CTown Supermarkets
Owner: unknown
Welcome to the Bronx! We've been here plenty of times before, but lately I've been getting serious about visiting supermarkets across NYC, including the Bronx where I've photographed a little over 3/4 of the stores. (If anyone is interested, I've done 100% of Manhattan supermarkets, 77% of Bronx supermarkets, 52% of Staten Island, 42% of Queens, and just 26% of Brooklyn... so I have plenty more to go.)
This store is around 10,000 square feet and opened in November 2023 in a former Walgreens (which was Leptis Pharmacy before 2007). Independent pharmacies have thrived in New York City where chain pharmacies close left and right, both in the Bronx and across the city.
And, as we've seen, many of these closed chain drugstores are making perfect small supermarkets. This CTown has transformed the pharmacy into a space that feels like a complete, well-stocked supermarket. We'll see the store was quite messy inside at the time of my visit, but I'm willing to chalk that up to my visit being on a Friday morning right before the big weekend rush. The store is heavy on the produce and seafood, beginning with big bins of produce outside the storefront. Produce takes up the front-right corner of the store and then continues down the first aisle of the store as seen above, along with juice in the refrigerated cases. A large seafood department is at the back of the first aisle. It looks like the seafood department is in the former prescription department, while the meat room is in what used to be Walgreens' backroom. Meat and deli are in the back left corner of the store, with dairy and packaged meat in the last aisle on the left side.
This expansive seafood department (much larger than we might otherwise expect in a store of this size) also steams and fries seafood to order, something that's very common in Bronx and NYC seafood markets. There are quite a few markets across the Bronx specializing in produce and seafood, although most are much smaller than this one and most are not affiliated with a brand like CTown. Many of these stores are owned by Korean-American immigrants, as this CTown appears to be.
There appear to be offices on the second floor in the back, which is apparently a holdover from the Walgreens days. Notice the prescription counter in the back right corner was where the seafood department is now, and the lower-ceiling area in the back left corner is now where the meat and deli departments are.
This neighborhood does not appear to be at risk of becoming a pharmacy desert, as many fear for other neighborhoods where chain stores close. There are numerous pharmacies in the neighborhood, including directly across the street, another one a block west, and another one two blocks west of that. There's also an Associated Supermarket a block west and a Fine Fare two and a half blocks east, on the other side of the Bronx River Parkway. Oh, and there's a CVS a block east of the Fine Fare.
Meat and deli service counters in the back left corner of the store.
Frozen foods line one side of aisle 7, which is the second-to-last aisle. Aisle 8 has dairy on one side and packaged meat and bakery on the other.
There's no bakery department in this store, as is typical of NYC supermarkets, but there's a case for packaged refrigerated baked goods at the front of the last aisle and cases for fresh bread in the front corner.
Here's a look across the front-end. CTown doesn't really stock any of the health and beauty items that Walgreens did, although there's a small selection of HABA and baby items on the front wall.
Owner: unknown
Opened: November 10, 2023
Previous Tenants: Leptis Pharmacy > Walgreens
Cooperative: Krasdale Foods
Location: 1612 Westchester Ave, Soundview, Bronx, NY
Photographed: December 15, 2023
This CTown seems to be a really good reuse of a closed Walgreens, especially for produce, seafood, and international groceries which are the focus. There's definitely a smaller selection of center-store items than the Fine Fare nearby, which is a very traditional mainstream supermarket, but enough to get the basics you'd need. That's all for this CTown, but there's more to see this weekend! Here's the rest of the posts for today and tomorrow...
Saturday
- CTown Supermarkets - Soundview, Bronx, NY (this post)
- Future Supermarket - Parkchester, Bronx, NY
- Bravo Supermarkets - Soundview, Bronx, NY
Sunday
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