributed model (right now they rely heavily on Bozzuto's for a lot of items and UNFI for natural/specialty). Over time they might phase out Bozzuto's, but that would take a lot of work and a lot of warehouse/distribution capacity they don't have right now. I believe they have two warehouses (East New York and Maspeth) totaling somewhere around 100,000 square feet -- not nearly enough to handle grocery distribution for 32 stores. And I think it's not unlikely they have their sights set on further expansion that would warrant expanding their own distribution capabilities. It's also possible that they are interested in pursuing a massive mixed-use development here but that seems like a massive property for it (you could build 200,000 square feet of retail and still have almost three and a half acres left for parking). I think it's also possible, because they bought what are technically three properties divided by streets, it's more of a yes-and situation. It's possible the large property would be developed as a warehouse, while the other two would be used for supermarket and mixed-use. But only time will tell for sure.
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